A Path to Peace
President elect Juan manuel santos is received by his predecessor álvaro uribe © Globovisión
The Colombian Peace Process
Soon after Juan Manuel Santos was elected President of Colombia in 2010, he began secret negotiations between the Government and FARC.
The Santos government was in a strong position due to the actions of Álvaro Uribe, who was President between 2002 and 2010. During Uribe’s presidency, he developed an aggressive military strategy that significantly weakened the FARC.
The peace process officially commenced in September 2012, with talks beginning in Havana, Cuba. The negotiations involved the government committing to tackling social, economic, and political issues, focusing on areas such as rural development, political participation, and illegal drugs.
It also involved FARC discussing victim rights and concrete measures for the end of violence by giving up their weapons – something they had never discussed before.
The peace process was slow and tense as both sides distrusted one another as well as the fact that both parties were opposed to one another on nearly every stance.
The Peace Agreement
On 23rd June 2016, a ceasefire was announced between the Colombian government and FARC. A peace agreement was formed to address certain political, social, and economic issues that had historically faced Colombia, including:
A government-managed fund was created to buy three million hectares and formalise land ownership for seven million hectares of land, as a means of giving rural populations land to live off and legally protecting their land ownership.
Increased investment in rural infrastructure and access to money and technical advice for rural populations with the aim to connect isolated rural areas to urban areas, as well as creating projects to employ rural populations and increase rural productivity.
100,000 hectares of illegal crops were to be destroyed. In exchange, Colombian farmers would take part in a programme where they would be given advice and resources to plant new, legal crops to earn money.
The disarmament of FARC and the organisation’s transformation into a political party that could participate in Colombian elections and political life.
The creation of a Truth Commission to deliver and clarify the truth for victims and provide reparations to victims of the conflict. The Commission would also investigate human rights abuses to expose war crimes, and punish those guilty of committing major crimes against humanity alongside amnesty laws so combatants would not be guilty of minor crimes committed during the conflict.
colombian government and FARC signing the peace agreement © Gobierno de Chile
Implementing the Peace Agreeement
A referendum was held in order to ratify the peace agreement. However, it failed with 50.2% votes against and 49.8% votes in favour. Whilst only 37.4% of the population took part in the referendum, areas that were more directly affected by the conflict voted in favour of the agreement, and areas less affected, such as urban areas, voted against.
The failed referendum led to the government and the FARC signing a new, revised agreement which was submitted to Colombia’s congress and approved by all members in both the House of Representatives and Senate.
Peace Agreement: Successes and Flaws
The peace agreement was broadly successful as it brought an end to the fighting between the Colombian government and FARC. FARC disarmed and became a legitimate, political party. The peace agreement focuses on inclusivity and the involvement of a wide cross-section of Colombian society, including those that took part in negotiations through victim delegations, such as women (who made up 60% of the delegations), Afro-Colombians and Indigenous groups. This led to the recognition and protection of womens and Afro-Colombian and Indigenous rights, as well as acknowledging and guaranteeing protections from discrimination.
The peace agreement also achieved the following:
In July 2020, the Colombian government secured one million hectares of land for rural populations with no or insufficient land.
The Colombian government and the FARC’s ceasefire has stayed in place since it was agreed in 2016.
Lower levels of political violence leading to high voter turnout in recent elections, less security incidents during election campaigning and election day, and the signing of a national pact which commits parties to avoiding discriminatory or inflammatory language and violence.
The hectares of land used to grow coca, which is used to make cocaine, has continued to decline through the plan’s eradication of illegal drugs.
However…
Some have questioned the legitimacy of the peace agreement because it was rejected in a referendum by Colombian voters.
The Colombian government has been slow at implementing the peace deal with just 35% of the deal having been fully implemented.
Since 2017, the number of armed groups has risen, leading to greater violence and higher numbers of murders.
The cultivation of coca, an illegal crop used to make cocaine, has significantly increased, reaching a near all time high between 2020-2021.
The election of President Iván Duque in 2018 threatened the plan’s implementation because he opposed the peace deal. Duque has been accused of being slow in implementing the plan and reducing the amount of money to carry out the peace plan. He also tried to change the peace deal by attempting to exclude certain crimes, such as sexual or drug offences from being defined as war crimes, which has threatened peace.
Former FARC-fighters who oppose the peace deal have created their own groups and waged war from Venezuela alongside the ELN, another group in the conflict that has not made peace with the government and continues to fight them.
Colombia continues to have a high number of internally-displaced people (IDPs).