Colombia’s President Juan Manuel Santos has appointed Sergio Jaramillo Caro on Tuesday to be the country’s new High Commissioner for Peace to mediate negotiations with the FARC during peace talks.
The Presidential Security Adviser was announced as the High Commissioner for Peace, a position previously eliminated when Santos took office in August 2010.
The president said that the office of the High Commissioner for Peace was recreated to make “conditions to find a process leading to peace in the country.” Jaramillo will act as the intermediary between the government and the country’s largest guerrilla group FARC during the peace process which will begin in Norway in early October.
During the inauguration of Sergio Jaramillo the president said that after two years working on the design of the conditions to start the peace process, the country has finally arrived at a place where they believe they can end the 48-year-old armed conflict that has devastated the country.
“This is a step where you, Sergio and your team, deserve our gratitude,” said Santos.
The president concluded by wishing Jaramillo luck in his position and warned that “the whole country has to put their two cents to this process to reach a successful conclusion.”
Jaramillo, a philosopher from Bogota, was vice-minister of defense and had been in charge of the first phase of “exploratory negotiations” for peace with the FARC. He was also one of the six nominated to represent the Colombian government during the peace talks in Norway.
The official was an adviser in human rights during the first term of former Colombian president Alvaro Uribe and had drafted the document of the democratic security policy. In 2004 he went on to direct the foundation “Ideas for Peace.”