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COLOMBIA’S GOVERNMENT AND FARC rebels announced yesterday that they have reached a historic peace deal to end their half-century civil war that cost hundreds of thousands of lives.
After nearly four years of negotiations in Cuba, the two sides announced a final deal, which President Juan Manuel Santos said would be put to a decisive referendum on 2 October.
“The Colombian government and the FARC announce that we have reached a final, full and definitive accord… on ending the conflict and building a stable and enduring peace,” the two sides said in a joint statement read out in Havana by Cuban diplomat Rodolfo Benitez.
We don’t want one more victim in Colombia.
In a national address just after the announcement, Santos – who has staked his legacy on the peace process – said the deal marked “the end of the suffering, the pain and the tragedy of war”.
He immediately launched his campaign for a “Yes” vote in the referendum, which he said would be the most important election of voters’ lives.
“This is a historic and unique opportunity… to leave behind this conflict and dedicate our efforts to building a more secure, safe, equitable, educated country, for all of us, for our children and grandchildren,” he said.
Marathon finale
The conflict began with the founding of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in 1964, at a time when leftist guerrilla armies were fighting to sow revolution throughout Latin America.
Over the years, it has killed 260,000 people, uprooted 6.8 million and left 45,000 missing.
Along the way, it has drawn in several leftist rebel groups and right-wing paramilitaries. Drug cartels have also fueled the violence in the world’s largest cocaine-producing country.
Three previous peace processes with the FARC ended in failure.
But after a major offensive by the army from 2006 to 2009 – led by then-defense minister Santos – a weakened FARC agreed to come to the negotiating table.
Over the past few days, the two sides had been discussing a range of unresolved topics, and worked late into the night Tuesday to draft their joint statement, sources from the two delegations told AFP in Havana.
Six-point deal
The peace deal comprises six agreements reached at each step of the arduous negotiations.
They cover justice for victims of the conflict, land reform, political participation for ex-rebels, fighting drug trafficking, disarmament and the implementation and monitoring of the accord.
Under the peace deal, the FARC will begin moving its estimated 7,000 fighters from their jungle and mountain hideouts into disarmament camps set up by the United Nations, which is helping monitor the ceasefire.
The FARC will then become a political party. Its weapons will be melted down to build three peace monuments.
Special courts will be created to judge crimes committed during the conflict.
An amnesty will be granted for less serious offenses. But it will not cover the worst atrocities, such as massacres, torture and rape.
Those responsible for such crimes will face up to 20 years in prison, with lighter sentences if they confess.
Santos insisted there would be no impunity for such crimes.
Obama hails ‘historic day’
The White House said US President Barack Obama had called Santos to congratulate him.
“The president recognised this historic day as a critical juncture in what will be a long process to fully implement a just and lasting peace agreement,” it said in a statement.
Obama vowed continuing support for Colombia, a key ally in the US war on drugs.
Washington has spent more than $10 billion on a joint anti-narcotics strategy called “Plan Colombia” – recently re-baptised “Peace Colombia” by Obama.
There are still obstacles on the way to peace.
Santos’s top rival, former president Alvaro Uribe, is leading a campaign to vote “No” in the referendum, arguing his successor has given too much away to the FARC.
And the government is still fighting a smaller rebel group, the National Liberation Army (ELN), whose ongoing kidnappings have derailed efforts to open peace negotiations.
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Some good news for a change..
FARCing great news.
“Obama vowed continuing support for Colombia, a key ally in the US war on drugs.”
Really Mr. Obama? Maybe have a look at your own security agencies who are up to their bloody elbows in the drugs business in Columbia and many other countries for over 70 years:
“The litany of this is a long one, with the OSS (the predecessor of the CIA) forming a strategic alliance with the Sicilian and Corsican mafia after World War II to prevent possible communist uprisings in Europe and to smash left-wing unions; the CIA’s assisting the Kuomintang with its opium trafficking operations to fund their joint anti-communist efforts in Asia; the CIA’s actual trafficking of opium out of Laos, Burma and Thailand to help fund the U.S. counter-insurgency effort in South East Asia; the CIA’s support of “the chief smugglers of Afghan opium, the anti-communist Mujahedin rebels in Afghanistan” in their efforts against the pro-Soviet government in Afghanistan, leading ultimately to Afghanistan becoming one of the largest opium suppliers in the world (a status only briefly interrupted when it was under Taliban control); and the Reagan Administration’s funding the Nicaraguan Contras (after such funding was outlawed by Congress) by, among other things, cocaine smuggling operations.
The book quotes the United Nations Drug Control Program (UNDCP) which concludes that, today, “the biggest heroin and cocaine trading institutions in the world are the militaries of Burma, Pakistan, Mexico, Peru and Colombia – ‘all armed and trained by U.S. military intelligence in the name of anti-drug efforts.’” In the case of Colombia, while the U.S., to justify its massive counterinsurgency program, vilifies the FARC guerillas as “narco-terrorists,” this title is more befitting of the Colombian state and its paramilitary allies.”
http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/02/16/the-u-s-war-for-drugs-of-terror-in-colombia/
Good news all the same though Wally.
Good copy/paste job Billy. Wouldn’t call counterpunch a credible source though.
Can you identify anything incorrect in the article Tadhg?
The first rule of confirmation bias – go after the source
Billy, I can see something incorrect! – YOU!!
So no dispute as to the content of the article then Tadhg? Maybe you’d prefer the Nation Security Archive blow which also outlines the U.S involvement in drug trafficking:
“This electronic briefing book is compiled from declassified documents obtained by the National Security Archive, including the notebooks kept by NSC aide and Iran-contra figure Oliver North, electronic mail messages written by high-ranking Reagan administration officials, memos detailing the contra war effort, and FBI and DEA reports. The documents demonstrate official knowledge of drug operations, and collaboration with and protection of known drug traffickers. Court and hearing transcripts are also included.”
Evidently Ronald hadn’t heard about his wife Nancy’s “Just Say No” to drugs mass media campaign during the 80s.
@ Billy Mooney : North and South Korea are still technically at war, as they only signed an armistice, not a peace treaty. So that’s a longer war than the Farc one.
I won’t quibble with you over inconsequential technicalities Niall. When I asked Tadhg if there was anything incorrect in the article I was referring to the linked counterpunch piece.
@ Billy Mooney: no problemo. I was referring to the Journal’s abysmal record of exaggeration, lousy sub-editing, or simply getting things wrong.
This seems like great news, but in reality its a Trojan horse. The Farc were established as a Communist movement, they formed the guerrilla because Colombians voted in favour of Democracy and the Communist candidates never got enough votes. They were more popular in Rural Colombia, but still not popular enough to win an election. So what do you do when you are a stubborn Communist who always looses an election? Form a Guerrilla. These people are murderers, kidnappers, drug dealers. All with the pretexts of founding “the cause” Colombia gained the fame they have is thanks to Guerrillas, they enabled drug cartels. They made travelling by land impossible, because they would engage in kidnappings even having their own checkpoints in the roads, they had total control of rural Colombia and their roads. People up to date travel mostly by air within Colombia not to get kidnapped.
Many of the people who ruined Venezuela with Chavez and Maduro are Ex-Guerrilla members. They had the most senior positions in cabinet.
What will happen in Colombia its a What happened in Venezuela, but on Steroids. These assassins will now be free and be able to run for office and fool the vulnerable poor population with false promises just like Chavez did in the 1990s, Chavez even said that “He hates Socialism, he is pro free market and these Marxists ideas are outdated” And people bought it.
Don;t get me wrong, I am anti savage capitalism and anti oligarchy, this is the other extreme. But I dare any die hard leftists Marxists pro Cuba, Pro venezuela, Pro Communism to have the b.alls to come here and defend Farcs action, to defend Communism, Cuba and Venezuela without even been there for themselves. I dare someone who has been in in these places and say that Communism is the answer.
Ok Uribe.
Very good analysis Juan. You seem to know what you’re talking about.
FARC didn’t start this conflict, the army’s attacks on civilians did.
Colombia wasn’t a democracy- it was an oligarchy where only two parties could run for office until the early 90s. It was a ‘perfect dictatorship’ like Mexico, in the hands of an elite.
What happened every time FARC tried to demobilize? It’s members were assasinated. Google the genocide of the Union Patriotica.
Worried that poor people will vote for FARC? That speaks volumes about the country- the poor are so oppressed that they might vote for the hated guerrilla over the mainstream parties.
I’m no supporter of FARC but people need to stop acting as though they’re solely responsible for the war.
The United Nations are actually doing something useful! I need to lie down.
That’s good news ☮
Fantastic news for the SF bird watching society. They can now watch some birds in Colombia without coming under undue suspicion.
Congratulations to Eamon Gilmore as well.
What about the punishment for using child soldiers by farc.
Usually govt propaganda, helps to deprive your opponents of legitimacy
The army force poor Colombians who can’t bribe their way out to fight on the frontline. FARC aren’t alone in forced recruitment.
No more Sinn Fein/ IRA training trips. Whatever will they do with their free time?
All cause of the banana war started by the US and EU
http://www.triplepundit.com/2015/01/bananas-colombian-civil-war-u-s-supreme-court/
have your say