Can Colombia’s negotiations with the Comuneros del Sur help achieve ‘total peace’? | Conflict Matters

For Gómez-Suárez, if Colombia’s conflict is regional, so should the solution.

He draws a contrast between his closeness to the Comuneros and the way the Colombian government negotiated peace with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), once the country’s largest rebel group.

In 2016, under then-President Juan Manuel Santos, Colombia signed a historic peace deal with the FARC that promised rural reforms and development to end the group’s military crackdown across the country.

The negotiations that led to the agreement, however, were tense – and some parts of the FARC split into opposition groups rather than agree to the terms.

Gómez-Suárez said his regional approach could work well.

“With the previous agreements, that is with the FARC terrorists, there was this idea that nothing is fixed until everything is agreed, which meant that the parties would start implementation only after the signing of the final document,” said Gómez-Suárez.

“Our issue is commendable because sometimes we use it before an agreement is officially reached.”

He pointed out that the Comuneros proposed a partial ceasefire before their first meeting with government delegates, as a sign of loyalty.

Since then, the groups have signed two agreements and plan to start the transition of Communeros in the life of citizens before the next presidential election in 2026.

The initial agreement includes four points, including a bilateral ceasefire, the gradual destruction of the group’s weapons and a joint plan to remove landmines throughout Nariño.

The second is establishing security guarantees for the Red Cross, a non-profit humanitarian organization, to operate in the Communeros area.

In addition, the agreement calls for the creation of a team made up of Comuneros members who will be trained and tasked with searching for people who went missing during the conflict.

In return, the government has promised to fund the construction of roads, canals, schools and universities in the area, to help address poverty and infrastructure deficiencies in Nariño.