The Colombian Prosecutor’s Office has suspended for six months the arrest warrants against 23 spokespeople for armed groups in the Aburrá Valley, the region where Medellín is located, as part of the government’s negotiations for the surrender of these groups to justice.

According to a statement issued this Tuesday, the suspensions will initially be in effect for six months and aim to allow the spokespeople to participate in Socio-Legal Dialogue Spaces defined by the national government.

The measure aims to advance the surrender process of the groups they represent within the framework of the Executive’s peace policy.

The Prosecutor’s Office clarified that the decision “does not imply or contemplate the granting of freedom to those who are deprived of it in penitentiary or prison centers in compliance with sentences, precautionary measures, or other judicial requirements,” an aspect that is not within the jurisdiction of this entity.

The text reads, “Official statement from the Attorney General’s Office.”

For its part, the Colombian Peace Commissioner’s Office indicated that this decision, adopted at its request, “seeks to create legal conditions so that the representatives can continue to promote peace and de-escalate violence” during negotiations with the Executive branch.

The Colombian government and leaders of armed groups established the dialogue table in June 2023 with the aim of demobilizing more than 12,000 people and ending the violence in Medellín’s neighborhoods.

The Executive also holds dialogues of this type with armed groups in Barranquilla, capital of Atlántico (north), and Quibdó, in Chocó (west), as well as in Buenaventura, the country’s main port on the Pacific, where the criminal groups Los Shottas and Los Espartanos operate.

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