“It would have been impossible without the help of the Cuban government,” the official said.

During the discussion, held in the Alberto Brenes auditorium of the Law School of the University of Costa Rica, Rodríguez Mejía reminded the La Uribe ceasefire agreement between the FARC-EP and the government of Belisario Betancur signed on March 28th, 1984.

The Patriotic Union party was founded on May 28th, 1985, as a legal political proposal and as a result of peace negotiations, but more than six thousand victims have been counted since 1984 as a consequence of an extermination plan directed against the party, its members, militants and supporters.

On January 30th, 2023, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) condemned the State of Colombia for being responsible for the human rights violations committed to the detriment of more than six thousand members and militants of the Patriotic Union party, starting in 1984 and for more than 20 years, forcing many Colombians to seek refuge in other nations, including Costa Rica, where they have remained for over 25 years. However, he expressed his hope that Total Peace will be reached in Colombia and that no Colombian citizen has to abandon the country when seeing their lives threatened without any reason.

Mejía assured that the government of President Gustavo Petro has a firm commitment to comply with the IACHR ruling, and stressed that “peace is not something we want for a group, but for the entire country.” “We have to fight together, regardless of political or religious points of view or sexual options, to have a better country and when we meet is to talk about the future and not to regret the past”, he said.

“We have hope and what we must achieve is done and materialized,” Mejía said, and stressed that “peace is not the absence of violence, but guarantees must exist so that people can satisfy, at least, their needs. There is no peace if there is no access to food, housing, health, and education”.

The ambassador also expressed that Total Peace in Colombia is an objective, not only to reach agreements with the guerrilla groups still existing in the country, but also to achieve the disarmament of criminal groups, and that is the target of the government of President Petro.

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