The Ongoing Quest for Peace in Colombia

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As part of President Gustavo Petro’s ongoing “Total Peace” effort in Colombia, in late June 2024, government officials traveled to Caracas for the formal start of peace talks with the Segunda Marquetalia (SM) guerrilla group. Peace Commissioner Otty Patiño and government negotiators met with representatives of one of the former commanders of the now-defunct guerrilla group FARC, “Iván Márquez.” He was the commander of the FARC’s former Caribbean Bloc and now represents the second largest FARC dissident group that emerged in opposition to a peace process that began in 2016. Security experts believe that Segunda Marquetalia currently has a little over one thousand armed members, among whom are the Comandos de la Frontera from the southern Putumayo province and the Coordinadora Guerrillera del Pacífico from Nariño in the southwest, which control major drug trafficking operations that finance Segunda Marquetalia activities in the eastern jungles of Colombia and in southern Venezuela. Other talks are still underway with guerrilla group ELN and a faction of FARC dissident organization EMC. Analysts patiently attempted to break it all down.

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