Colombia's president-elect to shut down peace office

Colombia's president-elect Abelardo de la Espriella announced plans on Monday to shut down the presidential peace office, after outgoing leader Gustavo Petro's failed attempts to negotiate "total peace" with armed groups.

De la Espriella, whose presidential campaign centered on "iron fist" security policies, said he would suspend any ongoing dialogue between the outgoing administration and the groups.

"The peace commissioner is finished because there will be no more false peace processes in my government," the president-elect said on social media.

"The objective will be the security of the people and the complete dismantling of the perverse system of impunity that currently prevails, and that will end as soon as I take office," he vowed.

The Office of the High Commissioner for Peace, headed by Otty Patino, has held a series of talks with armed groups, including the ELN guerrilla force and dissidents of the disarmed FARC.

In June, De la Espriella gave these groups one month to surrender, adding that he would not make "unacceptable concessions like those they received from the regime that is coming to an end."

Outgoing president Petro tried unsuccessfully to negotiate peace, but experts say guerrillas used peace talks to grow in strength.

The shutdown of the peace office is part of a wider plan to eliminate more than 200 presidential positions, which De la Espriella plans to carry out after taking office on August 7.

De la Espriella has already announced the shutdown of the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP).

JEP came into being under Colombia's historic 2016 peace agreement with FARC, tasked with investigating the worst crimes committed during the group's half-century-long insurgency.

During the campaign, De la Espriella told AFP he wanted to conduct bombing campaigns against guerrillas and construct "mega-prisons" like those of El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele.