Colombian peace process
[4]: 167–169 The paralyzed peace process coincided with an escalation of the conflict, owing to a variety of factors including the rapid numerical and geographic expansion of paramilitary groups such as the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) who opposed the government's negotiations with the FARC.
[6] Widespread popular frustration and disillusion with the peace process led to the election of Álvaro Uribe in May 2002, on a hawkish platform opposing any future dialogue without a prior cessation of hostilities and terrorist activities.
[4]: 180 Taken as a whole, these well-publicized results made Uribe extremely popular and granted him sufficient political capital to successfully seek congressional approval of a constitutional amendment allowing him to run for a second consecutive term in 2006.
[10] In July 2008, following the rescue of 15 hostages by the Colombian military in Operation Jaque, the government made contact with the FARC, notably the organization's new leader Alfonso Cano, to offer them a "dignified" exit.
[15] According to the Colombian government's 2010–2014 national development plan, the weakened FARC had "returned to guerrilla warfare in its most basic expression to hit, in an uncoordinated and sporadic way, the security forces, and intimidate the population.
Semana reported that both negotiating parties had agreed to the principle that nothing coming from the outside could influence the discussions,[14] while the FARC states that its Central High Command had decided to continue the exploratory meetings, "for it was the will of Alfonso Cano.
The six thematic issues to be discussed are integral rural development, political participation, end of the conflict (including bilateral and definite ceasefire and cessation of hostilities, and surrender of weapons), solution to the problem of illicit drugs and victims; and ratification, implementation and verification.
The FARC delegation is led by Iván Márquez as chief negotiator, alongside Jesús Santrich, Rodrigo Granda, Andrés París, Marcos Calarcá, Mauricio Jaramillo, Pablo Catatumbo, Tanja Nijmeijer and Simón Trinidad (currently in jail in the United States).
[27] FARC chief negotiator Iván Márquez's speech at the installation of dialogues in Oslo in October was interpreted by the Colombian media as unexpectedly radical for its defiant tone against the government, mentioning items excluded from the agenda (economic model, foreign investment, military doctrine, mining, land ownership) and defending the armed struggle.
Combined with President Santos' historically low popularity, the negotiations' loss of credibility and the strength of Uribe's opposition to the peace progress, the Havana talks appeared to be in dire straits.
[54] Following the end of the ceasefire, both sides made small gestures of peace, with Santos ordering that the bodies of guerrillas killed in combat be identified and returned to their families while the FARC reiterated their will to remain in the negotiations.
Facing an impasse in Havana, the negotiators delegated the file to a group of six respected jurists – Spanish lawyer Enrique Santiago, Conservative politician Álvaro Leyva, human rights advocate Diego Martínez, former judge Manuel José Cepeda, University of Notre Dame professor Douglass Cassel and rector of the Universidad Externado de Colombia Juan Carlos Henao; the first three selected by the FARC, the latter three by the government.
"[60] However, Human Rights Watch criticized the agreement, saying that it would exempt those responsible for the worst abuses from spending even a single day in jail, a view shared in Colombia by Álvaro Uribe.
[62] The six-month window given to reach an agreement already appeared difficult to meet in November, due to delays in closing the transitional justice issue which became paralyzed despite the September 23 announcements because of different interpretations on thorny details between the two sides.
FARC Secretariat member Carlos Antonio Losada, in an interview with Semana, noted that the bilateral ceasefire had been installed on the ground by the force of events and that no one would accept that this situation be reversed, specially with the UN involved.
Álvaro Uribe called it a coup d'état, while Inspector General Alejandro Ordóñez, another major critic of the peace process, wrote a letter to Santos in which he accused him of trying to replace the Constitution in collaboration with the FARC and threatened him with disciplinary action.
[27] On June 23, the government and the FARC signed historic agreements of the Colombian Peace Accords on the 'end of the conflict' including the bilateral ceasefire, cessation of hostilities and surrender of weapons during a ceremony in Havana, Cuba.
[89] The equal participation in the construction, implementation, verification and countersignature of the agreements reached in the Dialogues of Havana are subject of concern of women's organizations that historically have worked for peace and human rights in the country.
Before finishing 2012, when began the negotiating of the principle of the end of armed confrontation with the oldest Latin American guerrillas, the Nobel Peace Prize winner Jody Williams, sent a letter to Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, claiming a space for women in Havana.
Proposals insisted on equal participation, demilitarization, bilateral cease, dismantling of paramilitary structures, truth, justice and reparation for all victims and "continue to build peace from the regions and from the everyday, strengthening the experiences of women as peacebuilders".
The FARC considers Colombia to have a non-democratic political system marked by state terrorism, and has demanded a 'democratic opening' which includes not only institutional reforms but broader popular participation for social movements and greater direct democracy.
The main measures are:[103][105] In July 2016, the negotiating parties announced through a joint communiqué the composition of the commissions which would study the opposition statute, electoral reform and the guarantees law for social organizations and movements.
The representatives of the FARC would formally register their new political movement before the National Electoral Council, providing their act of creation, party statutes, code of ethics, ideological platform and appointment of its leadership.
In addition, following the conclusion of the decommissioning process, the government would amend the constitution and laws as necessary to allow for the temporary, ex officio participation of the FARC's new party in the Congress for two terms beginning in July 2018.
[113]: 3 A recent investigation by the Colombian attorney general's office concluded that FARC units are involved both directly and indirectly in the cultivation, processing and distribution – directly as owners of crops, laboratories, crystallization workshops as well as the distribution corridors contacting clients including national and international drug cartels; indirectly by providing security to crops or labs, organizing peasants in anti-eradication marches, setting product prices, charging taxes on the product or by providing security to third-party drug traffickers in return for a fee.
"[103][116] Furthermore, the joint communiqué stated the construction of lasting peace requires everybody's "willingness to contribute to the elucidation of the relationship between conflict and the growing, production and marketing of illicit drugs and money laundering that result from this phenomenon.
The Special Jurisdiction for Peace (Jurisdicción Especial para la Paz, JEP) would be the transitional justice component of the Comprehensive System, complying with Colombia's duty to investigate, clarify, prosecute and punish serious human rights violations and grave breaches of international humanitarian law which occurred during the armed conflict.
[122] Following the end of the armed conflict, the government would "grant the broadest possible amnesty" (as per section 5, article 6 of Protocol II of the Geneva Conventions) for rebels who have subscribed a final peace agreement with the State (crime of rebellion) and for those accused or condemned for political and related offences, as permitted by the Colombian Constitution.
Various social programs – including formal education, vocational training, recognition of knowledge, housing, culture, sports, recreation, environmental protection, psycho-social attention, family reunification – would be identified and developed as necessary to help the reincorporation of the FARC.
[131] The former leader of the FARC, Rodrigo Londoño, claimed in an open letter to Colombian President Iván Duque in June 2019 that about 160 ex-fighters and their family members have been killed since the peace deal was signed.
