Colombian government, rebels sign historic peace deal.
| Autor | Andres, Gaudin |
June 23 was a day of a celebration in Colombia, especially in the large cities and in the rural and jungle zones most sharply impacted by 52 years of war between regular government forces and the guerrillas of the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, FARC).
That day, in Havana, Cuba, where the two sides have held talks since November 2012 (NotiSur, Dec. 14, 2012), Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos and rebel leader Rodrigo Londono, better known as Timochenko, signed a bilateral ceasefire accord that marks the beginning of the end for the conflict. Looking on, in representation of the two guarantor countries, were Cuban President Raul Castro and Norwegian Foreign Affairs Minister Borge Brende. Also present were UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and representatives from Chile and Venezuela, the two countries officially accompanying the peace process. Dozens of other high-level delegations traveled to Cuba as well to participate in the historic developments. A definitive peace agreement is expected to be signed July 20.
Final details still need to be worked out in two areas. The first has to do with the number and location of the so-called "temporary hamlet zones" that will be designated as gathering areas for the guerrillas during the initial post-conflict phase. The rebels fear that if the zones are too few and far between, many of their combatants will be uprooted, weakening, in turn, the FARC's ability to become a legitimate political party. The guerrillas want the number and location of the zones to coincide specifically with places where they plan to reinsert members into society and regular politics.
The second unresolved issue involves the laying down of weapons. Colombia has had experiences in the past of groups disarming only to be decimated afterwards by paramilitary organizations. Examples include the Union Patriotica in the late 1980s and the M-19 a decade later. Still, starting June 28 with the arrival of the first 23 out of 450 observers the UN will dispatch to oversee the disarmament, the FARC let it be known in Havana that it is willing to melt down all of its weapons and use the metal obtained to erect three symbolic monuments.
The June 23 pre-accord now needs congressional approval as a way to bolster its legality (NotiSur, June 3, 2016). From there, the Corte Constitucional, Colombia's supreme authority on constitutional matters, will set a date for a popular referendum on...
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