The administration of Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos is seeking to take away the government’s power to demilitarize areas of the country, used in 1998 to facilitate peace talks with the FARC.
Interior and Justice Minister German Vargas Lleras put a proposal before Congress to abolish law 418, which grants the government this right.
The law was used by former President Andres Pastrana to create a demilitarized zone in the Caguan department, where the government and the FARC held peace talks that failed in 2002.
Former President Alvaro Uribe used the same decree to create a “special zone” in Santa Fe de Ralito, north-west Colombia, to allow the demobilization of paramilitary organization the AUC.