Versión Español
Interior minister Juan Fernando Cristo held a press conference on Thursday, December 1, in which he confirmed that next week the Congress of Colombia will present an amnesty law for guerrillas belonging to the FARC as the first step of implementing an agreement between the rebel group and the government.
The amnesty law will allow low-ranking guerrillas, who have not committed serious crimes and have no outstanding issues with justice to be pardoned for their political crimes and to return to their homes possibly before December. This was confirmed by the Interior Minister himself.
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In addition, the High Commissioner for Peace, who also attended the press conference at the Casa de Nariño, the seat of the Presidency of the Republic, stated that the government is also preparing a pardon for the guerrillas who have been condemned for political and related crimes, that is to say, rebellion, sedition, and assault, or other crimes that have been committed as a means to achieve political ends.
This has been one of the points that the opposition has criticized, since they argue that drug trafficking could be classified under “related crimes” because it was a way of financing their political crimes, a fact that has generated great concern and outrage among those in opposition to Santos and his Congressional coalition.
Chiefly, this involves the Centro Democratico party of former president Alvaro Uribe, who currently represents the state of Antioquia in the Colombian Senate.
For now, the government and Congress are awaiting the ruling of the Constitutional Court to determine whether or not to use the fast track, a mechanism that allows laws and legislative acts related to the Santos-FARC agreement to be approved more quickly.
Source: El Tiempo
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