PROGRESSIVE presidential candidate Gustavo Petro told a televised event last night that he is committed to the country’s reconciliation process because he wouldn't “tear the peace agreement into pieces.”

The candidate of the Human Colombia movement was joined by Sergio Fajardo and German Vargas Lleras in pledging to respect the pact between the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) and President Juan Manuel Santos.

However, hard-line right-wing candidate Ivan Duque, who represents death-squad-linked former president Alvaro Uribe’s Democratic Centre party, told the TV programme, organised by Semana magazine and Teleantioquia, that he wants to restructure the pact.

Former vice-president Mr Vargas Lleras, who leads the centre-right Radical Change party, said he had had his own doubts about the agreements, but they had already been “cleared out.”

Former Medellin mayor Sergio Fajardo reaffirmed his commitment to the agreement because “words must be kept and because Colombia needs peace.”

In contrast, Mr Duque pledged “structural modifications to the agreement” based on his commitment to the Colombian people.

His politics represents a trend that opposed the peace agreement from the beginning, preferring to seek a military solution that kept the country, especially rural areas, in a permanent state of violence.

Asked about negotiations with the National Liberation Army (ELN), the next step in the peace process taking place in the Ecuadorean capital Quito, Mr Duque said he didn't agree with “those negotiations and that scam.”

He was echoed by Mr Vargas Lleras, who said: “While the negotiations are ongoing in Quito, the ELN is getting stronger territorially and militarily.”

Another demobilised Farc fighter was gunned down in Antioquia province yesterday, leading the Cahucopana foundation for small farmers’ rights to demand that the authorities guarantee security in north-east Colombia.

Five former Farc guerillas have been killed in recent months, usually in areas where programmes of reintegration into society are being implemented.

Nelson Andres Urrego was travelling to the town of Remedios in north-east Antioquia when hooded hitmen shot him.

President Santos’s government has denied the existence of paramilitary death squads in the country, despite repeated warnings by the United Nations.