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August 3rd, 2017 
Awake Goy 
nsnbc : Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos has appointed now former Colombian Peace Commissioner Sergio Jaramillo to the post as Colombia’s new ambassador to the European Union.
Sergio Jaramillo has in his function as peace commissioner overseen the peace process between the Colombian state and the now demobilized and disarmed Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia – People’s Army (FARC-EP). A peace accord signed last year effectively ended more than half a century of civil war between the state and the FARC-EP. Members of the FARC will later this year form a political party.
President Juan Manuel Santos appointed Jaramillo to the post as ambassador to the European Union (EU) on Monday. Santos made the announcement as the United Nations mission in Colombia announced that it would begin removing some 7,000 arms from FARC demobilization camps. The disarmament of the FARC has, according to the UN been almost completed even though some arms caches still have to be cleared.
Santos stated the Jaramillo had asked to be removed from his post as Peace Commissioner. Santos added that he told Jaramillo that he couldn’t just retire but that he could retire as peace commissioner and continue his work for peace as new ambassador to the EU at the Colombian Embassy in Brussels. Jaramillo has experience in working with representatives from EU member States and also from the Scandinavian Norway. Several European countries – especially Norway – played key roles in supporting the peace process between the Colombian state and the FARC-EP politically, economically, and otherwise. Norway is also playing a key role in peace negotiations between the Colombian State and the leftist National Liberation Army (ELN).
Jaramillo was one of the first to become involved in the peace talks between the State and the FARC-EP. However, it is likely that Jaramillo was in part chosen because of “special rapport” with the FARC while another may be better equipped to facilitate talks with the ELN. In July the Colombian government and the ELN agreed to launch continuous peace talks aimed to reach a bilateral ceasefire by early September.
Before Jaramillo was appointed to the post of Peace Commissioner in 2010 – one year before the unofficial talks and two years before the official talks with the FARC-EP were launched, he served as Vice-Defense Minister under Juan Manuel Santos. Jaramillo will switch posts with outgoing Colombian EU Ambassador and Santos’s first Defense Minister Rodrigo Rivera. Rivera will serve as Peace Commissioner and thus become involved in peace talks with the ELN.
Tanja Nijmeier participating in peace talks in Cuba
As to Jaramillo, one of the questions that many will be asking is whether he will use his experience and contacts to convince the Netherlands to grant an amnesty to former FARC member and Dutch citizen Tanja Nijmeijer and the French “Natalie Mistral”.
The 38-year-old Tanja Nijmeier, wanted in the Netherlands for FARC membership, was born in Denekam, the Netherlands. She reportedly joined the FARC-EP in 2002, reportedly motivated by her shock about disparities between rich and poor after travelling to Colombia to teach English.
The United States also issued an international arrest warrant for her. U.S. authorities charged Nijmeier with terrorism as well as with conspiracy to commit hostage taking in the kidnapping (or capture) of three American “contractors” in 2003. The three men were freed in a military operation along with former Colombian presidential candidate and French citizen Ingrid Betancourt.
In late 2016 leading FARC member Ivan Marquez, affirmed that another foreigner, a French woman known by the pseudonym Natalie Mistral is among their ranks. Considering Europe’s track record of highly questionable “terrorism trials” against left-wing activists and guerrilla in Germany, the Netherlands, France and Spain from the 1970s up into the new millennia, it is highly improbable that Nijmeier, “Mistral” or others would face fair trials European countries.
CH/L – nsnbc 02.08.2017
Source Article from https://nsnbc.me/2017/08/02/santos-appointed-colombias-peace-commissioner-to-post-as-new-ambassador-to-the-eu/
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