By Luis Jaime Acosta
PUERTO ASIS (Reuters) -The National Coordinator of the Bolivarian Army (CNEB), one of five dissident groups of Colombia's former FARC guerrilla movement, handed over its first batch of armaments as a sign of goodwill in talks with the Colombian government, both sides said on Wednesday.
The delivery of explosives, grenades, mortars and other munitions, part of a total 14 tons CNEB has committed to hand over, marks the most significant advance by leftist President Gustavo Petro in
efforts to end a six-decade conflict that has killed more than 450,000 people.
The CNEB includes about 2,000 combatants and collaborators.
Petro met with leaders of the rebel group at a ceremony in the southern town of Puerto Asis.
The war materiel was destroyed in a controlled detonation by the National Army in a rural area of the jungle department of Putumayo, near Puerto Asis. Two more deliveries are expected in the coming days in the department of Nariño.
The CNEB emerged from the Second Marquetalia, a FARC dissident faction led by Ivan Marquez, which in August 2019 rejected the 2016 peace agreement, citing noncompliance by the state.
Walter Mendoza, leader of the CNEB, said ahead of the event that the delivery of war materiel was "a sign of goodwill for peace" and voiced optimism about reaching further agreements with the government. However, he criticized the slow pace of state investment in remote areas.
Mendoza told Reuters in 2024 that full disarmament and demobilization would only come at the end of a peace process and state investment in roads, schools, hospitals, and other infrastructure.
Analysts say that after the suspension of talks with the ELN and limited progress with other dissidents and criminal groups like the Gulf Clan, the process with the CNEB could become one of Petro's few concrete peace achievements.
In April, ELN splinter group Comuneros del Sur delivered weapons under two agreements, but the process has since stalled.
Colombia's president launched an ambitious peace plan to demobilize over 20,000 armed fighters funded by drug trafficking and illegal mining, but no agreements have been reached with less than a year left in his term.
(Reporting by Luis Jaime Acosta; Editing by Sonali Paul)
