PUTUMAYO — Approximately 100 Colombian guerrilla dissidents surrendered their weapons Thursday in a ceremony held in the Putumayo department. This event was facilitated by President Gustavo Petro's "total peace" policy, which included a suspension of offensive military and special police operations.

During the ceremony, the participants wore military-style camouflage uniforms and placed their firearms on a table. The group is a dissident faction of the National Coordinating Committee of the Bolivarian Army, which originated from the defunct Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. These current dissident factions emerged from groups that did not join a peace accord signed between the Colombian state and the guerrilla group ten years ago.

The disarmed individuals will be relocated to a temporary resettlement zone. The government intends to manage their transition back to civilian life while their freedom will be restricted under authorities' control and supervision, according to a government statement. President Petro established a monitoring framework for this temporary relocation area last week.

Dissident leader Geovany Andrés Rojas addressed the ceremony remotely from a detention facility. "We laid down the iron rifle because we understand that words are a more powerful weapon." Rojas said. He has been held since his arrest last year during peace negotiations and was detained following an Interpol Red Notice for drug trafficking charges in the U.S. Rojas stated at the ceremony that his detention reduced rank-and-file confidence but did not halt the negotiation process.

President Petro's "total peace" policy involves parallel negotiation tracks with multiple armed organizations. The negotiation efforts under this policy have encountered operational obstacles and have not finalized comprehensive agreements with the targeted groups. A 2025 report by the Ideas for Peace Foundation estimates that Colombia contains approximately 27,000 members of illegally armed groups. The Putumayo department shares a land border with Ecuador.