This Sunday, a few hours after the inauguration of Gustavo Petro as the new president of Colombia, the Clan del Golfo announced in a statement that it decrees a unilateral cessation of hostilities.
“Consistent with these historical dates, we also decree a unilateral cessation of offensive hostilities, as an expression of goodwill with the government that is beginning and its broad willingness to search for paths of peace for all the actors in the conflict, as of August 7” , says the statement.
The General Staff of this organization, which calls itself the Gaitanista Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, explains what it expects from the Petro government.
“On August 7, which we hope will be the beginning of a different era for our troubled homeland, we will lift all the extreme measures that we have had to carry out, as we already announced in a statement in the previous days,” the communication added.
The new president has included the Clan del Golfo as one of the groups that would be part of his strategy in search of a “total peace.”
Although the exact details of how the incoming government would handle this organization are not known, there has been talk of facilitating collective submission and “welcoming” without granting any political status.
In the four-point statement, the Clan del Golfo says the following about the ending government of Iván Duque. “Finally, the regime of outgoing President Duque ends, which is representative of all the things that must change in a country to achieve the elusive peace. No more abuses against the unarmed population, no more attacks against social leadership, no more death sentences against our social base, our families and our combatants,” the statement said.
Finally, this organization assures that it has the best will to join “the exploratory peace talks that Gustavo Petro has announced since the moment of his election. We believe that it is the best decision for the forgotten Colombia that we represent.”
The Petro government is expected to respond to this initiative by the Clan del Golfo, to make a unilateral ceasefire in order to join the so-called “total peace.”