The high commissioner for peace of Colombia, Danilo Rueda, will leave his position, announced President Gustavo Petro, who commissioned the Government’s chief negotiator with the National Liberation Army (ELN) guerrilla to direct all the “processes towards peace” in Colombia. ), Otty Patiño.
“The processes towards peace in the country will be directed by Otty Patiño, I thank Danilo for all his immense efforts,” Petro said in a brief message published on the social network X (formerly Twitter).
Otty Patiño, head of the Colombian Government delegation, in an archive photograph. EFE/Mauricio Dueñas Castañeda
Rueda’s departure is known at a time when the Colombian Government has two peace processes open: one with the ELN and another with the Central General Staff (EMC), the largest dissident of the former FARC. Also processes of submission to justice with gangs in several cities.
However, the negotiations with both groups – with which there are bilateral ceasefires in force – are going through their worst moment due to the kidnapping of the father of soccer player Luis Díaz by the ELN and due to disagreements and the presence in the territories of the dissidents of the FARC.
Danilo Rueda, the outgoing commissioner
Danilo Rueda, a renowned human rights defender who has made a career working in social organizations. He was appointed by Petro as high commissioner for peace in July 2022 when he was director and representative of the Inter-Church Justice and Peace Commission, an NGO with more than 20 years of experience.
Rueda came to office with experience in peace talks and establishing relationships that lead to possible negotiation scenarios to end conflicts with various armed groups and also ample knowledge of the country’s reality.
For this reason, Petro assigned him the task of entering into peace negotiations with politically active armed groups such as the ELN or the EMC and beginning processes of submission to justice for other groups such as the Clan del Golfo, the main criminal gang in the country, or the paramilitary Conquering Self-Defense Forces of the Sierra Nevada (ACSN).
Lifelong ally
Patiño, who will replace Rueda, entered politics through armed struggle, as commander of the April 19 Movement (M-19) guerrilla group, but has dedicated most of his life to peace, as a scholar. or negotiator.
He was a companion – or superior – of Gustavo Petro in his time as a guerrilla and participated in the peace talks of the M-19 with the governments of President Belisario Betancur, in the first half of the 80s, and in the final ones with that of Virgilio. Ship, in 1990.
Since November 2022, Patiño sat on the other side of the table, this time as the Government’s chief negotiator with the ELN, in dialogues that, so far, are the ones that have made the most progress with that illegal armed group.
He was also the one who reported that the ELN was responsible for the kidnapping of Luis Manuel Díaz, father of the Liverpool footballer, and currently presents the strongest voice within the Government itself in petitions to the guerrilla to stop kidnapping. With EFE