The meeting will take place after several months of exploratory approaches and trust-building between the parties.

According to the Office of the High Commissioner for Peace, “the armed groups gave clear signs of their will to stop violence, opening the door to the second phase in this important process for overcoming the urban conflict” after expressing their commitment to the Government’s Total Peace policy.

The institution pointed out that this new space for dialogue was made possible, thanks to the support and accompaniment of civil society, social leaders, young people from the city, religious representatives and the diplomatic corps, members of the academy and multilateral entities.

It also expressed in its notice: “Now, the delegation of the national government and the delegates of the illegal armed groups will jointly build an agenda to advance in the consolidation of the process and in the mapping of the conditions that favor the continuity and recycling of violence in neighborhoods and communes of Medellin”.

The truth and the rights of the victims will be at the center of the conversation, the Office emphasized and added that this process recognizes all the past experiences of urban peace that took place in the city.

“President Gustavo Petro’s commitment to peace with social and environmental justice, stems from the dialogue to implement a comprehensive State intervention that should provide opportunities for progress and a dignified life for all the youth of Colombia,” it was reportedly said.

The Office of the High Commissioner for Peace also explained that local and regional entities are also a fundamental pillars for this cause and the advances in the dialogue process will cement the bases of a scenario of guarantees so that the illegal armed expressions that persist in Medellín and the Aburrá Valley convey to a peaceful transition to the rule of law.

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