Colombian government representatives have met with members of an armed group that grew out of the demobilized Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebels, photos tweeted by President Gustavo Petro have shown.
On his Twitter account, Petro published two photos on Sunday that appeared to show peace commissioner Danilo Rueda meeting with dissident commanders, captioned with “a dialogue has begun.”
Petro has pledged to seek “total peace” by restarting talks with National Liberation Army (ELN) rebels, applying a 2016 peace accord to former FARC fighters who reject it, and negotiating the surrender of criminal gangs in exchange for reduced sentences.
Colombia’s conflict between the government, left-wing rebels, right-wing paramilitaries, and drug-trafficking gangs killed at least 450,000 people between 1985 and 2018 alone.
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