Colombian government and FARC sign deal to end 52-year war

[frigidmagi]

dw

Colombia's government and the FARC rebel group have signed a historic peace accord to end a five-decade war that has killed around 220,000 people. President Santos hailed the agreement as a 'new dawn for Colombia.'

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos and Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) commander Timolean Jimenez sealed the agreement in the northern coastal city of Cartagena on Monday.

The pair signed the 297-page document with a pen made from a bullet casing as the crowd cheered "long live Colombia, long live peace."

"The horrible night of violence that has covered us with its shadow for more than half a century is over," Santos told the more than 2,500 white-clad dignitaries attending the event. "We open our hearts to a new dawn, to a brilliant sun full of possibilities that has appeared in the Colombian sky."

Fifteen Latin American heads of state were at the ceremony, as well the UN General Secretary Ban Ki-moon, US Secretary of State John Kerry and the pope's special envoy, Pietro Parolin.

A minute of silence was held for the war's victims, while 50 white flags were raised.

"We are being reborn to launch a new era of reconciliation and of building peace," Jimenez said in his speech.
"Let no one doubt that we are going into politics without weapons," he added. "We are going to comply (with the accord) and we hope that the government complies."

Shortly before the signing, EU Foreign Policy Chief Federica Mogherini announced that the European Union had temporarily suspended the FARC from its list of terrorist organizations, effectively lifting sanctions against the group.

Asked whether the US would do the same, Kerry said Washington was "willing to review and make judgments as the facts come in."

Colombian citizens will now vote on the peace accord in a referendum on October 2nd. Despite attracting some critics, including the former Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, polls suggest that a majority will vote in favor of the accord.
The peace agreement

The agreement stipulates that the FARC's estimated 7,500 fighters must leave their mountain and jungle camps within the next 180 days and disarm under UN supervision. In return, the group will be allowed to relaunch as a political party.

DW correspondent Eduardo Méndez on Colombia peace deal
They will also be granted amnesty for "political crimes" committed during the 52-year conflict, which caused more than 220,000 deaths and displaced 8 million people. The worst atrocities, such as massacres, torture and rape will not receive amnesty.

"In the name of the FARC, I sincerely apologize to all the victims of the conflict for any pain we may have caused during this war," Jimenez said during his speech, drawing loud cheers from the crowd.

Four years of negotiations
The latest round of peace talks between the government and rebel leaders opened in Havana, Cuba, in 2012. Rebel leader Timochenko proposed the fresh talks with President Santos after a series of major military offensives killed the previous leader, Alfonso Cano, and left the guerilla group significantly weakened.

This was the fourth attempt at securing a peace agreement after previous efforts in 1984, 1991 and 1999 all failed.
Violence between the government and guerilla groups began as early as 1948. The assassination of the populist leader Jorge Eliecer Gaitan that year sparked a violent uprising and led peasant groups to join with communist factions and arm themselves. Following a military attack on the insurgency's main encampment in 1964, the leftist rebel groups formed The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.

Although widely described as a Marxist rebel group, the FARC's political ideology has never been coherently defined. Its principal causes were loosening the oligarchy's grip on power and forcing land reforms for Colombia's millions of displaced farmers and peasants. However, once the FARC began resorting to violence, kidnapping and illegal gold mining as a source of funding, their popularity suffered.

Fighting intensified by the turn of the century when the FARC became involved in cocaine-trafficking, sparking a drug war. This saw the United States sending billions of dollars to Colombian security forces to fight against FARC rebels and force them out of their hideout.

The peace accord finally brings peace to Colombia and ends the last major armed conflict in the Americas.

The last two decades have seen a long slow disarming process as FARC troops have come in from the jungle to take advantage of various offers to put down their rifles and rejoin society. It also helps that Colombian society while still having a long way to go has slowly reformed. There's actually a fairly good chance of this deal holding, which means we might have peace in the entire hemisphere.

[LadyTevar]

Colombia referendum: Voters reject Farc peace deal

Voters in Colombia have rejected a landmark peace deal with Farc rebels in a shock referendum result, with 50.2% voting against it.
The deal was signed last week by President Juan Manuel Santos and Farc leader Timoleon Jimenez after nearly four years of negotiations.
But it needed to be ratified by Colombians in order to come into force.
Addressing the nation, President Santos said he accepted the result but would continue working to achieve peace.

How did it happen?
Colombians were asked to endorse or reject the peace agreement in a popular vote on Sunday.
The "yes" campaign had the backing not just of President Santos but of a wide array of politicians both in Colombia and abroad, including UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
But there was also a vocal campaign for a "no" vote, led by former Colombian President Alvaro Uribe.
Polls conducted ahead of Sunday's vote suggested a comfortable win for the "yes" campaign.
But in a surprise result, 50.2% of voters rejected the agreement compared with 49.8% who voted for it.
The difference with 98.98% of the votes counted was less than 54,000 votes out of almost 13 million ballots.
Turnout was low with fewer than 38% of voters casting their votes.
In Choco, one of the provinces hardest hit by the conflict, 80% of voters backed the deal.
In the town of Bojaya, where at least 119 people were killed when a church was hit by Farc mortar bombs, 96% of residents voted "yes".
Colombia's capital, Bogota, also voted "yes" with 56%.
The province of Vaupes, in the east of the country, also registered strong support for the deal, with 78% voting in favour.
Vaupes has also seen its share of conflict, including the attack on the town of Mitu, which the rebels seized control of in 1998 after taking a large number of police officers hostage. Some of the officers were held hostage by the Farc for 12 years before being freed by the army in 2010.
In the eastern province of Casanare on the other hand, 71.1 % voted against the deal.
It is an area where farmers and landowners have for years been extorted by the Farc and other illegal groups.
In Antioquia, the home state of ex-President Uribe, 62% rejected the deal.

Why did people vote 'no'?
Most of those who voted "no" said they thought the peace agreement was letting the rebels "get away with murder".
Under the agreement, special courts would have been created to try crimes committed during the conflict.
Those who confessed to their crimes would have been given more lenient sentences and would have avoided serving any time in conventional prisons.
This, for many Colombians, was one step too far.
They also balked at the government's plan to pay demobilised Farc rebels a monthly stipend and to offer those wanting to start a business financial help.
"No" voters said this amounted to a reward for criminal behaviour while honest citizens were left to struggle financially.
Many also said that they simply did not trust the rebels to keep their promise to lay down arms for good.
They pointed to previous failed peace negotiations when the rebels took advantage of a lull in fighting to regroup and rearm as evidence that the Farc had broken their word before.
Others were unhappy that under the agreement, the Farc would be guaranteed 10 seats in the Colombian Congress in the 2018 and 2022 elections.
They said this would give the newly created party an unfair advantage.

What will happen next?
President Santos said that the bilateral ceasefire between government forces and the Farc would remain in place.
He has told government negotiators to travel to to Cuba to consult Farc leaders on the next move.
President Santos has promised to "continue the search for peace until the last moment of my mandate because that's the way to leave a better country to our children".
"I won't give up," he said.
The Farc leader known as Timochenko also said that the rebels remained committed to securing an end to the conflict.
"The Farc reiterates its disposition to use only words as a weapon to build toward the future," he said after the result.
"Count on us, peace will triumph."
But before the vote, President Santos had told the BBC that there was "no Plan B" for ending the conflict, which has killed an estimated 260,000 people.
He said he would meet all political parties on Monday to discuss the next steps and "open space for dialogue".

What does the 'no' campaign want?
The main proponent of the vote against the agreement was former President Alvaro Uribe.
Following the "no" vote, Mr Uribe insisted that he was not opposed to peace but that he wanted to renegotiate some of the agreement, which he said needed "corrections".
Among the "corrections" he has demanded are, among others:

• That those found guilty of crimes be barred from running for public office
• That Farc leaders serve time in prison for crimes committed
• That the Farc use their illicit gains to pay their victims compensation
• That no changes be made to the Colombian constitution

He said he wanted "political pluralism which can't be perceived as a reward for crimes committed, social justice without risk to honest enterprise".
"We want to contribute to a national accord and be heard," he said.
However, it is not clear whether the Farc would agree to the "corrections" Mr Uribe wants or if they would even consider renegotiating the deal which took four years of formal negotiations and two years of secret talks to reach.

What has been the reaction?
One of surprise, as even Mr Uribe, the main backer of the "no" vote, had predicted that the "yes" vote would win.
Some of those who had gathered to watch the result on giant screens expressed their disappointment.
One woman in Medellin told Caracol radio: "I never thought I could be this sad. I haven't got any victims in my family, nor any siblings who've joined the guerrilla, but I think of my country, of the young people and my heart breaks into a thousand pieces."
Farc leader Timochenko expressed his disappointment with the result which he blamed on "the destructive power of those who sow hatred and revenge" and "have influenced the Colombian people's opinion".
Opponents of the agreement, however, took to the streets to celebrate their unexpected win.
Many said that "justice has won" and expressed their relief at the result.
One Colombian woman told BBC Mundo that Colombians had not forgotten that the path of the Farc was "paved with kidnappings, killings and drug trafficking".

[General Havoc]

I'm frankly stunned by this result, but the more I think about it, the less I feel like I should be.

[Lys]

Keep in mind that the turnout was less than 38%, so the only people who voted are those who were strongly for or strongly against the deal. A solid majority of Colombians simply couldn't care enough to vote at all. Also with a razor-thin margin like this you really cannot come to any broad conclusions as to the voting public's opinion on the subject, because something as mundane as the weather being different may have given the opposite result. While the news may be tempted to make some grand narrative about how the Colombian public is unwilling to forgive the guerrillas, the truth is closer to the Colombian public simply not giving a shit, with the minority that does give a shit evenly split between those for and those against.

If anything the shocking thing here isn't that the No vote barely won, but rather the sheer level of national apathy toward the peace treaty.

[General Havoc]

The fact that it was a close split at all, however, is rather telling. Even 38% of the electorate is a large number of people, and the anticipations I was reading were that the yes vote would win by double digits.

[Lys]

Really? The expectations i had were that people would be divided on the subject, because so many are bitter about the conflict and wish to see the guerrillas pay for their crimes. To be perfectly honest i was surprised when they announced there was a peace treaty to begin with, since i figured the Colombian Army would just continue to arrest and kill FARC leaders until they surrendered. Likely that is exactly what those Colombians who voted No want to happen.