Former Colombian Senator Piedad Cordoba accused President Juan Manuel Santos of failing to listen to civil society, in newspaper El Espectador Wednesday.
The former senator claimed that Colombia’s head of state “does not take into account the concerns of civil society.”
“We do not have the possibility of entering dialogue with the government,” Cordoba lamented, who claims Santos could have prevented four FARC hostages from being executed if he had tried peaceful negotiations.
The ex-senator heads the group Colombians for Peace (CCP), which she claims was negotiating with the FARC prior to the armed forces offensive on Saturday that ended in the death of the four prisoners. She said the unilateral release of hostages was imminent, and she had informed Santos of such, but he had ignored her.
In response to the “botched rescue attempt,” Cordoba said, “It would have been more important to [use] the humanitarian agreement, the unilateral release.” She denounced the executions and stressed the need for a “negotiated political solution to the conflict.”
“Colombia cannot continue down a path of blood, death [and] absolute negligence regarding the lives of human beings,” she added.