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Visit to Colombia: peace, memory and meeting with Gustavo Petro
Working visit to Colombia, a priority country for Swiss international cooperation. Switzerland supports the peace process with the ELN, alongside Germany, Sweden and Spain. On 8 August, Alain Berset tours the poor neighbourhoods of Buenaventura, a Pacific port where people displaced from the countryside flock. There he meets the Interethnic Truth Commission of the Pacific. “Sin justicia, no hay paz”, he says on the spot. The following day, in Dabeiba, he visits a reintegration area for former FARC combatants, then Medellín’s Comuna 13.
On 10 August, Gustavo Petro receives him at the Casa de Nariño. On the agenda: “total peace”, implementation of the 2016 agreement, drug policy, cooperation at the UN, the situation in Europe and Latin America. The two presidents sign the agreement entrusting Switzerland with a digital copy of the archives of the Truth Commission, including sensitive audio and video testimonies. The hard drive will be kept in Berne, offline.
He also sees the delegations negotiating with the ELN, with which a six-month ceasefire has been in force since 3 August. “I was strongly impressed by the will to move forward,” he tells Keystone-ATS. And, on the acceptance of an agreement: “It cannot be taken for granted.”
Monday 7 August 2023 — Bogotá
- Arrival, official welcome by the Colombian Deputy Foreign Minister
Tuesday 8 August 2023 — Buenaventura
- Visit to Comuna 5, a neighbourhood affected by the expansion of the port, with Mayor Víctor Vidal and local organisations
- Exchange with the Bishop of Buenaventura, Rubén Darío Jaramillo Montoya, on the “urban peace” process
- Punta del Este: meeting with victims’ families, visit to an urban peace pilot project
- Casa Social de Cormepaz: gallery of memory of enforced disappearances, presentation of the report of the Interethnic Truth Commission of the Pacific
- Coliseo Cristal: exchange with displaced indigenous and Afro-Colombian communities on the humanitarian situation
Wednesday 9 August 2023 — Dabeiba, Medellín and Bogotá
- Dabeiba: visit to the Llanogrande territorial area for training and reintegration (ETCR), exchange with former combatants, with Carlos Ruiz Massieu, Head of the UN Verification Mission
- Medellín: visit to Comuna 13 and exchange with cultural collectives
- Bogotá: speech at the National Day reception and inauguration of the new Swiss residence
Thursday 10 August 2023 — Bogotá
- Meeting with the government delegation to the negotiations with the ELN
- Meeting with the bodies monitoring the 2016 peace agreement (Comunes, CSIVI, National Reincorporation Council) and the UN Verification Mission
- Meeting with the ELN peace managers
- Military honours and official talks with President Gustavo Petro, Casa de Nariño
- Signing of the agreement on the backup copy of the Truth Commission archives, press statement
- Official lunch hosted by President Petro
- Visit to “Fragmentos”, Doris Salcedo’s counter-monument, in the presence of the artist
Sources