The Colombian government has authorized the creation of a “space for socio-legal conversations” with Gulf Clanthe country’s largest criminal group to test their willingness to embrace the rule of law and set the conditions for their submission to justice, a government decree said on Monday.

The decision to establish a space for conversation is part of leftist President Gustavo Petro’s efforts to end, through peace talks and justice processes, six decades of internal conflict that has left nearly half a million people dead.

“Allow the creation of a socio-legal space for communication between authorized representatives of the national government and representative members of the Organized Armed Structure for Combating Particularly Dangerous Crimes – the Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AGC),” the government decree states.

“The space of social and legal dialogue will be aimed at testing the will to move towards the rule of law, establishing conditions for submission to justice under conditions permitted by law,” says the document, which names government representatives at the meeting with this illegal armed group.

The Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, also called the Gaitanista Army and referred to by the military as the Clan del Golfo, is the largest criminal group, numbering about 5,000 people, mostly former members of far-right paramilitaries.

Far-right groups fought left-wing guerrillas in a brutal confrontation that included war crimes and human rights violations.

In May 2023, the Gulf clan rejected a trial offer that would have reduced their sentences and announced that they would seek peace talks with the government to end their involvement in the armed conflict in the South American country.

The government suspended a bilateral ceasefire agreement with the AGC in March last year, accusing them of failing to respect the agreement and attacking the armed forces amid protests by informal miners in the northwest of the country.