Colombia: Gov't to Meet Peace Sponsor-Nations After FARC Leader Arrest

Colombia’s high commissioner for peace, Rodrigo Rivera, said Tuesday that representatives from Norway and Cuba, the two countries that sponsored the peace process between the Colombian government and the now-dissolved the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), will meet Colombian foreign affairs minister and the country's vice president to discuss the capture and possible extradition of Jesus Santrich, former FARC guerrilla and current congressman for the Common Alternative Revolutionary Force.

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Rivera also said that during a meeting Monday between Colombian President Santos and Norwegian Prime Minister, Erna Solberg, "he told her personally what was happening when he received the information, and explained that its was not an breach of the agreement.”

Santrich, who played an important role in the 2016 peace process, was arrested by Colombian security forces on April 9 at the request of the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), alleging Santrich engaged in drug dealing after the peace agreement was signed.

Rivera has argued Santrich’s detention and possible extradition does not affect the peace deal because his detention is not related to crimes committed before the 2016 peace agreement.

However, members of the Common Alternative Revolutionary Force (also FARC) party disagree. According to congressman and FARC party leader Ivan Marquez "With the capture of our comrade Jesus Santrich, the peace process is at its most critical point and is threatened to be a true failure," he told reporters Tuesday. 

In a press release published Tuesday the FARC party accused the U.S. and Colombia's Attorney General's office of orchestrating a plan "with the objective of decapitating out party's political leadership and burying the Colombian people's wish for peace."