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September 15th, 2017 
Awake Goy 
nsnbc : Enrique Gil, Colombia’s Minister of Justice, has drafted a bill that would regulate the demobilization of illegal armed groups like the Gaitanista Self-Defense Forces (AGC) a.k.a. Los Urabenos and Cland del Golfo. Gil drafted the bill after the AGC, earlier this month, publicly expressed its wish to demobilize.
The bill is currently being discussed by Justice Minister Enrique Gil, Post-Conflict Minister Oscar Narano, and Prosecutor General Nestor Humberto Martinez. The administration of President Juan manuel Santos has reportedly chosen to prioritize the legislation that would not only make it possible to reach a settlement between the State and the AGC – the largest remaining right-wing neo-paramilitary – while the government at the same time could maintain its claim that the AGC is “not a political organization” and purely a crime organization.
nsnbc international has thus far not had a possibility to review the text of the bill. However, a source within the Colombian Presidency confirmed for nsnbc that the bill “probably covers major armed groups with a clearly-defined paramilitary structure, whose purpose it is to control territory to control illicit activities”. The bill would, in other words, “not require a covered organization to be a recognized political actor or to act based on political motivation”. The bill would also allow the State to cease “illegal assets” which can be used in “compensation programs for victims”.
The law would not allow members of covered groups to “collectively be granted shorter prison terms for crimes” but, “members could, as part of a covered organization, collectively negotiate about terms as part of the negotiations about the surrender”. The bill would allow groups like the AGC to demobilize and disarm in a process similar to the one that led to the demobilization of the FARC-EP while the administration and oligarchical structures in Colombia with links to right-wing neo-paramilitaries, could be spared the embarrassment to admit that the “non-existent right-wing neo-paramilitaries now have demobilized”. If adopted, Post-Conflict Minister Oscar Narano is likely to contact the AGC to start negotiations about their demobilization – although the government is likely to use the term “surrender”.
On Tuesday, September 5, 2017, the AGC published a video through the press, suggesting the group’s willingness to surrender and participate in building peace in the Country. The AGC have for several years demanded to be included in the peace process while President Juan Manuel Santos at times implicitly denied the presence of any neo-paramilitaries but demanded that the AGC surrenders. The Colombian government does not recognize the AGC as political actor and describes them as bare criminals despite the fact that they are rooted in the disbanded right-wing AUC and have a clear right-wing policy that often targets leftist communities, grassroots leaders, and leftist political activists.
After the release of the video, Caracol Radio received information from a non-identified AGC source saying that the AGC’s conditions would include a guarantee to no extradition for the paramilitaries as well as political conditions for no-repetition. Santos, for his part, stressed that he would look into the situation to evaluate a surrender and not to debate political conditions. Santos said “I have asked the Minister of Justice and the Prosecutor to proceed to evaluate that request and take appropriate action”.
The AGC was formed in 2006 and announced in 2008 by dissident members of now-defunct paramilitary umbrella organization AUC. It has since grown to become one of Colombia’s most-feared illegal armed groups. The AUC has earlier claimed it had 8,000 members, making it significantly larger than the country’s largest still standing leftist guerrilla group, the ELN with its approximately 3,000 members. The demobilized and disarmed FARC-EP had about 7,000 troops.
One of the reasons that made negotiations with the AGC difficult is that the government denied that it is a politically motivated group like the AUC, the FARC-EP or ELN, that it is barely a criminal organization, and that it therefore has no place in peace talks and should surrender. Needless to say that this position didn’t exactly motivate the AGC, that controls approximately 70 percent of Colombia’s cocaine export to play ball with authorities. Extensive involvement in narco trafficking and fear of extradition are not exactly motivating either.
A/N & CH/L – nsnbc 15.09.2017
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Source Article from https://nsnbc.me/2017/09/15/colombias-justice-ministry-drafted-bill-that-would-allow-demobilization-of-illegal-armed-groups/
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