About 100 Colombian FARC Dissidents Surrender Weapons in Putumayo Ceremony

About 100 Colombian guerrilla dissidents surrendered their weapons on Thursday during a formal ceremony in the department of Putumayo, which borders Ecuador. Dressed in military-style camouflage, the members of the National Coordinating Committee of the Bolivarian Army placed their weapons on a table as part of the event.

The group is a dissident faction of the former Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.

After disarming, the dissidents will enter a temporary resettlement zone where the government intends to facilitate their gradual reintegration into civilian life. The government stated the dissidents “will have their freedom restricted and will be under the control and supervision” of authorities.

“We laid down the iron rifle because we understand that words are a more powerful weapon,” dissident leader Geovany Andrés Rojas said as part of the ceremony.

He spoke remotely from jail, where he is being held after being captured last year when the group was engaged in peace talks with the government. His arrest took place in connection with an Interpol Red Notice for drug trafficking charges in the United States. Rojas said on Thursday that his capture undermined the confidence of the rank and file but did not derail the dialogue process.

President Gustavo Petro is negotiating with the dissident faction as part of his “total peace” policy, which has opened parallel peace negotiations with multiple armed groups. The effort has largely failed. The dissident groups emerged from factions that did not accept the historic peace agreement signed a decade ago by the state and FARC, formerly Latin America’s oldest guerrilla group.