TWO YEARS AFTER THE SIGNING OF THE PEACE AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE COLOMBIAN
GOVERNMENT AND THE REVOLUTIONARY ARMED FORCES OF COLOMBIA (FARC)
LA VIA CAMPESINA
As is widely known, on November 24th, 2016, the government of President
Juan Manuel Santos, on behalf of the Colombian State, and the
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Columbia-FARC (which has now become a
legal political party) signed a peace agreement. This agreement brought
to an end an armed conflict which had debilitated the people of Colombia
for more than 50 years, and which had profound economic, political and
social effects, creating painful divisions in Colombian society, its
social fabric and within families.
La Vía Campesina, an organisation bringing together 200 million women
and men peasants from all over the world, which, at the request of the
concerned parties, is one of the guarantors of the peace process, is
very worried to see that, two years after being signed, key aspects of
fundamental points in the Agreement for the Ending of the Conflict and
the Building of a Stable and Lasting Peace have been modified by the
executive, legislative, and judicial branches of the Colombian State.
Thus, for example, Point 1, known as Comprehensive Rural Reform, calls
for a rural registry to be created during the next ten years in order to
clarify problems of land ownership. It provides for the creation of a
Land Fund of 3 million hectares for landless or land-poor peasants, as
well as for the massive clarification and formalization of property
titles on 7 million hectares of landholdings. There has been practically
no compliance with these provisions involving a total of 10 million
hectares.
With regard to Point 4: Solving the Illicit Drugs Problem is another
vital point for the Colombian countryside and for rural communities. It
calls for comprehensive plans, voluntary eradication, the participation
of local and departmental authorities, and for government funding of
substitution projects and programmes, all including dialogue with
communities and community participation. These engagements have not been
complied with; they have been replaced by criminalisation, prosecution,
and punishment. Such departures from the Agreement had already started
under the previous government of Juan Manuel Santos. They have been
accentuated by the policies of the new president, Iván Duque, who has
decided to give priority to forced eradication and aerial spraying with
glyphosate, which has had serious effects on the health of human beings,
animals and plants. These policies concretise a military and legally
punitive approach to a problem that is above all social and economic.
Essential features of fundamental parts of the Agreement, such as the
Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP), were modified by the different
branches of power. For instance, the obligation of third parties to
testify at investigations has been eliminated. This not only prevents
society from learning about the real participation of multinationals and
that of national actors with ties to the banking and trading sectors and
to cattle ranching and agribusiness - as well as the involvement of
civil servants and civilian agents of the Colombian state in organising,
funding, and supporting paramilitary groups and other structures and
organisations that took part in the protracted armed conflict. As if
this were not enough, the JEP has suffered another blow to its basic
functioning. Its power to investigate and judge members of the military
has been virtually removed, with the nomination of 14 new judges who are
to assume that function. This change will undoubtedly provide a new
cloak of impunity and immunity for military personnel. It will further
weaken the right of victims to truth, justice, reparation, and
non-repetition, as well as to find out what happened to their family
members who were victims of torture, assassination, or forced
disappearance, and to learn the name and identity of those who were
responsible for planning and perpetrating these crimes. This change will
make the work of the JEP, the Truth Commission, and the Special Unit for
the Search for Missing Persons much more difficult. It is all the more
serious when we consider that victims were the central focus of the
Peace Agreement.
The victims not only suffered a mockery of their rights with respect to
this Point in the Agreement; the Colombian Congress also denied them
their right, which had been stipulated in the Agreement, to 16
congressional seats.
The political reform that was provided for in the signing of the
Agreement is another point which the Colombian government and state
apparatus have not complied with.
In relation to the Reintegration of FARC ex-combatants, the Peace
Agreement stipulates that each ex-combatant should receive a sum of 12
million pesos for productive projects. There are also guarantees for the
construction and repair of highways as well as for the provision of
other basic services such as housing, health, training and educations -
obligations with which the Colombian state has also failed to comply.
What is most serious and most shocking is that, once the Agreement was
signed, a series of murderous attacks was unleashed against the FARC
ex-combatants and their families as well as against leaders and
activists on the political Left, human rights defenders,
environmentalists, peasants, students, indigenous people, and
Afro-descendants, a relentless wave of criminal extermination that
reminds us of the dark period when the Patriotic Union was obliterated.
For its part, the Colombian State has failed to fulfil its commitment to
combat and dismantle the paramilitary forces and to make them subject to
the force of the law. According to spokespersons from the Colombian
police, the Common Alternative Revolutionary Force (Fuerza Alternative
Revolucionaria del Común) recently reported that more criminal attacks
are being plotted against its leaders, activists, and members - one more
stage in the campaign of extermination.
The Democratic Centre and Colombian President Iván Duque have made
repeated announcements regarding the Peace Agreement, on some occasions
expressing a desire to tear it to pieces, and on other occasions
declaring their wish to subject it to major changes and reforms.
Our two International Solidarity Missions to Colombia, the first in 2016
and the second in 2017, gave us a first-hand understanding of the
challenges to peace, of the vision of women and peasants in their
territories, and of the necessity for environmental justice as a
precondition for social justice. We are committed to the peace process
and to our role as guarantor. We will be organising our Third
International Solidarity Commission in 2019, in the fervent hope of
finding a people and a government advancing towards a stable and lasting
peace.
For all of these reasons, La Via Campesina is appealing to the Colombian
People, to all of our member organisations in different parts of the
world, as well as to the international community, the United Nations,
the FAO, the ILO, the European Union, the Non-aligned Countries,
governments, organisations, and personalities. We are asking them to
speak out and to demand complete fulfilment, without reforms or delays,
of the Final Agreement for the Ending of the Conflict and the Building
of a Stable and Lasting Peace.
CONTACTS
Nury Martinez | +57 310 772 0098 | nury254(a)gmail.com
Federico Pacheco | +34 690 651 046 | pachecofederico(a)yahoo.es
Veronique Leon | +33 622 161 399 | verobique(a)gmail.com
