President Juan Manuel Santos will meet with Colombians for Peace, a group headed by Senator Piedad Cordoba.
Cordoba announced the plan following a meeting of the Liberal Party with Santos on Wednesday.
“I am very grateful and very obliged because this door is opened to us, a door to continue working for what is significant for Colombia, which is the construction of scenarios of peace,” said the Liberal senator.
Colombians for Peace aims to achieve a negotiated solution to the conflict between the Colombian state and the FARC guerrilla group. It campaigns for dialogue with the rebels, and for a prisoner exchange of imprisoned rebels for FARC hostages.
Cordoba said, despite the clash with her views, that it was important to respect Santos’ position that talks with the FARC will not take place until the guerrillas have renounced violence and released all hostages.
The senator said that the peace group and the president will discuss the importance for the economy of ending Colombia’s conflict; “without peace none of the other proposals the government may have are possible.”
“One can kill every member of the FARC secretariat, if that is the intention. But to kill 20 million Colombians living … in misery and poverty, is impossible,” she explained.
The group often clashed with previous President Alvaro Uribe, who in February 2009 made a speech condemning “the intellectual bloc of the FARC,” for “trying to distract us with a discourse of peace,” which was widely interpreted as referring to the organization.