Joint Communiqué #80 Revision of the Pending Points Political Participation

July 5, 2016

The National Government and the FARC-EP inform that we have started the revision of the pending issues of the already reached agreements.

In this round we have concluded the revision of the pending issues of point 2 “Political participation: New Democratic Opening for the Peace”. As a result of this revision, the majority of the pending points have been eliminated, because they were approached in other points of the Agreement or because we reached consensus on issues that had not been defined.

1. In point 2.1.1.1. “Statute of guarantees for the exercise of political opposition”, we agreed that “parties and political movements with legal status will be convened in a Commission to define the guidelines for the Statute of Guarantees for political parties and movements whom declare themselves in opposition. Additionally, other representative political groups of opposition will be convened to this discussion space as agreed by the Parties. The Commission will facilitate the participation of spokespersons from the most representative social movements and organizations, experts and academics, among others. Based on these guidelines, the National Government will elaborate a bill in joint with the delegates from the Commission of Parties and Political Movements.”

Within this framework, we have agreed to:

- Bring forward the request to convene all parties and political movements with legal status, to integrate the Commission to define the guidelines of the Statute of Guarantees for political parties and movements declaring themselves in opposition.

- Request the convening to integrate this Commission the following representative political opposition groups: Marcha Patriótica and Congreso de los Pueblos, and two experts delegated by the Parties.

- Request the Commission to open spaces or mechanisms to receive inputs or proposals from other political groups that wish to join the discussion.

- Request the Commission to deliver their recommendations in the shortest time possible, after the signing of the Final Agreement.

2. In point 2.2.1. we agreed that National Government will elaborate a bill on guarantees and promotion of citizen participation and other activities carried out by the social movements and organizations, based on guidelines established in the agreement that will be discussed at a national participation space, which will count with the participation of spokespersons from the most representative social movements and organizations.

Within this framework, we have agreed to:

- Request to the National Council of Participation, with the support of Foro por Colombia, Viva la Ciudadanía and CINEP, to organize the national participation space related with this point.

- Request to Foro por Colombia, Viva la Ciudadanía and CINEP to elaborate within the following two weeks a proposal for discussion at the Table, about the criteria and guidelines for the development of this space, guaranteeing a balanced and pluralistic representation.

3. In the point 2.3.4. “Reform of the electoral system and organization”, we agreed that “In order to ensure greater autonomy and independence of the electoral organization, including the National Electoral Council or the institution in lieu thereof, and to modernize and make more transparent the electoral system, to thereby provide greater guarantees for political participation on equal footing and improve the quality of democracy following the signing of the Final Agreement, a special electoral mission will be established.” We agreed that this mission must deliver their recommendations in a term of 6 months with the aim that the Government make the needed institutional and regulatory adjustments.

Within this framework we have agreed the following mechanism for selecting the high level experts that will integrate the special electoral mission. The Mission will be conformed by 7 high level experts, mostly Colombian, in this way: a representative of the Mission of Electoral Observation – MOE and 6 experts selected by the following organizations: the Carter Center, the Political Science Department of Universidad Nacional de Colombia, the Political Science Department of Universidad de los Andes and the Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy– NIMD

4. Finally, once the revision of the agreements is concluded by the gender sub-commission, we have agreed that they will be re-published with the inclusion of the agreed modifications as a result of the revision of the pending points.

http://farc-epeace.org/communiques/joint-communiques/item/1376-joint-communique-80.html

They've got to be tired, the people need peace, but I fear this will end in tears, and dead, tortured cadre.

Pathways for revolution and socialism are still being explored

FARC-EP combatant and writer Gabriel Angel takes on the criticism of some radical left-wing sectors at the national and international level in this article.

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The article is divided into two parts; the first part points out, not without irony, the far too simplistic perspective of those who from the “radical left” criticize the FARC-EP and the Peace Process. The second part contains the author’s arguments on context and analysis in defense of the FARC-EP as a Marxist-Leninist organization that employs historical materialism and dialectic methods to develop their action in today's context.

What follows is the article, translated into English by farc-epeace.org. The original article in Spanish can be found here:

In an extremely synthetic way, given the space limitations, we could marshal the main criticisms launched from the radical left against the peace process in Havana and against the FARC-EP in simple formulas, in the idea of ​​establishing their degrees of validity and relevance. Apparently, for some sectors, we, the champions of armed insurgency and violent revolution, have now become reformists, traitors and simple social democrats.

Let's start with their general appreciation of the world and class struggle. According to them, the world is divided into two clearly distinguishable camps, imperialism and its lackeys on the one hand, and on the other, peoples in struggle for materializing the revolution and socialism. If the latter have not been able to succeed, it has been mainly because they have not applied the correct line drawn by Marxism-Leninism.

Or because they have deviated from it after the taking over of power. The line is clear, the revolution is a violent clash promoted by a peasant-worker vanguard that takes away the power from the capitalist class through an armed insurection. The latter is a result of the maturity of objective and subjective conditions. The first are a tangible reality in all current societies, the second ones are the heritage of the most loyal followers of Marxism.

This heritage is revealed in the works of Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels and Vladimir Lenin, and comprises a set of immutable principles that should be applied without any variation. Capitalism is a decadent system that is about to collapse and therefore its fall only depends on the audacity and coherence of the vanguard party. The revolution has always been just around the corner and it has only been obstaculized by hesitant leaderships.

These leaderships are those which have doubts about the permanent willingness of the masses to embark on the final battle, or those who foolishly conceive alternatives other than armed uprising, those who have invented various stages to reach socialism, imagining they can conquer democratic spaces in the world of capitalism, naively believing that imperialism and the bourgeoisie will somehow share their State with the exploited classes.

Those who instead of leading the insurrection claimed by the opressed, tend to talks and pact formulas of coexistence with the dominant classes. Those who dare to believe in absurd reconciliations between exploiters and exploited, those who even - to reach that hallucination- are able to disolve a revolutionary army about to triumph, those who sign peace accords instead of waging war to the extreme.

The perfect example, the guide that every revolutionary movement should follow, is in the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917. It was through an armed uprising that the Russian people buried Tsarism in February that year, imposing a brief republican period in which the soviets shared power with the bourgeoisie, to finally reach full power through another insurrection in October.

Learn how it is done! Shout the critics.

This is why, sovereignly ashamed and grateful, the FARC-EP must send the Peace Talks and the signed agreements to hell, and instead make a call for the general uprising of the population, while we return to combat, completely ready to fulfill once and for all our strategic plan. People in Colombia are ready to take the streets, block roads and cities, to storm the local power for the revolutionary triumph.

And if by misfortune or because of the work of some whim we were to be defeated in the attempt, we would have perished heroically, on the battlefield, turned into the heroes of future generations, and therefore inspiring the final triumph, which will inevitably occur as a result of the teachings left by our sacrifice for those who will excitedly pick up our banners.

That would be a genuine revolutionary behaviour, the irrefutable proof of our loyalness to the guidelines, with our blood reaffirming its absolute correctness and validity. Those who now criticize us would be the first to go out and proclaim this in their weblogs, they would be in charge of raising monuments in our memory, they would stand firm and livid when they hold the one-minute silence in our honor before starting their meetings.

With all the respect that these critics may deserve, we have to say that they are deeply mistaken. Revolution, like any other human activity linked to the dispute over State power, is fundamentally and foremost a political situation. And politics consists of earning the support of others towards a political purpose. A victorious politician is the one who has an overwhelming number of followers.

Therefore, a revolution will only be victorious when the masses are not simply on the abstract mindset of dreamers, but rather in the reality of the political struggle. We can say anything we like about the hated imperialism and the evil bourgeoisie, but as long as they have the concurrence of a majority who, for whatever reason, prefers to sit in their shadow instead of fighting them, then no matter how strong rebels shout or how noisy their firearms are, the dominating classes will be impossible to beat.

Moreover, only a fanatic could deny the fact that they have huge military and repressive apparatuses that they never hesitate to use, they hold the reins of formal education and are owners of the mass media dedicated to shaping people's opinions. And as if that were not enough, they are the owners of scientific and technological knowledge, and by virtue of the above they are able to impose a cultural hegemony that traps and shapes consciences.

We consider that we surpassed the old debate about the Marxist dogma. For all of us, it is clear that as a valuable source of economic and social knowledge, its invaluable dialectic heritage imposes consider it as a guide and not as a series of commandments. Abraham Lincoln liked to repeat that a compass shows us where the north is and the direction we want to take, but it doesn't show us the abyss, deserts, or the mud of the road.

It is the concrete analysis of the concrete reality that tells us when to turn around for a while, when a bridge should be build first, when it is better to wait for the river to calm down before jumping into it. To follow the line straight forward, invariably, however correct its Azimuth may be, very easily makes us perish in the attempt. With apologies to our critics, more than half a century of being guerrillas has taught us something about that.

In politics, considering that one is right will never be enough, in spite of the fact that this is what drives us forward. The massive support of others will always be needed and that's not produced by spontaneous generation, much less within the unequal conditions in which the popular movements confront the power of the ruling classes. To reach massive support, a series of conditions must be reached and created, which would allow us to reach out to people, talk with them, create class consciousness, organize and mobilize.

In 1917, apart from the tragic experience of the Paris Commune, neither the dominant nor the oppressed classes had knowledge of how a revolution was done. But from the moment the Bolsheviks came to power with the global spread of their ideas and approaches, the issue acquired a scientific spirit. While the underdog obtained a formidable example to follow, the above learned what to do to crush it.

The specific conditions of Tsarist Russia were rigorously studied by Lenin to shape his tactics, based on past experiences, like the French Revolution, but designing his own line of action, creating it, not mechanically copying a past experience. All later triumphant socialist revolutions had the Russian revolution as a reference, but none of those was the exact repetition or traced the same route. Only those who were truly authentic were able to sustain themselves over time.

We still continue to live in a capitalist world as was the case in 1917, but it is wrong to consider that the situations of a century later must be examined with the same criteria as Lenin applied to his time and place. The system has developed much more, today's world is more complex, the ruling classes have acquired their own counter-revolutionary experiences and even the proletariat is qualitatively different.

Lenin himself knew no fascism or national security doctrine, he wasn't able to theorize about the economic crisis of 1929 or the ability of capital to reproduce and concentrate even more as a result of it. In 2008, the most recent financial global crisis took place, but despite its depth and scope, contrary to the provisions of the classics, it was far from representing the breakdown of the system. The old building still looks strong.

And that cannot be called defeatism. Revolutionaries have to recognize reality to accordingly draw the route to follow. We are not living a heyday of the revolutionary movement, as produced on the planet after World War II or the heyday of the Soviet Union after its victory, which meant a wave of struggles for the independence of peoples, for their democratization, for the revolution and socialism.

We live in the historical period that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union and socialism in Eastern Europe, which opened the door to the globalization of capital and its neoliberal policies. We live in a moment of absolute arrogance of imperialism. Its capacity and greediness it has shown in order to subjugate people cannot be ignored. We are obliged to recognize the reflux of the revolutionary movement in which we act, which mustn't be understood as the recognition of being defeated, like many of those who are predicting a global anticapitalist revolution coming soon.

Fortunately, all over the world there still are people and organizations willing to not abandon hope, committed to uphold the validity of revolutionary causes and socialism. But by own experience they've understood the need to find different paths than the so far employed.

We recognize ourselves as part of this wave that needs to strengthen itself and advance. At the same moment of the revolutionary chaos that followed the fall of the Soviet Union, the Eighth National Conference of the FARC-EP launched its proposal for national reconciliation and reconstruction, which presented a more elaborate version of our old approach to find a political solution to the conflict, within the framework of democratic and anti-neoliberal proposals.

Knowing that ours would not be the immediate proposals of revolution and socialism, in a time when such words were changed by the ruling classes of the world - and well assimilated by many people - into painful and unsuccessful experiences which should better be forgotten forever. We, revolutionaries, had to survive and it was essential to find a discourse that would find a response from the masses.

People saw the fall of socialism that way, but what they have been living in their own capitalist countries had been the end of social welfare model, the closure of one factory after another and their transfer to the Far East, the tide of layoffs, privatization of basic services that were previously State owned enterprises, precarious working conditions, bankruptcy of their companies due to liberalization and foreign competition, social decline and overwhelming insecurity.

Not to mention Colombia, where in addition to those dire consequences of the neoliberal model, agents of the underground drug economy quickly seized the State, and initiated in partnership with major sectors of the traditional parties, a violent onslaught against those who opposed their plans. The State itself did not take long in becoming their ally to fight the insurgency, providing legal and social status to paramilitarism.

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This, in turn, would be more than functional for the project of multinational financial investment in infrastructure, mega mining and agriculture for export, thus becoming an implementor of the most barbaric counter-land reform, stripping millions of peasants from their lands through atrocious crimes, under the plausible pretext that these were collaborators of the antediluvian guerrillas who refused to surrender.

A revolutionary organization as experienced and responsible as the FARC-EP realized that what had to be done, was to formulate proposals in line with the tragic reality that Colombians were going through, before engaging in heated debates about the validity of the revolution and socialism. At that point, it was understood that massive support to the political struggle would come through the adequate interpretation of the needed changes according to the people´s deepest longings.

A people besieged by State and paramilitary violence, victim of the terrorist attacks carried out by the drug mafias, threatened on a daily basis on the streets of towns and cities by the death squads, harassed by the impact of a long internal war and on top of that victim of the economic model, had feel the deep aspiration of peace and change in its favor.

The FARC-EP was clear that peace, democracy and social justice were the banners that had to be raised in a Colombia stricken by State terrorism. We had to provide a huge impetus to the demands of the Colombian people to stop State terror, to open spaces that would allow political action by those from below, who have been deprived of their rights due to the official violence while generating awareness against neoliberalism and injustice.

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These were not precisely the slogans of revolution and socialism, but it was clear to us that by achieving and materializing them, they would generate the conditions for the victims of the economic and political system to play a key role in further transformations, it would open the possibility to organize and advance, to conquer rights and deepen the struggle to expand them. The slogans of life, peace, political freedom, land, State support and others would eventually become a hurricane.

But we didn’t only say it in proclamations and conferences. We defended it with the force of arms. At the historical moment in which all voices of the Establishment and significant leftist groups were trying to convince us of the need to demobilize, the FARC-EP assumed the military confrontation at its most intense level, we fought without hesitation against the State and its paramilitaries, we shed our blood and many valuable combatants gave their lives.

This heroic action was what made the Establishment start peace talks in El Caguán. The talks that were used by imperialism and the Colombian oligarchy as a holding pattern for their re-armament and military qualification, in order to launch the most impressive offensive annihilation against us. And so they did, taking advantage of the desire for peace of a people victimized to the limit. A tenacious campaign of defamation accompanied their plans.

Then the ten bloodiest years of internal war in Colombia arrived. North American, Israeli and British States advised and supported the Colombian State with resources, technology and military aid. Paramilitarism became a heartless monster with the same purpose. Never before so many bombs and fire had rained down on the FARC-EP camps, so much poisonous syndication and so much international manipulation. Still, they were unable to defeat us in spite of the blows we received.

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Then, while our struggle was going on, there was the awakening of much of the people of Latin America and the Caribbean. Surprising and enthusiastic mass movements were gathering and conquering governments in neighboring countries. Chavez, Evo, Correa, Kirchner, Lula, Lugo, Ortega, Zelaya, Funes symbolized and embodied the response of the peoples of the continent to neoliberal policies and the impositions by force by the empire.

Some more radical than others, some more committed than others with the empoverished sectors, all of them would make up a surprising wave in the middle of the imperialist arrogance of big capital that invaded and destroyed entire countries and cultures to ensure their resources and profits. New slogans and tactics, based on the massive actions of the masses helped us confirm that we were right; revolutions would never again have the classic molds.

The coup of April 11, planned in the offices of the empire and planned even in its smallest perversity in conjunction with the reactionary sectors of Venezuela, supported immediately throughout the continental right, sank before the eyes of its makers because of a spontaneous and overwhelming popular reaction that returned President Chavez to power. If you look well, that was a revolution that brought the people to power, more than the elections that had taken place a few years before.

It has been our armed resistance, united to the clamor of millions of Colombians for peace and for the end of the neoliberal policies -that threaten the very existence of the human species- which conquered the space of the Peace Process in Havana. And within it, we have waged a political battle of historic dimensions in order to enforce our idea of ​​peace with social justice and democracy. The agreements signed so far are an example of it.

Since the beginning of the government of Belisario Betancur [mid 1980s], the FARC-EP has worked tirelessly to achieve a political solution to the internal armed conflict in order to democratize national life, defeat State terrorism and route our country towards a different destination from the one imposed by savage capitalism. It has been 34 years of intense military and political confrontation, incontrovertible proof of our condition as consistent revolutionaries.

Such political solution requires a sufficient dose of political realism. Of Marxism applied to the concrete Colombian conditions in present time. Once formalized the guarantees for full political exercise, not only for us but also for social and political movements, having the State committed with the eradication of paramilitarism and its promoters in the economic and political sectors, and with an agreed comprehensive rural reform, what's next?

An important agreement was reached already regarding victims, with an original comprehensive system of truth, justice, reparation and non-repetition, including a Special Jurisdiction for Peace praised by all kinds of experts at the international level. The UN, its Security Council, the European Union, UNASUR, CELAC, the Vatican and the international community in general support what has been agreed and are willing to work together to ensure compliance.

The FARC-EP will transform into a legal political movement, preserving our cohesion and historical unity with the purpose of broadly working with the masses of exploited people in Colombia, for the fulfillment of all agreements reached at the Peace Process and at the same time the struggle for their strenghtening. We have not abandoned nor will we abandon our ideological and political convictions for revolution and socialism.

We'll just be working to achieve the latter according to the context of the contemporary world, extending our embrace of solidarity to all revolutionary parties and movements of the world. It is impossible, given the objective correlation of forces, thinking of continuing our armed struggle within the new conditions of legality and guarantees. The abdication of arms is the final conclusion of all conquered by them and by the strength of the masses.

We understand the dissatisfaction expressed by some radical sectors, but we don’t share it. We are not of those who think that the Cuban revolution has abandoned its purposes and their socialist model for the sake of normalization of relations with the United States. We trust in it, in its people and its history. Times and conditions change and you need to act in accordance with them. As good Communists, we and the Cuban State know it.

Pathways for revolution and socialism are still being explored by today's revolutionaries. History has not ended because class struggle within it beats stronger than ever. It is true that David managed to beat Goliath with a simple slingshot, but we cannot forget that this is merely a religious myth, that both of them had the support of their masses, and that only the masses are the ones that produced victory.

Havana, July 5, 2016.

http://farc-epeace.org/background/item/1391-pathways-for-revolution-and-socialism-are-still-being-explored.html

Paramilitaries Continue Rampage In Colombia: The Case of El Bagre, Antioquia
07/08/2016 02:29 pm ET | Updated 16 minutes ago

Dan Kovalik
Labor & Human Rights Lawyer

DANIEL KOVALIK, 2015

http://img.huffingtonpost.com/asset/crop_400_224_1657_2816,scalefit_630_noupscale/57839e9d1b00001c00f6d274.jpg
Monument to the Disappeared

The peasant residents of El Bagre, Colombia, in the Department of Antioquia, have been brutalized this year by the paramilitary group known as the Autodefensas Gatinastas, a successor group to the Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (“AUC”) – the paramilitary umbrella group which was designated as a “terrorist organization” by the U.S. State Department, and which feigned a demobilization back in 2006.

Thus, according to reports coming out of Colombia, at least 17 peasants have been brutally murdered in the first half of this year by the paramilitaries. As Contagio Radio explains, these victims were “killed, dismembered, [and] thrown into rivers or buried in mass graves.” As a result of these assaults, peasants have set up a humanitarian refuge within El Bagre for the now hundreds of peasants displaced by this violence. I first learned of the this crisis from messages on the Twitter account of former Colombian Senator, Piedad Cordoba, who has been one of the lone voices calling for international attention to the situation in El Bagre, Antioquia.

The Department of Antioquia is ground zero for paramilitarism in Colombia, and its former Governor, and later Colombia’s President, Alvaro Uribe, one of the key intellectual authors of the paramilitaries. As one AUC leader explained, Uribe “was our commander . . . . He never fired a gun; but he led, he contributed, he was our man at the top. . . . The massacres, the disappearances, the creation of an [AUC] group: he is responsible.” Indeed, for years there have been credible allegations that Uribe was responsible for the formation of an AUC bloc while governor of Antioquia department from 1995 to 1997, and that he used the AUC to coerce millions of voters into electing him President in 2002.

But again, this is not news to the U.S. government which has been quite aware of Uribe’s paramilitary ties for years. Thus, as Colombia Reports points out:

In 2004, a declassified US Intelligence Report, originally written in 1991, stated that Uribe had “worked for the Medellin Cartel,” run by notorious drug kingpin Pablo Escobar, who the report described as a “close personal friend.”

In 2007, another US intelligence report – leaked to the Los Angeles Times – alleged that Uribe instructed General Mario Montoya, a local army commander who was later promoted to become the army’s top commander, to lead a controversial counter-insurgency push in the city of Medellin in which AUC forces played a major role. At least 14 people were killed in “Operation Orion” and dozens were forcibly disappeared.
Uribe’s known paramilitary ties did not prevent the U.S. from arming his military to the teeth, nor from President George W. Bush considering Uribe his closest friend in the region.

Moreover, despite the continued allegations against Alvaro Uribe, and the recent arrest of his brother Santiago on charges that he himself was a paramilitary leader responsible for dozens of assassinations, Alvaro Uribe continues to be an important figure in Colombian politics, and the most outspoken public figure in Colombia against the ongoing peace discussions between the Colombian government and the FARC guerillas.

This puts the current grisly violence in El Bagre, Antioquia into context. This violence is but further proof that there can be no lasting peace in Colombia in the absence of the Colombian government putting an effective end to the paramilitaries which continue to have powerful political allies. So far, the Colombian government, which continues to deny the very existence of the paramilitaries, has shown little will to do this. And, it certainly has shown no will to do so in El Bagre, thus sending military forces to that town to dismantle illegal mining operations set up by local residents to eke out a living, while at the same time leaving the paramilitaries alone to terrorize these residents.

The U.S., which itself denies the existence of the paramilitaries, and which has in fact encouraged paramilitarism over the years in order to combat the threat of progressive change in Colombia, must be vocal in its opposition to the paramilitaries now in order to ensure the success of the peace process – a process which represents the only real hope for war-torn Colombia.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/paramilitaries-continue-rampage-in-colombia-the-case_us_577fed8ce4b05b4c02fc68b3

Armed Forces attack FARC-EP delegates heading for Havana Peace Talks.

On July 8, a commission of FARC-EP delegates that were set to be transported towards Havana, Cuba was attacked by Colombian Armed Forces despite the coordinated effort between the National Government and the FARC-EP to allow the procedure.

Government officials rushed to make statements putting the entire blame on the FARC-EP referring to imprecise coordinates given by the latter on regards of the exact location of departure.

As of the moment, 3 members of the FARC-EP are injured due to the ambush without the possibility of receiving humanitarian assistance do to bureaucratic and military obstructions set by the Government and its Armed Forces, directly incurring in a violation of International Humanitarian Law (IHL) and creating an environment of mistrust in the midst of the final phase of the Peace Process.

Comandante Timoleón Jiménez in an interview for Nueva Colombia Noticias explained the situation that happened in La Uribe, Méta that has triggered a national controversy.

Timochenko recognizes the human error made by establishing the departure point outside of the shared coordinates with the Government; however, this shift was informed by local FARC-EP Comandante Aldinever to the respective Armed Forces Comandante of Brigade 21 via telephone.

On Friday morning, with apparent previous authorization by the General Command of Colombian Armed Forces, troops from 21st Brigade assaulted the FARC-EP members with ground and air support, leaving 3 insurgents injured.

Timochenko goes on to emphasize that given the previously explained context, it is not true –as Government officials have put it- that the ambush occurred due to accidental encounter nor that the situation occurred due to an exclusive error made by the FARC-EP.

At this moment the situation has not been resolved due to the lack of cooperation for humanitarian assistance to the injured FARC-EP members, who in companionship with more guerrilla combatants were ordered to await assistance and incur in combat only for self defense purposes.


http://youtu.be/h4eINHFfP9U

http://farc-epeace.org/peace-process/news/item/1408-armed-forces-attack-against-farc-ep-delegates-heading-to-havana-peace-talks.html

FARC knows that the only good fascist/imperialist dog is a dead one. I guess this was just a reminder. The US puppets want no peace with working class, only submission. These lying treacherous dogs simply confirm this fact.

FARC-EP women in the eighties: a decade of progress
Written by Victoria Sandino Palmera

Written by Victoria Sandino Palmera; Taken from: mujerfariana.org

Although the eighties are known in Latin America as ?The Lost Decade?, they were not necessarily so for Colombia, where the decade brought some welcome popular victories and -- despite the suffering brought by massacres and acts of political genocide -- this was the decade during which more women than at any time before or since joined the ranks of the FARC-EP.

?They had however become an exemplory benchmark and a source of pride to women and youngsters who discovered how these women had been liberated and now -- on an equal footing with the men -- fought for their rights?

By the late 1970?s many women, donning their olive green uniforms, rope or twine around their waists well armed and kitted, had come into the movement and could be seen marching with their guerilla comrades; backpacks brimming, beautiful and brave, such women were regarded by the public with respect and admiration, almost at times to the point of exotically; they had however become an exemplory benchmark and a source of pride to women and youngsters who discovered how these women had been liberated and now -- on an equal footing with the men -- fought for their rights. The admiration for them was such that many families named new born baby girls after the guerrilla fighters whose names they knew.



It is true to say that many women had joined the armed struggle since its inception, but it was during the 80?s that this became something of a phenomena. This involvement, in addition to representing a response to violence and poverty, was also because it meant a freedom to many and was a recognition of their political existence. Some of the women that had volunteered prior to the 80?s had assumed responsibilities within the movement and stood out because of their skilled expertise in communictions, popular organization, finance, combat intelligence, troop movement and nursing. Eliana, Amparo, Erika, Gladys Martinez and Tania are some of the women of this generation.

?There are many accounts of heroism and dedication, which especially call Gladys Martinez of the 5th Front to mind?

During the talks process in La Uribe, Meta -- and subsequent to the signing of accords and the truce with the government of Belisario Betancur in 1984 women -- such as those who had come through Communist Youth, the Communist Party, and other leftist movements who had greater degrees of academic and political preparation?assumed more responsibility within the guerilla movement. The images of our female comrades were known nationwide, as were their deeds and the manner in which they worked shoulder to shoulder with the men, their histories and combat experiences, the peaceful legal and political struggles that some had engaged in previously and their conscience and revolutionary committment which had inspired their volunteering for the FARC-EP.

This was because Colombia in the 1980?s was defined by a generation of leftist and progressive women and men who were firstly hounded by Turbay's State Security and later lost their lives or survived the political genocide committed with impunity against a fractured Patriotic Union, resulting in women across the country opting to engage in armed insurrection. Lucia, of the National Urban Network directorate, who co-signed the 84 cease fire agreement with Alejandra and the psychologist Julia from the directorate of the National Urban Network ?Finance? department stand out among the many women involved in the urban guerilla campaign.

?In this regard their personal skills set, past experiences, collective strength and potential for personal development became an important and integral part of the movement?

There are many accounts of heroism and dedication, which especially call Gladys Martinez of the 5th Front to mind. She was lifted by the enemy, raped by her captors and then forced to march alongside them. Having managed to escape and living for days on only roots and berries, she sought guerilla units and found safety in the company of her comrades. She had become a comandante of note who jointly oversaw troop movements and organization of the masses in an area comprising Uraba Antioqu?o, Chocoano and Cordoba province. She was assassinated by the paramilitaries Carlos and Fidel Casta?o in 1988 in the Las Tangas Hacienda, C?rdoba, together with the comrades of her command; Pimpinela, Aries and Aguilar.

The truce that held from 28th May 1984 to the 9th of December 1990 (with the exception of certain skirmishes with the army and paramilitaries in different parts of the country) constituted an important space for the guerrillas, not just because it relieved them from active service but because they could also direct their abilities towards various specialities and undertake more advanced military training. Many, as had previously happened in Colombia, who arrived in the nation?s jungle and mountains seeking refuge to save their lives from violence and persecution for their activism on behalf of the Patriotic Union, had experience in social and political positions of leadership or had been, among other things, popularly elected councillors, deputies or mayoresses. In this regard their personal skills set, past experiences, collective strength and potential for personal development became an important and integral part of the movement..



Dilemmas Faced by Guerilla Women

There were however repeated dilemmas that the women had to confront, issues that had been ever present since the outset. The truce brought a certain tranquility in the public order to the camps. Couples became established and as a result sons and daughters were born. Some were sent to be raised by family or friends with parents maintaing constant contact and communication. The care for and education of the boys and girls who remained in the camps became the colective responsibility of the organization. This became increasingly so when the truce was broken and the war began again, which had an impact on the social and family fabric of the guerilla movement.

?A dramatic and similar experience to that shared with thousands of other revolutionary fighting women in Chile and Central America?

The majority of infants had to be sent to relatives (aunts, grandmothers and grandfathers) or kept at a distance and many of the women volunteers would never again know anything about their sons or daughters. A dramatic and similar experience to that shared with thousands of other revolutionary fighting women in Chile and Central America. These comrades faced a difficult choice; to remain in the ranks as fighters who had taken the decision to fight for a transformed homeland or dedicate themselves to child rearing; many opted for the latter. This was always a very complex and painful decision making progress.

When the truce collapsed, most of the women fighters energetically confronted the changed circumstances in a spirit of dignity and sacrifice similar to that of the men involved in ambushes and in the trenches. They took up the gauntled thrown by the Cesar Gaviria government who had pledged to annihalate the FARC-EP ?in less than 6 months?. Many women not only engaged in armed resistence during this stage of the struggle but also in every phase that was to follow. Our brave sisters Sandra, Marllely, Shirley, Viviana, Yira, Carmenza, Rubiela, Yidis, Marcela, Marina, Olga, Lucia, Yancy, Mireya, Otilia, Maritza and so many other dear comrades are survivors from this era. Some from that time, such as Amparo 34, Danis and Shirley Cartagena, Gloria Cepeda, Elicenia, Mallery, Consuelo, Mercedes and Yurani died in combat; others, including Araceli are still detained as political prisoners and others still were released conditionally or relocated because they had been wounded in combat or had other health issues.

guerrilleras_80_c.jpg

We have also had to confront cases like that of Karina, who in her time was an outstanding comrade in combat, in troop management and in the organization of the masses -- but whose indiscipline unfortunately made her an easy target for the enemy, who used her young daughter to get to her and to shatter her morale. They had inserted an infiltrator who became her partner and convinced her to desert and to betray everything for which she had struggled. There is no regular or guerrilla army, or indeed any group anywhere on earth exempt from such situations. (The ?La Flaca Alejandra? documentary by our Chilean MIR comrade Carmen Castillo gives some insight into such complex experiences that every Latin American revolutionary generation has lived).

?The guerrilla women of the 80?s marked out an important route for all FARC-EP women of yesterday and today?

Even still, in the case of the FARC-EP, a significant number of combatants from the 80?s ? indeed the vast majority of women who joined during that decade ? have resisted every enemy onslaught and holds high rank in Front direction, Front command, unit leadership or within specialist sectors of high strategic value to the army. Today, some of us are in Havana, guerrilla women playing a transcedental role in the struggle for peace and justice for our beloved Colombian homeland.

In addition the innumerable tasks we undertake on behalf of our Delegation we are represented by experienced combatants at the Conversation Table and in both the Gender and Technical Sub-commissions. The guerrilla women of the 80?s marked out an important route for all FARC-EP women of yesterday and today. They are all an example of how women within the Colombian guerrilla forces have drawn with indelible strokes and written in rainbow tinted ink, the history of their armed resistence, the history of the new Colombia; a history from which the women who participated in the armed insurrection will never be erased.

http://farc-epeace.org/blogs/victoria-sandino/item/638-farc-ep-women-in-the-eighties-a-decade-of-progress.html

http://www.prensa-latina.cu/images/stories/Fotos/2016/agosto/12/farc-ep.jpg

Transitional areas continue visits to the FARC-EP in Colombia PDF Print E-mail

Transitional areas continue visits to the FARC-EP in ColombiaBogota, Aug 12 (PL) Equipment Government, FARC-EP and UN representatives today continue their travels by Colombian departments where work areas and temporary camps to accommodate the members of the guerrilla movement in the disarmament phase. ( PLRadio )

Such visits, designed to identify and examine the conditions of such sites, began on Tuesday and will last three days.

The delegations were in places of Guaviare and Meta -belonging the plains called Orientals in Nariño and Caqueta Cesar -noreste- -located in the south of the country, Norte de Santander -fronterizo with Venezuela Choco and Cauca -both on the Pacific coast and in Antioquia -occidente- said the Office of the High Commissioner for Peace.

as agreed in the Cuban capital, the surrender of weapons will run in 23 zones and eight smaller camps -of that there primeras- demobilized begin their preparation for return to civilian life.

the creation of these scenarios was one of the agreements between government spokesmen and the Forces Revolutionary armed Forces of Colombia-People's Army (FARC-EP), to ensure the end of the conflict between the two sides, which will also require the enforcement of the cease bilateral ceasefire.

both the silencing of the guns as disarmament will be verified by a tripartite mechanism composed of spokesmen of the Executive, the rebel group and a coordinated and funded by the United Nations (UN) mission.

Some visits concluded with meetings to listen and resolve concerns of communities around the operation of those places.

Long for more half a century, the civil war has left some 300,000 dead, almost seven million displaced and at least 45 thousand missing.

Since 2012 the government and the FARC-EP dialogue in Cuba with the aim of finding a solution, meetings which could be concluded at an early date judging by their progress.

http://www.prensa-latina.cu/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&idioma=1&id=5143181&Itemid=1

Google Translator

Alexandra Nariño, a Dutch FARC rebel speaks about Colombia's War and Peace

http://communismgr.blogspot.gr/2016/08/alexandra-narino-dutch-farc-rebel.html

FARC guerrilla fighter and delegate in the peace negotiations, Alexandra Nariño, speaks to teleSUR about her 14 years with the rebel army / Source: telesurtv.net.

Alexandra Nariño is not Colombian, yet the impending end of the South American country’s 50-year civil war between the government and left-wing rebel forces represents “enormous happiness” for her.

That’s because the Dutch national has been fighting within Colombia’s FARC guerilla army for 14 years. After living in the jungle in FARC camps for about a decade, for the last four years Nariño has played a key role in the peace process in Havana, Cuba, that aims to transition Colombia out of the longstanding internal conflict and toward a new era of peace.

But though Nariño, also known as Tanja Nijmeijer, is from the Netherlands, she says her reasons for deciding to take up arms as part of the left-wing rebel movement were the same as those that pushed her Colombian fellow combatants to join — a claim she admits may be hard for many to believe.

“I came to Colombia, I saw the injustice and I felt that something had to be done,” Nariño told teleSUR from Havana, the site of the peace talks. “The only difference might be that I didn’t really live the injustice … I saw the state violence, but I didn’t suffer it.”

Nariño joined the FARC in 2002 after being impacted by the level of inequality and state-sanctioned human rights abuses in Colombia during a year-long stint as an English teacher in 1998. “I think for me it was just enough to know that people (are) suffering to make the decision to join and show my solidarity with them,” she said.

At the time, the armed conflict was in full swing. The notorious United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, an illegal paramilitary militia also known as AUC, had launched in the previous year and established a cold-blooded reputation by brutally slaughtering at least 30 people in an attack known as the Mapiripan Massacre in July 1998. A U.S. State Department report on human rights in Colombia the same year documented ongoing problems of extrajudicial killings, forced disappearances, attacks on civilians by paramilitaries and some cases of “social cleansing” at the hands of police.

Then, in 2000, then-Presidents Bill Clinton and Andres Pastrana launched Plan Colombia, the multi-billion dollar counternarcotics and counterinsurgency military aid package widely condemned by human rights advocates to have been a disaster that spurred massacres, empowered death squads, and exacerbated and prolonged the civil war. Nariño joined the FARC just two years later, the same year far-right, allegedly paramilitary-linked former President Alvaro Uribe entered office.

https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Iu6Gc0Uem70/V7rkng0n2KI/AAAAAAAABc0/nW_oKLCaOqEN68U2UenDWPDdo9-ZEyHBACLcB/s640/Alexandra%2BNarino%2BFARC.jpg

Nearly a decade and a half later, Nariño remains committed to the fight that “has always been a political struggle,” saying that her “awareness that there’s still a lot to be done” has kept her in the FARC all these years. She’s also optimistic about the much-anticipated new phase dawning on the country through the peace process, which she sees as offering new spaces in the “struggle for a just society,” including the FARC’s participation in electoral politics.

“Many people talk about the transition of the FARC into a political movement,” she said. “Many people don’t know that we have always been a political movement. We were a military-political movement, and now we will be a political movement.”

The FARC, or Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, formed as a rebel army connected to the Colombian Communist Party in 1964 in the wake of a bloody ten-year conflict between Liberals and Conservatives that ravaged mostly rural areas and gave way to a crackdown on self-organized communist communities. The guerrilla uprising was founded on revolutionary Marxist and anti-imperialist demands for agrarian reform and defending the rights of rural peasants. After more than 50 years, these continue to be central issues on the FARC’s agenda and and have formed important cornerstones of the peace process that began in Havana in 2012. “War can become all consuming … but I don’t think that this means that you lose the sense of what you’re fighting for,” said Nariño in reference to how the movement has stayed connected to its roots after all these years.

She added that political education and consciousness-building is part of “daily life” in the FARC. One internal process has been developing the movement with respect to gender equality in response to the “machismo” that pervades mainstream Colombian society. Women make up nearly 40 percent of the FARC, and while progress has been made, the issue remains an ongoing “everyday” struggle. “In Colombian society you wouldn’t find a community or a group where men and women cook, wash their clothes, go to combat, carry heavy loads, etc.,” said Nariño “In the jungle, everything is on an equal basis. But, this doesn’t mean we don’t have to keep working on it.” A gender perspective has also been incorporated in the peace agreements with a special subcommission in the negotiations process.

The talks in Havana have achieved landmark partial deals on issues of transitional justice, rights of victims, agrarian reform, crop substitution for coca production, and other matters. Earlier this year, the two sides of the conflict signed a historic bilateral cease-fire agreement, a key step in bringing an end to the war that has claimed over 220,000 lives and uprooted some 6.3 million people, mostly Indigenous and Afro-Colombian.

“Sometimes I feel a little sad when think of all the people who were comrades of mine who died in the jungle, and now I think they could have made a huge contribution here in Havana and of course in the construction of a new country,” said Nariño. “That is difficult for me to accept … They were young people who could have contributed a lot.” But for Nariño, there’s a lot of reason to be optimistic. “I know how Colombian people have suffered the conflict, and I think it means an opportunity for everyone to start the construction of a new country, to start a new page in the book of history of Colombia,” she said.

Despite being on the much-heralded brink of peace, important challenges remain. Outstanding issues at the negotiation table include the future political participation of the FARC, the reincorporation of demobilized rebels into society, and other important end-of-conflict measures. Meanwhile, former President Uribe has been fearmongering with far-right rhetoric and pushing for a “No” vote in the plebiscite on the peace agreement, expected within months of signing the deal. “It doesn’t make any sense to vote against peace,” argued Nariño, saying that Colombia’s “extreme-right” has used a series of “false slogans” to obscure the many positive aspects of the peace agreements, from plans for land redistribution to substituting illicit coca production for other crops and specialized peace tribunals to try alleged war criminals.


“It has become clear that the people who are against the peace process are not the victims of the conflict … they are not the people who have really suffered,” she continued. “They are the people who take advantage of and profit from the conflict.”

The plebiscite on the peace agreement will need to secure a 13 percent threshold to pass. Even in the unlikely event that Colombians vote down the deal, a “No” vote would not mean that the government could reopen negotiations with the FARC on specific issues, the government’s lead negotiator Humberto de la Calle has said.

Even after the peace accords are finally signed, which could happen as early as in a matter of weeks, many challenges will of course remain to rebuild the society ravaged by over five decades of conflict.
“I think that the main challenge for Colombian society will be reconciliation,” said Nariño, pointing to what she described as two divergent Colombias that must be reunited to offer opportunities and provide for the basic needs of all, not just a privileged sector of society. “We will keep on working for reconciliation, social justice and peace in Colombia and we'll make sure that those two Colombias disappear and become one.”

But the road to this point has not been easy. Nariño says it’s a “pretty tough life” in the FARC and that she has “suffered the stigma” like other rebel fighters nationally and internationally. She argues that the media, especially in Colombia, has had a role in whipping up this contempt while also showing a “lack of teaching peace” in society. The Dutch rebel fighter faces terrorism charges in the U.S., while her home country of the Netherlands recently approved a law that allows the country to revoke the citizenship of citizens who join so-called terrorist organizations abroad. Both the United States and European Union list the FARC as a terrorist organization.

In Colombia, the FARC and other guerrilla groups have evidently faced harsh criticism over the years, such as accusations of alleged forced recruitment of child soldiers. The organization has denied the charges, maintaining that the forces accepted young victims while highlighting the conditions of war that often force people to make hard choices. Earlier this year, the FARC banned all recruits under 18 years old and agreed to send home all soldiers under 15.

“We know that in Colombia the situation for children is very tough, and that many times they seek refuge in our camps, sometimes even younger than 15,” said Nariño, singling out examples such as paramilitary violence, domestic violence, and lack of access to education and housing as situations of desperation that push young people into the guerrilla. “But we as the FARC also know of course that war is not a scenario for children to live in and we were more than willing to make this decision as a gesture towards the construction of peace.”

That construction of peace, though, is only in its infancy as Latin America’s longest-running civil war draws to a close. “We have said many times that peace is not only decided by weapons,” Nariño added. “It is a long term construction and it should involve social justice, opportunities, employment, healthcare, housing, dignified living conditions for everyone.” The country is home to the world’s second-largest population of internationally displaced people after Syria.

The FARC now has around 8,000 combatants, down from some 20,000 or more at its peak in the 1990’s. The country’s smaller rebel army, the National Liberation Army or ELN, founded at the same time as the FARC, currently has some 3,000 members and has not launched a formal peace process with the government. Colombia has fought the left-wing guerrillas and the so-called “war on drugs” with heavy militarization backed by the United States’ US$10 billion in military aid over 15 years of Plan Colombia. Presidents Barack Obama and Juan Manuel Santos announced a new Plan Colombia 2.0 earlier this year, called Paz Colombia, which is set to pour some US$450 million into Colombia for a total of up to US$4.5 billion over 10 years.

But as the government locks in military aid in the year Santos has heralded as the “year of peace” and the FARC prepares to disarm and start to participate in politics legally, what’s next for the FARC’s Dutch rebel fighter and top peace negotiator at this historic turning point for Colombia remains uncertain. “In a general way I can say that I will keep up the struggle for justice in Colombia and also in the world,” said Nariño. “What exactly I will do depends on what is needed.”

http://communismgr.blogspot.gr/2016/08/alexandra-narino-dutch-farc-rebel.html

“Many people don’t know that we have always been a political movement. We were a military-political movement, and now we will be a political movement.”

Man, they better keep that military arm. But this is defeat for FARC. This is surrender. They have fought well over the nearly thirty years, but no individual resistance movement, without international support and solidarity, can stand-up against the US power.
I spoke with a hard liberal last weekend and he said he knew that he US was "the" imperialist power and had no problem with it. He said that if there had to be a global hegemon, he wanted it to be the US. He holds that the world has to have a "top power" and he wanted it to be 'America". Every objection I raised he agreed with, but would shrug and say, "That's just the way it is. It's too bad that it has to be this way, but there it is."
I compared the current US policies with mid-nineteenth century NAZI policies. "Yeah, but the US is not as bad as the NAZIs. If you have to have a boss, it is better having a kind one rather than a brutal one." The US is brutal to those who oppose it. "So, don't oppose it."
I asked my host if he had anything stronger than beer; he said he did.

Man, they better keep that military arm. But this is defeat for FARC. This is surrender. They have fought well over the nearly thirty years, but no individual resistance movement, without international support and solidarity, can stand-up against the US power.
I spoke with a hard liberal last weekend and he said he knew that he US was "the" imperialist power and had no problem with it. He said that if there had to be a global hegemon, he wanted it to be the US. He holds that the world has to have a "top power" and he wanted it to be 'America". Every objection I raised he agreed with, but would shrug and say, "That's just the way it is. It's too bad that it has to be this way, but there it is."
I compared the current US policies with mid-nineteenth century NAZI policies. "Yeah, but the US is not as bad as the NAZIs. If you have to have a boss, it is better having a kind one rather than a brutal one." The US is brutal to those who oppose it. "So, don't oppose it."
I asked my host if he had anything stronger than beer; he said he did.

I'd say that was some really exceptional exceptionalism except it ain't and is a "bottom line" argument I've heard too many times. History lessons don't mean a thing cause then ain't now and they haven't seen it on TV.

Been dealing with the petty booj for the last week and sure glad that is past. Utterly impenetrable, proud of their conditioned ignorance. Only one woman, wife of a cousin and native Panamanian 'lit up' when I started talking about Panama and why I encountered some well placed anti-Americanism. We departed friends.

Colombia dawns without war
From zero hours on Monday lives Colombia peace for the first time in over half a century between the government and the FARC-EP

http://www.granma.cu/file/img/2014/05/medium/f0009576.jpg

Author: International Drafting | internacionales@granma.cu
August 28, 2016 23:08:47

BOGOTÁ.-From zero hours on Monday lives Colombia peace for the first time in over half a century between the government and the FARC-EP.

Last week the parties had announced to the world that they were ready for the bilateral and definitive cease fire, one of the fundamental steps for the signing of peace in Colombia.

From Havana, the leader of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People's Army (FARC-EP), Timoleon Jimenez, gave the order to silence the guns who have fought relentlessly since the middle of last century.

"I order all our controls, all of our units, each and every one of our fighters to cease fire and hostilities definitively against the Colombian state from 24 hours tonight," said this Sunday.

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, had ordered the same thing the Army.

Hours before the entry into force the bilateral and definitive cease-fire with the FARC-EP, the president added that his country are so used to war that had forgotten how to live in peace.

"We got so used to war that has forgotten us how you feel peace, how it feels to be a normal country," he said in Bogota during the opening of the XXXVIII Walk of Solidarity for Colombia, a program that for nearly four decades dedicated to charity, reports EFE.

As a gesture of commitment to dialogue, from July 20, 2015 the FARC-EP maintain a unilateral ceasefire, which the government responded with the suspension of aerial bombardment, though still fighting the guerrillas.

As agreed in Havana, the parties are ready to call D-Day, that would be the time of the signing of the peace talks between the Colombian president, Juan Manuel Santos and Timoleon Jimenez, leader of the FARC-EP.

That moment marks the beginning of the process of concentration and dereliction of arms of the rebels, to be performed within a maximum period of six months under the supervision and verification of the United Nations.

Meanwhile, on 2 October it is planned a plebiscite in which all Colombians will vote in favor or against the agreement reached between the parties during nearly four years of talks in the Cuban capital.

http://www.granma.cu/mundo/2016-08-28/colombia-amanece-sin-guerra-28-08-2016-23-08-47

Cuba has some prestige riding on the agreement, but even if the government are playing it straight the fascist paramilitaries almost surely will not.

Cuba has some prestige riding on the agreement, but even if the government are playing it straight the fascist paramilitaries almost surely will not.

Man, the FARC folks better sleep with their guns and loaded. This "feels" like the beginning of some bad, bad shit.

Man, the FARC folks better sleep with their guns and loaded. This "feels" like the beginning of some bad, bad shit.

They tried this before and 3000 FARC folks were murdered.

Perhaps they could move enmasse to Venezuela....not really feasible and I don't think most would abandon the country. But it would be fun to see if Kerry's face could get any longer.

o heavy defeat in Colombia 2 Comments
Political decisions on the agreements and the end of the conflict, will be the defeat of an idea that since the time of the conservative restoration, with Mariano Ospina and Laureano Gomez 40, imposed from above a war we thought life. The assassination of Jorge Eliecer Gaitan on April 9, 1948, instigated by the same speech today incites hatred and calls death, was used even to launch a war of extermination against the liberal people persecuted, expelled from their land and homes, betrayed and abandoned by the leaders of the liberal party, one day had enough and took up arms against the dignity and conservative power, to defend their lives, their property and their families. We follow with cuts and new actors, in a war that is now beginning to come to an end, and with it the historic and resounding defeat of the plebiscite and not Accords Havana.

No heavy defeat in Colombia
We are at a defining moment that will chart the direction of society, the State and institutions. This unique moment and whatever happens will forever change who we were, so we can and want to be as a society and state.

The historic armed uprising in Colombia, not an end per se, reaches his final days. They are not all yet but there is no turning back, stubbornly insisting it would be a suicide that nobody wants, except those interested in perpetuating the war against an entire people.

Three hard facts will defeat this criminal way of doing politics that lasted for many decades in Colombia. With them uribismo, the Democratic Centre and the extreme right, facing the end of their cycle of domination and influence in the political life of Colombia.

The Conference of the FARC-EP, between 13 and 19 September, highest decision making body of the guerrillas, most likely ratify the agreement and decide on its traffic rebel party or legal political movement army. It is an incontrovertible fact for unbelievers and skeptics who always tried to FARC unable to change and make the transition to political movement, given the conditions and guarantees for this step.

The signing of the General Agreement ending the conflict and building a stable and lasting peace will seal the end of the long cycle of confrontation between the FARC and the Colombian government. The world witness and Colombia whole, corroborated what the Democratic Center and the extreme right always opposed it were true.

The ceasefire and bilateral hostilities and definitive, that and both sides welcomed, is another concrete demonstration that if reconciliation between brothers and two forces that were enemies for more than five decades possible, fighting each other relentlessly, being caused large low, while grew an immense tragedy that affected millions of Colombians who were not part of the confrontation, today dignity recognized in the agreements as victims entitled to truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non - repetition.

The concentration of the fronts of the FARC-EP in the 22 zones veredales Transitory and 6 camps where will the surrender of all weapons to the United Nations, will be another significant event that will leave no arguments to those who want the return to war.

The plebiscite on October 2, will be the most important political decision that will take the people after more than 60 years since the last plebiscite was done in 1957. It will be the mechanism of popular participation that will give legitimacy to the agreements reached and finally the armed conflict.

All these unanswerable political events, will play in favor of Yes in a convincing way, leaving not nothing new to say in his campaign aside from the lies and myths that spread about the Agreements and the end of armed conflict.

The ethical imperative for the Yes to the plebiscite will be the majority popular manifestation that are preferable imperfect and incomplete, the continuation of a war that left an immense humanitarian tragedy, division, intolerance and hatred agreements.

The majority stake in the plebiscite and accompaniment and verification of society to agreements in its implementation and development, will guarantee that the agreement after so many deaths and so much effort was not in vain. So the conquest of peace can not be an exclusive affair Uribe or Santos, but a collective construction of Colombians, and our biggest challenge of the moment.

http://www.telesurtv.net/bloggers/Contundente-derrota-del-No-en-Colombia-20160830-0002.html

This from an academic based in Norway......

What I want to know if the fascist militias/CIA tools are also being disarmed. Not heard anything about that.

Colombian Communists Speak Out on Peace Agreement

Aug. 24, 2016


By W. T. Whitney Jr.

For a half century both the Colombian Communist Party (PCC) and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC-EP) have held up as their goal peace with social justice. And until the 1980s the two Marxist – oriented organizations did so together; many FARC-EP members, and especially leaders, belonged to the PCC.

They shared strategic understandings, particularly the “thesis of combination of all forms of mass struggle,” which the PCC introduced at its 10th Congress in 1964, the year the FARC-EP was formed. (1) The idea was that armed struggle, the province of the FARC-EP, would accompany regular political agitation for rights, for change. That thesis fell by the wayside when, following the PCC Congress in 1980, “the way of a political solution” steadily took precedence over armed struggle. And relations between the two groups cooled.

Now the armed struggle of the FARC-EP is finished, courtesy of the agreement the insurgency signed August 24 with the Colombian government. Does the PCC deserve applause because its approach prevailed? Marxist theorists of an earlier age cast armed struggle as the last-resort mode for defending the revolution. Is the FARC-EP showing weak resolve as it gives up on armed struggle?

Commentary from Marxist – oriented participants in these struggles may add to our understanding of the historic agreement and of developments on the way. Their opinions, which may shed light on our questions, appear below in the participants’ own words, which surely carry an authenticity lacking in any summary devised by a distant observer.

Cause for Celebration

On August 25, the PCC’s Executive Committee took notice. Its communication reads in part: “The conclusion of agreements reached at the negotiating table in Havana is the most transcendental happening in the life of the country. Joy is legitimate; it’s the triumph of the way of a political solution, of constructive dialogue, and of the view that the signing definitively nails down the end of military confrontation between the government and the FARC-EP.

“ … The Colombian Communist Party sends congratulations for this achievement gained after four years of arduous and complicated talks culminating in a happy ending. The beginning of the most difficult part comes now, specifically the coming together of the people and a commitment by all to a Colombian society mobilized to monitor implementation of what was agreed to and carefully to assure that anticipated outcomes are realized.

“The first and most important task will be carrying out the plebiscite of October 2 and mobilizing patriotic citizens for backing the agreements that were achieved with a “Yes” vote. They open up horizons of democratic changes, of social reforms, and provide a stimulus to a future people’s intervention toward deciding a new direction for the country, and doing so through a primary constituent [assembly].” (2)

Class conflict and the balance of forces.

Carlos Lozano, director of the Communist Party’s Voz newspaper, wrote an article August 12 entitled “FARC: ‘Without an amnesty, there’s no signing of a final agreement.’” Excerpts appearing below illustrate Lozano’s key ideas on the matter: one, that the insurgency and government reached agreement as equal partners and, two, class conflict will inform struggles in the post-agreement period. The full Spanish - language version of Lozano’s article is accessible athttp://prensarural.org/spip/spip.php?article1996. He writes that:

“In the press conference after the signing of the protocols on August 5, Commander Carlos Antonio Lozada in straight-forward fashion stated that, ‘Without amnesty there’s no final agreement, and there’s no transfer of the guerrillas to the zones [where arms will be given up.’ The cock doesn’t crow any clearer, says the popular refrain. It’s obvious that agreements without amnesty and without a roadmap make no sense. There wouldn’t be any guide for their implementation. The national government must fulfill every commitment made at the table in Havana, as dictated by the bilateral nature of the agreements. There must be no delays or vacillations and certainly no concessions to the enemies of peace that President Santos and government spokespersons often want to slip in.

“It doesn’t generate confidence, for example, to minimize social investments in the national budget for 2017. They are indispensable for carrying out what was agreed upon in regard to agrarian development and other social gains. The same is true with adoption of the Army’s Damascus Doctrine, a plan for war in the “post-conflict” era. Continued non-fulfillment of the agreements with the Agrarian Summit (3) and with labor organizations has a similar effect … It seems that following the peace agreement, in the new democratic conditions, contradictions between capital and labor will accentuate and will stimulate popular mobilizations. It’s the dynamic of class struggle in social and popular confrontation with neo—liberalism and exploitation by capital.

“… The road of a negotiated political solution – this is proven - is the only possible one in the face of the failed military way. The government is mistaken when it thinks that the guerrillas are sitting at the negotiating table under conditions of defeat. The discussion takes place among equals; it’s conditioned by a rigid concept of bi-laterality.”

Jaime Caycedo serves as the Colombian Communist Party’s secretary general. His observations in response to preliminary agreements reached by the peace negotiators on June 23 and to the Constitutional Court’s authorization of a plebiscite for endorsing the final agreement appeared August 2 in the party’s Voz newspaper and its web site. After briefly noting these milestones, he presented an analysis which, translated, appears in full below. It’s accessible in Spanish at:https://www.semanariovoz.com/2016/08/25/razones-del-si-en-el-plebiscito-desde-la-lucha-popular/ According to Caycedo:

“Each point agreed upon implies a complex chain of measures taken to implement it, both politically and in the courts. And most of the time, institutions dominated by counter-insurgent power will be doing the implementing.

“As part of the campaign “Yes, Peace is Yours” (La Paz Sí es Contigo), we are defending a vision differing from the “Yes” campaign promoted by the government and so-called National Unity. The main challenge of the plebiscite is that for the first time the people will be intervening with their vote on the decision to move from war to peace. In the crude debate among factions within the bourgeoisie, agreement on a Yes vote involves much more than supporting the President so he might give a clue as to some commitments. Basically, it’s a manifestation both of the defeat of the military solution for counterinsurgency and of consolidation of the way of dialogue, of the political solution, and of agreements for overcoming the social and political armed confrontation, so traumatic and prolonged. Despite limitations, it’s a civilizing advance for the country. The challenge for the left and for advanced forces is to agitate for Yes while making demands for the people along with raising the flags of an authentic democratic opening and pressing social reforms.

“The government discounts the seriously negative effects of mistreating citizens’ demands and protests against unpopular measures. They include: the ZIDRES law (4), privatization of Isagén, (5) removal of public entities like ETB and GTI away from majority ownership by Bogota’s city government 6), the police code, reinforcement of ESMAD and its heinous criminal role (7), and the announced tax and pension reforms which will aggravate the situation of the middle class. Under that logic of class dynamics, the government and the Capital District (Bogota) are linked. However, one must not underestimate their estrangement, thanks to which dialogue may open up.

“The slogan of No at the head of Uribe’s ultra-right formations is in fact a utopian proposal for ‘renegotiating the accords’ in order to send ex-combatants to prison and prohibit their participation in political life. What they could not achieve on the battlefield they want to accomplish now through electoral play-acting aimed at blocking the course of the process. The uncertainty they provoke may lead to abstention from the polls. Their opposition to “pedagogy for peace” in favor of the Yes vote is grotesque, sneaky, and irrational.

“But some sectors campaigning on the left are offering a radically-mistaken short term analysis; they end up providing a favor to people specialized in torpedoing the political solution and dialogue. Their campaign is distracting and deceitful. The moderate and extreme right understands what is happening but marks their red lines on different points. Distracted forces on the left don’t understand the sense of the historical moment, nor do they calibrate the possibility that they may close the accords off from future use in struggles by the people.”

The role of armed struggle: revolution or reform

The FARC-EP, having long proclaimed Marxism as its north star, is now after 52 years giving up on armed struggle as its route to revolutionary change. In a recent article, quite long, Gabriel Angel, a FARC combatant and writer on political themes, deals with the accusation, real or imagined, that the insurgency has given up also on revolution and will be content with agitating for reforms within the context of regular politics. Angel’s article, dated July 5, 2016, appears in Spanish on one FARC-EP web site and in English on another. Here we present excerpts of his analysis, titled “Pathways for revolution and socialism are still being explored.” Parts of the English translation have been re-done for clarity.

Angel evokes a hypothetical criticism from the “radical left.” He envisions a charge from that quarter alleging that the FARC-EP, “champions of armed insurgency and violent revolution, have now become reformists, traitors and simple social democrats.” He continues:

“According to the accusers, the world is divided into two clearly distinguishable camps, imperialism and its lackeys on the one hand, and on the other, peoples in struggle to bring about the revolution and socialism. If these last haven’t been able to triumph, it’s basically because they’ve not applied the correct line drawn by Marxism-Leninism.

“… The line is clear, the revolution is a violent clash promoted by a peasant-worker vanguard that takes away power from the capitalist class through armed insurrection, which in turn results from a maturing of objective and subjective conditions. … The latter are the heritage of the most loyal followers of Marxism and are revealed in the works of Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels and Vladimir Lenin. They yield a set of immutable principles that should be applied without any variation. Capitalism is a decadent system that is about to collapse and therefore its fall depends solely on the audacity and coherence of the vanguard party. … [That’s why] the FARC-EP must send the Peace Talks and the signed agreements to hell, and instead call for the general uprising of the population.

“… With all the respect that these critics may deserve, we have to say that they are deeply mistaken. Revolution, like any other human activity linked to a dispute over state power, is first and foremost a political situation. And politics consists of gaining the support of others towards a political purpose. A victorious politician is the one who has an overwhelming number of followers.

“Therefore, a revolution will only be victorious when the great masses don’t just figure in the mind of spinners of dreams but appear in the reality of struggle. … As long as the evil bourgeoisie can rely on the acquiescence of majorities who, for whatever reason, prefer to take refuge in the shade rather than fight, then no matter how loud rebels shout or how noisy their guns are, it will be impossible to gain victory.

“Moreover, only a fanatic could deny that they rely on an enormous military and repressive apparatus, hold the reins of formal education, and are owners of the mass media dedicated to shaping people's opinions. And they control scientific and technological knowledge, and by virtue of all this, they can impose a cultural hegemony that traps and shapes awareness.

“We think we’ve moved beyond old debates on Marxist dogma. For all of us, Marxism is clearly a valuable source of economic and social knowledge. We regard its invaluable dialectic heritage as a guide rather than a series of commandments. Abraham Lincoln liked to repeat that a compass shows us where north is and the direction we want to take, but it doesn't show us the chasms, deserts, or the mud of the road.

“… In politics, it never will be enough to think that we alone are right and, more to the point, rely on that idea to drive us forward. Massive support from others will always be needed and that doesn’t happen through spontaneous generation, and not easily under the unequal conditions affecting the people’s movement as it confronts ruling - class power. To gain massive support requires conditions that allow us to reach out to people, talk with them, create class consciousness, organize and mobilize.

“…We still continue to live in a capitalist world as was the case in 1917, but it is wrong to consider that the situations of a century later must be examined with the same criteria that Lenin applied to his time and place. The system has developed much more, today's world is more complex, the ruling classes have acquired their own counter-revolutionary experiences and even the proletariat is qualitatively different.

“… We live in the historical period that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union and socialism in Eastern Europe, which opened the door to the globalization of capital and its neoliberal policies. We live in a moment of absolute arrogance of imperialism. Its capacity for plunder and its amply-demonstrated ability to subjugate people cannot be ignored. We are obliged to recognize the disorderly retreat of the revolutionary movement we are part of, but such an interpretation, we add, ought not to be understood as a recognition that it’s defeated … Fortunately, all over the world there still are people and organizations who haven’t abandon hope and are committed to upholding the validity of revolutionary causes and socialism

“… We regard ourselves as part of this wave that needs to be strengthened on order to advance. Coinciding with the revolutionary chaos that followed the fall of the Soviet Union, the Eighth National Conference of the FARC-EP launched its proposal for national reconciliation and reconstruction, which presented a more elaborate version of our old approach to find a political solution to the conflict, within the framework of democratic and anti-neoliberal proposals … We, revolutionaries, had to survive and it was essential to find a discourse that would find a response from the masses.

“People … in the capitalist countries experienced … the end of social welfare model, the closure of one factory after another and their transfer to the Far East, the tide of layoffs, privatization of basic services formerly owned by the state, precarious working conditions, bankruptcies due to liberalization and foreign competition, social decline, and overwhelming insecurity.

“These dire consequences of the neoliberal model played out in Colombia, where agents of the underground drug economy quickly seized the State, and initiated, in partnership with major sectors of the traditional parties, a violent onslaught against those who opposed their plans. The State itself became their ally in fighting the insurgency, providing legal and social status to paramilitarism.[We see] multinational financial investment in infrastructure, mega-mining, and agriculture for export … Millions of peasants were stripped from their land.

“A revolutionary organization as experienced and responsible as the FARC-EP understood what the moment required: debate over the validity of the revolution and socialism gave way to proposals dealing with this tragic reality. Responding to the deepest longings of the people, we arrived at an interpretation calling for the people to be prepared for struggle for the most profound transformations.

“ … But at a time when all voices of the establishment and significant leftist groups were trying to convince us of the need to demobilize, the FARC-EP took on intense military confrontation; we fought without hesitation against the state and its paramilitaries. We shed our blood and many valuable combatants gave their lives.

“….Indeed, it has been our armed resistance that gained for us the space of the peace process in Havana. It joined the outcry of millions of Colombians for peace and for the end of neoliberal policies threatening the very existence of the human species. In Havana we waged a political battle of historic dimensions to assert our idea of ​​peace with social justice and democracy. The agreements signed so far show that.

“Since the beginning of the government of Belisario Betancur (mid 1980s), the FARC-EP has worked tirelessly to achieve a political solution to the internal armed conflict in order to democratize national life, defeat state terrorism, and direct our country towards a destination other than one imposed by savage capitalism. The proof of our make-up as consistent revolutionaries lies in our 34 years of intense military and political confrontation.

“To achieve a politicalsolution requires an ample dose of political realism, specifically of Marxism applied to Colombian conditions today….The FARC-EP will transform into a legal political movement, preserving our cohesion and historical unity with the purpose of broadly working with the masses of exploited people in Colombia, for the fulfilment and extension of all that was agreed to in the negotiations. … And, we have not abandoned, nor will we abandon, our ideological and political convictions for revolution and socialism.

“We think it’s impossible, what with the objective correlation of forces, to continue our armed struggle within new conditions of legality and guarantees [created through the peace process] … The giving-up of arms represents the culmination of everything achieved through their use and through the strength of the masses.

“ … Today's revolutionaries are still exploring pathways for revolution and socialism. History does not stop; class struggle beats within stronger than ever. They say David really did defeat Goliath with a simple slingshot. We remember this story merely as a religious myth but do suggest they each had their own mass support. We remember too that it takes the right kind of mass movement to achieve victory.

Translations by the author

Notes:

“Gilberto Viera – Pensamiento, Obra, y Vida,” Ediciones Izquierda Viva, Bogotá, 2005, p.64
A primary constituent assembly aspires to establish a new state and new political system; it’s different from a derived constituent assembly which reforms an existing constitution.
The Agrarian Summit, formed in the wake of an agrarian and indigenous strike in 2013, convened first in March 2014, and since has advocated for rural populations.
ZIDRES is the acronym for Zones of Interest for Rural, Economic and Social Development for which legislation was introduced in 2015 aimed at economic and social development of remote, little-used land, but which, according to critics, interferes with small farmers’ access to land and thus with the agreement on agrarian rights fashioned by the peace negotiators.
In January, 2016, the Colombian state sold its majority share in the Isagén energy corporation to a Canadian company
ETB is Bogota’s publically - owned telecommunications company which the mayor wants to privatize. GTI signifies Grupo Técnico Interinstitucional.
ESMAD is the acronym in Spanish for Mobile Anti-Disturbances Squadron, which functions as Colombia’s national police riot control unit.

http://mltoday.com/article/2518-colombian-communists-speak-out-on-peace-agreement/91

Output starts camps under FARC-EP

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In order to protect children, this process will not have media coverage and dissemination of images is allowed. | Photo: File

Published September 10, 2016 (45 minutes ago)

All children will be received by the International Committee of the Red Cross and subsequently be delivered to UNICEF.

The protocol for the departure of minors from the ranks of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia - People 's Army (FARC-EP) starts this Saturday. The process will take place in several stages and fronts and also will be accompanied by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and UNICEF.

High Peace Commissioner Sergio Jaramillo, said the first out of the camps are under 15 years and for reasons of basic child protection, the process will not have images or media coverage.

The ICRC receive and make a first assessment of minors, later a relocation team will deliver to Unicef ​​, which will operate in temporary shelters with the support of the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

The official explained that the International Committee of the Red Cross will be informing the country whenever an output of these occur.

"The commitment of the FARC is give us a list of all its members and minors have to leave. This process has been accompanied by the Ombudsman that was part of the technical committee that drafted the protocol and will be fulfilling a role of close observation of the whole process even the decisions of the family advocate " Jaramillo said.

As indicated by the leader of the FARC-EP, Timoleon Jimenez, alias Timoshenko in the insurgent group currently militate about 21 children. Meanwhile, the Colombian Family Welfare Institute (ICBF) specifies that in the last 17 years have detached from the guerrillas about three thousand 609 children.

http://www.telesurtv.net/export/sites/telesur/img/multimedia/2016/06/30/info-salida_menores.jpg_1264996259.jpg

In context
On May 15, the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia - People's Army (FARC-EP) reached an agreement to facilitate the reintegration of children into civilian life.
On August 24, the parties signed a peace treaty can be definitely legalized on 26 September in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia and will be endorsed in a referendum on 2 October.

http://www.telesurtv.net/news/Inicia-salida-de-menores-de-los-campamentos-de-las-FARC-EP-20160910-0010.html

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Colombian Campesino Leader’s Murder by Paramilitaries Casts Shadow Over Peace Prospects
Posted by UNITED WORLD REVOLUTIONARY FRONT IN DEFENSE OF LIFE AND HUMANITY on SEPTEMBER 8, 2016
Cecilia Coicue was killed in an area marked as one of the 23 zones where FARC rebels will go to demobilize as part of the peace accords.
In a somber sign for the budding era of peace in Colombia after over half a century of civil war, a campesino leader and peace activist has been murdered in the northeastern department of Cauca, one of the areas hardest hit by decades of internal conflict between government forces and FARC.
Cecilia Coicue, a 62-year-old rural leader and member of the Marcha Patriotica movement, was found dead Wednesday on her plot of land in the community of La Cominera, in Cauca’s municipality of Corinto, with a “wound caused by a sharp weapon,” the Ombudsman’s Office of Colombia announced in a statement Thursday.
Coicue’s farm is located in an area designated as a so-called “concentration zones” where troops from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, will go as part of the process of disarming, verifying the cease-fire, and transitioning former rebels back into Colombian society in the coming months.
Rural and Indigenous organizations have expressed grief and alarm over the Coicue’s killing, along with murders of six other murders in Cauca in recent weeks, according to Colombia’s El Tiempo. The assassination also comes as a troubling sign for the country’s much-heralded new era of peace just over a week after the start of a definitive bilateral cease-fire between the two sides of the country’s five-decade armed conflict.
The leftist Marcha Patriotica, one of Colombia’s largest social movements, dubbed it a “cowardly attack on peace.”
In a statement, the FARC condemned the murder as a “terrible sign” in the early stages of building peace in the wake of the unveiling of the final accords in Havana, Cuba, on Aug. 24 and linked Coicue’s case to a broader systemic problem of violence against human rights defenders and political activists.
A Stable and Lasting Peace will not materialize if the targeted killing of civic and popular leaders persists
The Secretariat of the FARC-EP rejects the murder of Cecilia Coicué; a social leader in the municipality of Corinto – Cauca, militant of Marcha Patriótica and owner of the grounds where the installation of a Transitory Point of Normalization is planned to take place at the village of La Cominera within the context of the Normalization Process agreed in the Havana Peace Talks.
Her assassination, which occurred on September 6 at a time when Cecilia was located within her property, is a bad sign of trustworthiness in the development of peace-building in the territories. These events occur as we move towards the implementation of all mechanisms of the Bilateral Ceasefire and normalization of the territories.
This is not an isolated event, but rather part of long series of killings and threats against social leaders in the southwestern region of Colombia, which constitutes a serious humanitarian crisis that should raise concerns within the National Government, the Colombian people and the international community.
These events demonstrate that it is urgent to immediately implement in the territories the measures agreed in the Security Guarantees point of the Final agreement.
From Havana, we send our compatriot condolences to the family of Cecilia Coicué as well as to her peers and the entire community of La Cominera. We request the immediate clarification of her assassination and expect concrete actions that would allow for all of us to say that these types of situations will not happen anymore.
National Secretariat of the High Command of the FARC-EP
FARC is set to disarm and transition into a legal political party through the peace accords.
Meanwhile, Colombian General Alberto Jose Mejia responded to Coicue’s death by calling it a “situation of utmost concern,” in an interview with the local station Blu Radio. Minister of the Interior Juan Fernando Cristo has called for a thorough investigation into the case.
In July, the Ministry of the Interior announced that at least 133 members of Marcha Patriotica had been assassinated since it was founded in 2012 as a broad political movement for peace that now brings together some 2,000 social organizations. The movements has called on the government to address the problem of right-wing paramilitary groups, which it holds responsible for targeting is leader with violence.
The murder comes just weeks ahead of the plebiscite that will ask Colombian voters whether or not they support the peace deal reached in Havana between the government and the FARC, aimed at giving democratic legitimacy to the accords. Ahead of the vote, right-wing factions, led most prominently by former Presidents Alvaro Uribe and Andres Pastrana, have called for a “No” vote on the ballot.
Marcha Patriotica slammed such positions on its Twitter account Thursday, accusing “enemies of peace” of attacking social activists while fearmongering with rhetoric that claims the peace deal will offer impunity to former rebel fighters.
The movement also demanded “guarantees to exercise political rights without costing lives.”
Colombia’s more than five decades civil war has uprooted more than 6.3 million people and left more than 220,000 people dead. Most of the abuses have allegedly been committed by right-wing paramilitary militias.

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2016/09/08/colombian-campesino-leaders-murder-by-paramilitaries-casts-shadow-over-peace-prospects/

A farewell to arms
Thank parties Cuba's contribution as a guarantor of this process

http://www.granma.cu/file/img/2016/09/medium/f0068741.jpg

Author: Yaima Puig Meneses | internet@granma.cu
September 27, 2016 3:09:40
SIGNING OF PEACE IN COLOMBIA
Photo: Revolution Studios
CARTAGENA, Colombia.- "The bet today is for peace", agreed the Cuban press highlighted many Colombians during these days of emotion that streets and towns. And this has become one of the most momentous moments experienced by our region in recent years.

In a sign of peace for Colombia became the liturgy began shortly after noon Monday in San Pedro Claver church, located in the historic center of Cartagena. "Welcome to this prayer that we raise, trusting God for Colombia," said Bishop Jorge Enrique Jimenez Carvajal, Archbishop of Cartagena.

There also was Army General Raul Castro Ruz, President of the Councils of State and Ministers, to accompany and share, along with other leaders, representatives of international organizations, foreign ministers and guests, the Colombian people in this moment of love and hope .

Officiated by Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Secretary of State of the Vatican, the religious ceremony almost an hour was erected in a prayer for Colombia, for the harmony of the Colombian people, for the whole country, with the aim of uniting the different religions in a prayer for reconciliation and unity of the country.

Cardinal Parolin brought to Colombia supportive words of the Holy Father, who has closely followed the efforts of recent years in favor of peace. "Light the way and decisions that Colombians should take," he asked in his prayer.

Meanwhile, President Juan Manuel Santos asked God for wisdom to make Colombia "one family, in which no one feels excluded or single."

And as a sign of peace and reconciliation, then they greeted those present, regardless of creed or nationality, to give so concluded the emotional ceremony.

Late in the afternoon, they made their entrance on the Esplanade de San Francisco, located in the Convention Center of this city, the leaders present here, all taken their places holding hands of children, whose future has signed this agreement .

Along with them came the Cuban president to take his place as president of the ceremony, which marks the beginning of a new process that requires the contribution and the will of all Colombians.

More than 2500 guests wave their hands or white scarves, the square is all light not only the colors in it emerge, but also the faces of excitement and happiness that fill ... because seek a future without violence has been the purpose cherished for so many years.

The Final Agreement rests on the table, beside the 'balígrafo "that will be signed, a pen made rifle shells, symbol of transition from bullets to education, the future.

First, on behalf of the Revolutionary Armed People's Army Colombia (FARC-EP) Forces, it was the rubric of Rodrigo Londoño, alias Commander Timoleon Jimenez or Timoshenko. In the press center, then they heard the first bravos of a long list of expressions of support that accompanied all day.

Also spoke President Juan Manuel Santos, who in a simple and nice gesture offered Londoño the dove-shaped brooch that was in his shirt, symbol of peace that have so long yearned.

The firm handshake sealed the deal; an agreement already written, but which is now up to life in this country.

We believe that, with the union of all Colombians, peace can be durable, said Ban Ki-moon, Secretary General of the United Nations, while assured all necessary support in the long road that still lies ahead .

The bulwark that have become Cuba and Norway as guarantors of this process later thanked; Venezuela and Chile also chaperone countries. "Thanks to these agreements can look to the future with optimism," said the Colombian.

"As kind and blessed people who never gave up the hope to live in peace" were dedicated the first words of the Commander in Chief of the FARC.

Touch the Colombian people now become the main guarantor of all agreed he said. Put an end to the long struggle of continued fighting was a slope with the children of this country and now begins to be paid off debt.

In his words he lacked either the "gratitude to Cuba, Commander in Chief Fidel Castro Ruz, the Army General Raul Castro and the Cuban people in general"; also, the Kingdom of Norway and its people.

Special recognition Hugo Chavez and President Nicolas Maduro, who continued his work, like Chile, for the role played.

"On behalf of the FARC-EP sincerely offer forgiveness to the victims of the conflict for all the pain that we have caused in this war" was the culmination of his words.

Also victims, "who have been the center and the raison d'etre of the solution of this conflict" was the first greeting of the Colombian President. He also thanked the leaders who came to this city to join them.

A city that from now on will be remembered not only for its natural and architectural beauty, but also "as the city where the most important agreement in Colombia, the city of peace was signed."

"I prefer an imperfect agreement that will save lives, to a perfect war to continue plunging in pain our families", so, as of today, there is a war less in the world.

In the square, people laughing, clapping, crying, hugging each other, in the middle of a wonderful sunset gently closed the afternoon. Poignant moments undoubtedly experienced this September in Cartagena, with which open once and for all doors to peace, the guns are silenced and the war ends.

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Photo: Revolution Studios

As part of its activities in Cartagena de Indias, Army General Raul Castro Ruz, President of the Councils of State and Ministers he exchanged views with several Heads of State or Government and heads of delegations in Cartagena to share so important moment of peace with the Colombian people. Among them, Borge Brende spoke with Chancellor of the Kingdom of Norway, the guarantor in the talks in Havana country.

http://www.granma.cu/colombia-camino-a-la-paz/2016-09-27/un-adios-a-las-armas-27-09-2016-03-09-40

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Colombia Votes "No" on Peace Accord, Country's Future Uncertain
Published 2 October 2016 (2 hours 12 minutes ago)

The "No" vote won, meaning the peace accord was not ratified by the Colombian population.
The Colombian plebiscite on whether to move forward with the peace accord reached between the government of President Juan Manuel Santos and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia has been rejected by voters.

With 99 percent of the vote in, the "No" won by a narrow margin, with 50.23 percent to 49.76 percent for the "Yes" vote.

The "No" has 6,426,615 votes to 6,365,838 votes for the "Yes."

There was a 63 percent voter abstention, however, which amounted to 22 million of the 35 million eligible voters.

The surprising results—which went against all exit polls that had the "Yes" vote winning easily—are showing that the areas most affected by the conflict have overwhelmingly voted "Yes" for peace. For example in the heavily affected area of Choco, with 95 percent of the vote counted, 79 percent voted "Yes." The Caribbean provinces have also voted "Yes."

In the capital of Bogota, the "Yes" vote won by 56 percent to 44 percent for the "No" vote.

The plebiscite was non-binding and now the Colombian congress can still elect to pass the laws necessary to comply with the accords, although the amnesty law was built into the plebiscite and basically makes the agreement null.

Now the questions arise as to why would the Colombian people vote against peace.

The FARC-EP had consistently called for a Constituent Assembly instead of a plebiscite, arguing that an assembly would be much more representative and would guarantee the participation of the most marginalized and affected peoples in Colombia and would go beyond a simple yes or no vote.

The "No" vote was led by former president Alvaro Uribe and big landowners who have run the country with impunity for decades. The fear-mongering campaign launched by these forces, with the support of right-wing media, proved to much for the forces for peace.

Colombians went to the polls to vote on the approval or rejection of the peace agreement reached between the government of Santos and the FARC-EP guerrillas after nearly 4 years of negotiations.

The question posed to the population was: “Do you support the final accord for the end of the conflict and the construction of stable and lasting peace?”

The final text of the peace deal was signed on Sept. 26 by Santos and the FARC-EP leader Timoleon Jimenez, with numerous regional leaders and heads of state in attendance. The historic act is now clouded by the outcome of the plebiscite.

http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Colombia-Votes-No-on-Peace-Accord-Countrys-Future-Uncertain-20161002-0007.html

Did Human Rights Watch Sabotage Colombia’s Peace Agreement?
Like the country’s far right, HRW wanted to send human-rights violators to prison more than it wanted to end the war.
By Greg GrandinTwitterTODAY 1:46 PM

Referendum in Colombia

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Supporters of the peace accord between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, ( FARC) watch pensively as the results of the referendum on whether to support the deal appear on a giant screen, Bogotá, Colombia, October 2, 2016. (AP Photo / Ariana Cubillos)

On Sunday, Colombian voters rejected the peace agreement that the government, led by President Juan Manuel Santos, worked out with the FARC guerrillas by the slenderest margin possible: 50.21 percent to 49.78, a difference of 53,894 votes. The turnout was 37 percent, out of 34 million eligible voters.

It’s a heartbreaking disaster for the long, intricate peace process, which sought to put an end to Colombia’s more than five-decade-long civil war. That war has claimed hundreds and hundreds of thousands of lives and has displaced millions upon millions of people. The peace deal, which was worked out during years of negotiations, mostly in Havana, was more aspirational than binding, offering hope that one of the world’s longest-running conflicts would come to an end. Now, that deal is in “tatters.” But keep in mind that “no” won with a sliver of a voting majority (less than 1 percent) of a minority (of eligible voters), with turnout low due to, in many precincts, extreme tropical rain, mostly in coastal departments where “yes” won handily.

That bad-weather luck almost wants you to invoke the apocalyptic conclusion to Colombia’s most famous novel, Gabriel García Márquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude, where an unending hurricane washes all away. But the peace might not be lost. Lisa Haugaard, of the indispensable Latin American Working Group, told me, “The Colombian government, fully engaged in finding a negotiated solution, did not do the outreach, socializing, and explaining of the accords that was necessary. The ‘no’ campaign effectively organized around its negative message. Fortunately, after it was clear the ‘no’ vote narrowly won, both President Santos and FARC leader Rodrigo Londoño pledged that the cease-fire will hold and that they remain committed to peace.”

According to The New York Times, the government and FARC have already announced that they would send diplomats to Havana to begin discussing how to salvage the peace. The FARC responded to the vote by announcing that they remained committed to peace; indeed, the UN has already started disarming the guerrillas. Santos stated that the cease-fire will hold, and the historian Robert Karl, who just wrote a terrific “centuries long history behind Colombia’s peace agreement with the FARC” in The Washington Post, tells me that Santos, as president, has “a good deal of discretionary power” over the military, so let’s hope Santos can keep the security forces on a leash. What Washington, who has spent billions on this war (for the lethal effects of Plan Colombia, see these very useful charts by the Latin American Working Group), will do is unclear. As of early morning Monday, the State Department hasn’t commented.

“No” won because the right wing, led by former President Álvaro Uribe, was able to turn a vote that was supposed to be on peace into a vote on the FARC. The geographic breakdown of the referendum indicates that “no” won in areas where Uribe and his political party have their support. Take a look especially at the department of Antioquia, where Uribe got his political start as a champion of paramilitary death squads. Sixty-two percent of Antioquia’s voters cast “no.” In the department’s capital, Medellín, a city that has been sold in the United States as a neoliberal success story—Modern! Urbane! Fun! Come visit!—63 percent of voters said “no” (for Medellín’s neoliberal “makeover,” see this essay by Forrest Hylton).

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Uribe served as president from 2002 to 2010. He is best thought of as a Colombian Andrew Jackson, riding to the top office of his country on the wings of mass murder, rural ressentiment, and financial speculation. As an ex-president, he has been toxic, doing everything he could to keep the war going.

The Colombian elite, especially the retrograde sector Uribe represents, has much to lose with peace: The end of fighting would create a space in which the country’s many social conflicts—having to do with land, labor, and resource extraction—could be dealt with on their own terms, rather than distorted through counterinsurgent politics. And peace would be costly for some sectors, especially for all those Colombians in the “security” business who for years have fed off the Plan Colombia trough.

Polls show that a majority of Colombians favor peace. But Uribe and his allies in the media and congress lied, obfuscated, and scared. They managed to convince a small minority (the 54,000-vote victory margin for “no” is about a quarter of the number of civilians killed or disappeared by the state since the start of the civil war) that the agreement was a giveaway to the FARC and that Santos was “delivering the country to terrorism.” The Times identifies Uribe and the “far right” as the “biggest winner.” The former president “had argued that the agreement was too lenient on the rebels, who he said should be prosecuted as murderers and drug traffickers. ‘Peace is an illusion, the Havana agreement deceptive,’ Mr. Uribe wrote on Twitter on Sunday after casting his ‘no’ vote.” Thus Uribe has forced himself on the bargaining table, with Santos saying, as paraphrased by the Times, that he would be “reaching out to opposition leaders in the Colombian Congress like former President Álvaro Uribe,” with the Times adding that “experts predicted a potentially tortured process in which Mr. Uribe and others would seek harsher punishments for FARC members, especially those who had participated in the drug trade.”

The campaign to keep Colombia’s war going had an unlikely ally: Human Rights Watch. José Miguel Vivanco, the head of HRW’s Americas Watch division, emerged as an unexpected player in Colombian politics when he came out strongly against the “justice” provisions of the peace agreement. Vivanco agreed with Uribe by offering the most dire reading of the agreement possible, saying that perpetrators—in the FARC and the military—of human-rights violations would receive immunity. Vivanco was all over the press in Colombia, with his comments used to build opposition to the accords. Once it became clear that he was lining up too closely with Uribe, he staged a mock public dispute with the former para-president, even while continuing to basically support Uribe’s position (h/t Alejandro Velasco).

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Vivanco has tried to fudge his position with a false “even-handedness,” complaining that the accord let both the FARC and the military off the hook. But as the always insightful and usually temperate Adam Isacson, from the Washington Office on Latin America, described Vivanco’s bizarre proxy campaign on behalf of Uribe: “not everyone in Colombia is reading Human Rights Watch’s detailed ten-page analysis. What they hear are the large quotes like ‘piñata de impunidad’…or “checkmate against justice’ and believing as a result that Human Rights Watch opposes the entire process. It is a question more of tone, of supportiveness, and of urging creativity at a very key moment.” “Blows like this”—that is, Vivanco’s extremely dire analysis of a necessarily vague political agreement—“can do real damage.” They did.

That Human Rights Watch played useful idiot to Colombia’s far right was confirmed by its executive director, Kenneth Roth, who on Sunday night gloated about the outcome of the vote on Twitter: “Looks like Colombians aren’t so eager to premise ‘peace’ on effective impunity for FARC’s and military’s war crimes.”

Now what, Ken? What are you going to tweet at these victims of the FARC who came together to urge a “yes” vote? According to the Colombian weekly Semana, those regions that suffered the most deaths at the hands of the FARC were the most supportive of the peace talks. A “paradox,” Semana said. Enough was enough, victims and their families said. They are painfully aware—in ways that Roth and Vivanco, with their unaccountable Twitter broadsides against the peace process apparently aren’t—of consequences. And they prove more capable of understanding something that the leaders of Human Rights Watch can’t: that you don’t end a half-century war, with its nearly incomprehensible political history and ever-shifting alliances, by applying legal absolutes. You rather end it by political compromise.

https://www.thenation.com/article/did-human-rights-watch-sabotage-colombias-peace-agreement/

Ken Roth is a poison pustule, an ambassador without portfolio from death. Please, please, please, somebody put a cap in his ass.

4 Million Colombians Unable to Vote on Peace Due to Hurricane

http://www.telesurtv.net/__export/1475551134930/sites/telesur/img/news/2016/10/03/2016-10-03t112900z_1_lynxnpec920km_rtroptp_3_colombia-peace.jpg_1718483346.jpg
A Colombian Guambiano Indigenous woman votes on the peace deal in Silvia, Colombia, Oct. 2, 2016. | Photo: Reuters
Published 3 October 2016

The heavy rains affected the Caribbean coast especially, where most the population continues to pay a heavy price for the armed conflict.
Colombia's mission of electoral monitoring stated Monday that at least 4 million voters were unable to get to polling stations and participate in the peace plebiscite because of Hurricane Matthew. The vote was for or against the peace accord reached between the government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.

The heavy rains affected the Caribbean coast especially, where most the population continues to pay a heavy price for the armed conflict, and would have more likely voted "Yes" to peace.

The Council of Risk Management declared a public catastrophe after over 73,000 victims of the rains were reported in 7 towns of Magdalena province, including Santa Marta.

Abstention reached historic records in Colombia, with almost 63 percent not voting—3 points higher than in the 2014 presidential elections.

In 2014, Santos was elected with the promise of peace with over 7.8 million votes—corresponding to 50.95 percent of the total vote, with a record abstention of over 60 percent.

More than two years later, and five years of intense negotiations with the rebels, the peace deal received the approval of about 6.4 million votes and only a half a percentage point less than the victorious "No" vote.

http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/4-Million-Colombians-Unable-to-Vote-on-Peace-Due-to-Hurricane-20161003-0020.html

Do the Numbers Add Up? Did Colombia Really Say No to Peace?

http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Do-the-Numbers-Add-Up-Did-Colombia-Really-Say-No-to-Peace-20161007-0009.html
A ballot from Colombia's peace plebiste. | Photo: EFE

Published 7 October 2016

Sunday's shocking “no” vote on the Colombian peace deal may not be all that it seems because of number of potential errors in the counting process.

Colombia currently lies in limbo after the plebiscite for peace with the FARC-EP was rejected by less than half a percent. But a deeper look at the statistics suggest that a “no” vote might not have actually been Sunday’s victor.

The "No" vote won with 50.21 percent to 49.78 percent for the "Yes" vote. The "No" had 6,431,376 votes to 6,377,482 votes for the "Yes."

While there were only two options – yes and no – to respond to the plebiscite question, unmarked and nullified ballots are also extremely important to the overall count. There were 86,243 unmarked ballots and 170,946 nullified ballots, according to analysis published in The Conversation by Royal Holloway University Professor of Economics Michael Spagat and University of Miami Physicist Neil Johns.

While there was no known evidence of fraud during the process, Spagat and Johns say that “declaring a victory for the 'no' camp violates principles of statistical uncertainty, and is therefore a scientifically incorrect statement. Colombians deserve better.”

Colombia used paper to record Sunday’s votes and votes were counted by hand. Given the known research behind counting errors, around 65,000 to 130,000 votes would have been accidentally counted incorrectly, and could have easily pushed the vote to a “yes” result, wrote Spagat and Johns.

The method that the vote counters used to classify and count the surprisingly large number of blank and invalidated votes is unknown, but could have made a significant impact. While the voting papers were printed with clear “yes” and “no” options, many of the unmarked ballots may have been marked very lightly and therefore would not have been registered.

Spagat and Johns state that their analysis revealed up to 400,000 votes that could have potentially been classified incorrectly, adding that there were “270,000 voters whose ballots were rejected as blank or null must have had some voting intention that they somehow failed to express.”

Voter turnout from Sunday was very low, under 40 percent, with only 13 million of 35 million eligible voters making it to the polls, meaning that there was only around 18 percent of all eligible voters who registered a “no” vote.

On Monday the electoral commision of Colombia estimated that at least 4 million people could not cast their vote because of heavy rains caused by Hurricane Matthew.

Before the plebiscite the “yes” vote was in a clear winning position according to polls, even according to right-wing media. Many Colombians in favor of peace may have considered a “yes” result a certainty and decided to stay home as a result.

The areas most affected by the conflict have overwhelmingly voted "Yes" for peace. For example in the heavily affected area of Choco, with 95 percent of the vote counted, 79 percent voted "Yes." The Caribbean provinces have also voted "Yes."

The question posed to the population was: “Do you support the final accord for the end of the conflict and the construction of stable and lasting peace?”

http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Do-the-Numbers-Add-Up-Did-Colombia-Really-Say-No-to-Peace-20161007-0009.html

Videos at link.

On the developments in Colombia and the peace agreement

On the developments in Colombia.
Οriginally published in 'Rizospastis', 9 October 2016.
Source: inter.kke.gr.

As is well-known, on Sunday 2 October, the peace agreement between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People's Army (FARC-EP) was put to a referendum. In the referendum, where only the 37% of the eligible voters participated, the agreement was rejected by a 50.2% vote.

The agreement was finalized after four years of negotiations that took place in Oslo and Havana and aimed at putting an end to the armed conflict which began in 1964, when FARC-CP was founded as a response to the attack of the bourgeois army against the rural population of the Marquetalia region (1). At the same time, it had been announced that talks will also be pursued with the country’s other significant guerrilla organization, the National Liberation Army (ELN).

The massacre against the “Patriotic Union”.

Previous peace efforts had taken place in the past, with the most known being the talks and peace process in 1982-1984 with the Belisario Betancur government, which led to the foundation of the “Patriotic Union” (UP), as a legal party created by FARC-EP and the Colombian Communist Party. This process was literally drowned in blood by the bourgeois state and para-state. Within a decade more than 5,000 members and cadres of the “Patriotic Union” had been assassinated, including 2 presidential candidates, 7 senators, 13 members of parliament, 11 mayors and 69 municipal councilors, while thousands were forced to become political refugees abroad.

All these years, the USA, the EU and other imperialist powers stood by the side of the bourgeois state by providing generous economic, military and political support. The USA and the EU included FARC-EP in the list of terrorist organisations, while after the death of the FARC cadre Raul Reyes, in 2008 in Ecuador a real witch-hunt was unleashed, under the pretext of “information” that was found on his computer in their bombarded camp. On the other side, the overwhelming majority of Latin America's communist parties and many organisations of the peoples' and youth movement, regionally as well as internationally, stood by the side of FARC-EP and the country's popular movement.

Regarding the “Havana agreement”.

On 23 June 2016, the FARC and the government signed a final ceasefire and a disarmament agreement and on 24 August the 297 page-long final peace agreement, which was put to a referendum vote, was published. The 10th Conference of FARC which ratified the agreement took place on 17-23 September.

The peace agreement consists of various agreements which are summarized in 6 chapters. It provides for a disarmament process of the FARC in 22 “transition zones- villages” and 6 smaller camps, where the FARC fighters would gather and stay for 6 months and where their private weapons would be gathered and destroyed by the UN, while 3 months after the beginning of the peace agreement’s implementation the rest of their stored weapons would be destroyed.

The agreement reinforces the bourgeois state's monopoly on violence, the condemnation of the revolutionary struggle, promotes social consensus and assimilation, acknowledges that the upper hand belongs to the bourgeoisie and its state and in the final analysis undermines the class struggle.

For example, it is clearly written: “The Government and the FARC-EP agree […] to ensure the legal monopoly of the state on violence and the use of weapons...” (2), a formulation which, with variations, is repeated at several points. Furthermore, it is noted: “The national government and the new political movement which will arise from the transition of FARC-EP to legal political activity, undertake to promote a National Political Accord with the political parties and movements, the labour unions, the vital forces of the nation”.(3)

On the other hand, the agreement does not refer at all to important issues such as the 8 military bases of the USA or to the very significant issue of the agreement signed between Colombia and NATO during the negotiations on 25 June 2013.

The KKE and several organizations of our country's peoples movement, for many decades, stood in solidarity with the struggle of the Colombian people and FARC. They categorically rejected the characterization of FARC as a terrorist organisation and demanded its removal from the EU list of terrorist groups, as well as the abolition of the list itself.

The KKE demanded the recognition of the guerrilla organisations FARC-EP and ELN as warring parties, the release of those who are jailed in the US and of the more than 7,500 political prisoners in Colombia, the rehabilitation of those displaced. It expressed multifaceted solidarity with the struggle of the Colombian people for a Colombia without the exploitation of man by man, for peace with social justice. For a new Colombia, where the people’s will and soveriegnty will be respected, without hunger, but with jobs, houses, health and education for everybody.

We decisively confronted the bourgeois and opportunist forces which were using Colombia in order to attack the peoples' revolutionary struggle itself. The great difficulties of a prolonged struggle are evident, especially in conditions of a very negative correlation of forces, which are marked by the effects of the counterrevolution and the temporary retreat of the labour and revolutionary movement, by the crisis in which the international communist movement continues to find itself.

The additional barriers and the difficulties which arise from the generous support of imperialism to the Colombian bourgeois state- from the provision of modern means of warfare, from the intensity of the collaboration between the bourgeois states and their mechanisms in the area through a dense network of interstate alliances and organisations- are apparent.

The causes of the major problems that the Colombian people experience-repression, poverty and misery-are inherent to the capitalist system, the power of the monopolies, the bourgeois state, the bourgeois parties and their antipeople policies. And these remain intact after the deal.

The agreement is not judged on the basis of whether it leads to a change in the forms of struggles, something that is the responsibility and obligation of every revolutionary party or movement to choose depending on the conditions and the requirements of the class struggle in its country. The specific agreement is judged by whether (or not) it engages the peoples' movement of the country in serious, unacceptable concessions to the bourgeoisie and its power, which will disarm it politically and ideologically, thus objectively paving the way for developments that will lead either to the escalation of repression or to its cooption by the system, or to both simultaneously.

Firm internationalist solidarity with the labour-peoples movement of Colombia.

The working class, the popular strata of every country must advance their own interests, their own slogans and goals of struggle in opposition to the domination of capital and its power, in conflict with imperialism, for the right of every people to choose their own path of development. It is necessary to systematically monitor the developments and to maintain a decisive stance at the side of the labour-peoples movement, against any aim to exploit any developments to intensify the persecution and repression. We firmly express our internationalist solidarity with the struggles for the workers-peoples' rights, for the abolition of exploitation, for a new Colombia with the people in power.

(1) Read the article “ Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People's Army – 37 years of struggles for the New Colombia”, by Raul Reyes on KOMEP 6/2001, especially written for KOMEP (Communist Review).
(2) Page 70 of the agreement.(Unofficial translation from the Spanish original)
(3) Page 72 of the agreement. (Unofficial translation from the Spanish original)

https://communismgr.blogspot.com/2016/10/on-developments-in-colombia-and-peace.html

Bolding added.

KKE is spot on, this will end in tears.

October 15, National Day of political prisoners, history of resistance and dignity

From the scope of revolutionary sectors in Colombia, today is the day to show the rest of the country the national day of the Political Detainees as a tribute reminder that on October 15, 1973, in the city of Medellin, union leader LUIS CARLOS CARDENAS ARBELÁEZ was captured and later executed.

This date allows us to remember not only the thousands of persons deprived of their liberty for political reasons, but also to show a critical attitude of prison in Colombia as an institution, and denounce it once again for being the facile option used quintessentially by the State to resolve the conflict and social protest, in addition to being an instrument to punish the rebellious actions that has subverted the established order in the hope of conquering a better future for Colombians. It is also a reflection of the clairvoyant contradictions that Colombian society daily lives.

Now, with the hope of the development and implementation of the General Agreement for the Termination of the Conflict, the Special Jurisdiction for Peace component and the Amnesty Law that results from the recognition of political offence, as agreed between the parties in the Victims point, we aspire to largely alleviate the sufferings of the political and war prisoners.

However, the repressive nature of the State will continue unscathed despite the progress that will be achieved with the implementation of the Final Agreement. The Colombian government introduced the model of American punishment exported from the Federal Bureau of Prisons of the United States Department of Justice, planting a prison culture based on punishment, and established a prison system permeated by the doctrine of internal enemy for the country, a prison model for the enforcement of punishment to the growing and legitimate mobilizations and social protests of Colombians.

Political and war prisoner comrades, despite the debates and difficulties presented in recent days at the Peace Table, we have as an unavoidable principle, the exit from prisons of all our comrades and civilian prisoners accused or convicted of collaborating with the FARC-EP, we continue to insist that the amnesty is an essential prerequisite for a stable and lasting peace.

May this date also be a space to pay special tribute to all women and men who assume prisons as a trench of struggle, displaying the highest moral and dignity, to which the bars have not dented their desire for peace with social justice.

With desire of Peace,

National Secretariat of the FARC-EP

http://farc-epeace.org/communiques/farc-ep/item/1755-october-15-national-day-of-political-prisoners-history-of-resistance-and-dignity.html

Interview with Ivan Marquez on the future of Peace in Colombia
Source: BBC Mundo

In an extraordinary week, Colombians rejected the process; Alvaro Uribe [former president and main promoter of the NO campaign] joined the talks, President Juan Manuel Santos received the Nobel Peace Prize and marches and demonstrations for the process began to swarm across the country.

From Havana, the FARC Comandante Ivan Marquez gave an interview on the current juncture and the possible outcomes:

BBC: In the past few weeks, many events have occurred regarding the peace process. Do you feel under high pressure?

Ivan Marquez: The truth is that we have worked in a relaxed manner. Without problems, we understand the situation that has arisen. There is a technical draw between the NO and YES in the plebiscite. The NO-vote didn’t obtain an absolute majority, but it has an Achilles heel, and that is that it was constructed on the basis of lies. The head of the NO campaign himself, Mr. Juan Carlos Vélez, has confessed it, so this left one of the NO-vote sectors in a very weak position, which is Senator Alvaro Uribe´s sector.

The NO-vote is very diverse. The six million NO-votes don’t correspond to Uribe Velez, but Christians are also represented there. And other sectors of society that based on their own reasons and conviction resolved to give a NO to the president's performance.

The Havana Final Agreement, signed in Cartagena, is not being judged here, but rather the political action of the President, because plebiscites don’t have any legal reach.

BBC: Which do you consider are the non-negotiable points?

I.M.: We are not talking about non-negotiables. We are pleased to count with an agreement that contains the sufficient elements to start the construction of a stable and lasting peace for Colombians.

Achieving peace and reconciliation is what interests us the most.

BBC: But obviously some sort of negotiation will have to begin in order to include some points of the NO-campaign. The supporters of this option reject for leaders who have committed war crimes to not go to jail and be able to be elected for public office.

I.M.: The NO-campaign was based on lies. There has been an unacceptable manipulation of public opinion which has been demonstrated. That is how media in Colombia captured it and some NO promoters recognize it. It’s the case of Juan Carlos Velez.

There will not be impunity. The Special Jurisdiction for Peace does not contemplate the possibility that non-amnesty eligible and unpardonable crimes go unpunished.

There is a sanction, I want to reiterate. But it is a restorative sanction, reparative.

I want to underline this. The Special Jurisdiction for Peace is not just for the FARC, it is for everyone involved in the conflict, including high ranking politicians, the military, entrepreneurs, guerrillas, paramilitaries, police, and directors of mass media that daily promote war.

The Special Jurisdiction for Peace is for everyone involved in the conflict, we must start from that base, because otherwise we can make mistakes in the approaches we have of the Colombian reality.

BBC: But you, Ivan Marquez, would you be willing to go to jail a few years?

I. M.: We will provide truth. Your question is out of place because it does not consult the Special Jurisdiction for Peace. This provides prison for those who don’t provide truth. Those, who refuse to go to the Peace Courts, have to pay a punitive sanction and should go to jail.

Whets the novelty of this jurisdiction? That truth will be provided in order to heal wounds, that one will take responsibility and if the action is framed within what is non-pardonable in consistency with International Humanitarian Law, there will be no impunity, but rather be treated with a novel process that is restorative.

BBC: But if that's not enough not only for the NO campaign but for a majority of Colombians.

I.M.: Most Colombians want peace. Have you seen similar demonstrations to those that have occurred in the country? In Bogota, Medellin, Cali. Leaving behind 52 years of war, which is what some sectors don’t want.

BBC: They want peace, it’s evident. But as the slogan said: No, not like that. And there's the problem that you have.

I.M.: It is what we have agreed, how is it not going to be like that? If the elements that can really lead us to peace are there. Do they want peace? Well there we have an instrument in our hands which is called Final Agreement. Let's take.

Let´s add to it, yes, as you suggested at the beginning of the interview, some approaches to enrich the Final Agreement and thus have a strong agreement with the support of the whole nation.

For now, what is the NO-campaign doing and specifically the sector of politicians? They are delaying, delaying the process to take it to a crossroads, to a situation where the process ends. And Colombia does not want that.

BBC: How are the troops right now? Discouraged?

I.M.: No, the mood of the troops -and I'll respond paraphrasing the poet Pablo Neruda-: "the spirit and morale is so high that it touches the invisible chest of the sky".

People are on the lookout, yes, waiting to know the developments that they know we are trying to realize both in Bogota and Havana.

We are working hard to seek legal and political formulas. Because we need to listen to the NO and YES [voters]. And we will also listen to the abstainers, over 60% who abstained from voting in Colombia.

It's fair for us to listen but also remarking on one thing. That we performed thematic forums in which most sectors participated. We received those opinions in Havana and we reflected them in the agreement.

In that aspect, we feel calm and satisfied because we managed to take the thought and vision that the Colombian social and political movement has into the agreements we signed.

BBC World: Does the guerrilla feel in a limbo right now?

I.M.: This situation of uncertainty needs to be quickly resolved. That is why we reaffirm that the delay that one of the NO sectors intends is to terminate the peace process, but Colombians are not willing to do that. The country has clearly demonstrated this through its massive demonstrations across the national territory.

BBC: Do you [FARC] fear defections?

I.M.: Not really. That fear does not exist in the FARC leadership. We have been clear and precise, and I say so especially after performing the X Conference of the FARC, where the peace delegation of the FARC in Havana received the unanimous endorsement of the conducted policy deployed in the peace talks.

BBC: Under the current conditions, how much longer can you [FARC] continue without having a determined final date?

I.M.: What you mention is correct, and keep in mind that we are not charging tax to any company at this time. We are making use of a war economy. Of an amount of resources that we still have in order to maintain an army. That’s not easy and it requires many, many economic resources.

We have many items, such as food, sustenance, provision of a guerrilla, health, transport. It is an army and it demands resources.

BBC: You earlier said "we have no money". In fact, the NO campaign used that line against you. Then, the day before voting, you said that you would pay compensation to the victims.

I.M.: There was statement of the FARC in reference to the existence of a war economy. It is obvious that the FARC have to live on something. We need to cultivate the land. That may be [considered] a good.

We also have assets, like cattle, where we get milk, meat and cheese that the guerrillas eat.

And some blocks may have some savings, and that’s what we referred to. They are funds that go into what we call war economy.

So that’s why we have to speed this up [peace process], because these can run out.

It’s not true that the FARC are a rich organization like these malicious sectors proclaim.

BBC: Is it an option for you to go back to war?

I.M.: We would not desire to return to war. Colombia deserves no more wars. I remember the words of the Comandante Alfonso Cano at the end of the [unsuccessful] peace talks with the Gaviria administration [early 90s] in Tlaxcala, Mexico, when he said with sadness: "See you in 10,000 dead".

Colombia does not withstand any more victimization; it needs to make better efforts to achieve reconciliation, peace.

And as I'm telling you, in the final agreement is the key, is the formula, is the roadmap to peace, with dignity, which is what we want. With extensive democracy, the broadest as possible, with sovereignty.

BBC: The way you speak, it sounds as if the peace process is not in crisis, but to the rest of the world it seems like it is...

I.M.: We are optimistic about the crisis. We are not discouraged by the problems. We have faced the most serious ones in all of this history of resistance and this is not going to discourage us.

We are sure that there are political and legal arguments that will allow this peace process to move forward very soon.

BBC: What's the next step for you?

I.M.: We will meet again with the government in next days. Today (Wednesday) we have a meeting to agree on the terms of the protocol on definitive cease of fire and of hostilities.

We are thinking about the possibility of regrouping the force in some points, so we need to agree on the content of these protocols in order to ask the United Nations for its tripartite mission and its monitoring and verification mechanism to begin actions to preserve the situation of non armed confrontation that Colombia lives today.

We have to protect this sort of armistice that we currently have.

BBC: During these years of negotiations, it seemed like it was ultimately a process between the government of Juan Manuel Santos and the FARC, it seems that the former president Uribe has as much to say as these two actors.

I.M.: I would not like to talk about Mr. Uribe or his positions. Those are his convictions, we have ours. We think that Colombia doesn’t deserve war.

Uribe had eight years to try to militarily destroy the FARC and could not. If he could not win the war, he should allow Colombians to make peace. That's what we ask.

BBC: You met with the BBC a year ago or so. In a year from now, will we see each other here again?

I.M.: We hope that this situation gets resolved soon and we are working on that direction. The discussion cannot be eternal because we have discussed for over five years now.

We Colombians are special. Colombia is a great Macondo, the Macondo of García Márquez where so many improbable things happen. And it’s implausible for people to rule against the action of a president who wants peace for Colombia.

Translation by: www.farc-epeace.org

BBC is horrible. As usual the good guys are the model of decency, I hope they don't pay the ultimate price.

Delays can jeopardize the Peace Process

Source: Contagio Radio

After the announcement of President Santos on the new end date of the bilateral ceasefire, which will is set until December 31, Senator Ivan Cepeda said that "there is no room for delays and alleged negotiations, since negotiations are in Havana between the National Government and the FARC".

Since the beginning of the public phase of the dialogues (peace process), various social organizations of students, workers, educators, victims, environmentalists, human rights defenders, among others, conducted for a reasonable time, forums, lectures and meetings, precisely to discuss, build and send proposals to Havana from these different social sectors.

Cepeda adds that the years in which the Government and the FARC have been in peace negotiations, allowed major advancements "but a peace process is always fragile and any delay that could jeopardize the stability of the process must be overcome and avoided".

http://farc-epeace.org/images/ivancepeda.jpg

The senator says that the decision of October 2 [NO-vote to peace agreements won over YES-vote in Plebiscite 50.2% to 49.7% respectively] "produced a problem regarding the parliamentary process", since what was initially agreed was a more agile and effective process than that of a legislative bill or constitutional reform. He notes that there are other mechanisms such as a "message of urgency to the Congress for it to handle the legal developments that the Agreement requires once the adjustment stage ends” although the delegations have expressed that there are untouchable elements.

While there have been impasses for the implementation of the Agreements, so far this month there have been expressions from the social movement, which have been gaining ground and, in the words of Cepeda "for the agreed to not be ignored not even by the enemies of Agreement ", adding that "victims, students, afro descendent and indigenous are correct in demanding for the agreement to be implemented immediately".

On the other hand, the Senator claims that the announcement of the start of the public phase of negotiations (peace process) with the ELN, opens the door to resolving the uncertainty that the country is in and in particular "the state of temporariness in which the guerrillas are at, since they are in an ambiguous situation between guerrilla life and the transition to civilian life; it is necessary for that limbo to be resolved before the end of this year"

He concludes that although there is a radical expression led by Alvaro Uribe, who wants to make the peace process impossible, these sectors "have had to acknowledge that the discussion is given based on the already agreed" and it’s the favorable moment to "join all initiatives; mobilization is essential".

http://farc-epeace.org/peace-process/news/item/1767-delays-can-jeopardize-the-peace-process.html

Colombia shall never repeat its tragic history of extermination

Victims of the political genocide against the Unión Patriótica – UP (Patriotic Union) and various political and social sectors of Colombia, recall the horrific years in which members of this political party were systematically threatened and killed by paramilitary groups with State complicity back in the 80s. Around 5000 lives were lost in those tragic years.

From the 20th to the 22nd of October, the XI Commemorative Meeting of the National Day for the Dignity of the UP Victims is held. From different parts of the country, survivors and relatives gather in the city of Bogotá and mobilize to remind the country that this type of actions should never be repeated.

This time, in the light of the Peace Agreement juncture, the mobilization joined those who are requesting a prompt solution to the Final Agreement implementation impasse with the slogans “Agreement Now” “Implementation Now”. Also, a “garden of memory” was set in the Plaza de Bolivar, where the Congress, Justice Palace and Town Hall are located.

http://farc-epeace.org/images/UPjardinWeb.jpg

This is a special year to recall the political genocide since it was precisely in a Peace Process held between the FARC-EP and the Betancur administration (La Uribe 1982-2986) when the UP was created as a result of the Peace Process and was the platform for transition of the guerrilla forces into an open political movement.

http://farc-epeace.org/images/UPjardin1short.jpg

The political persecution dynamics and the violation of human and civil rights have not stopped during these years, the cases registered and denounced by diverse Human Rights organizations show this, but it was with the UP when the situation was most evident and even the president of Colombia, Juan Manuel Santos in a ceremonial act with the UP survivors and relatives on September 15 this year, recognized the State´s role in the genocide.

In essence, the framework of political exclusion through paramilitary action, violation of human rights, the arbitrary use of the legal system to generate hoax cases and imprison social and political leaders, the intentional and premeditated use of mass media and political discourse to generate an “internal enemy” narrative and legitimize these violations, is something that the Havana Final Agreement aims to transform.

Jorge Gómez, an attorney who leads the initiative of the commemorative event expressed that “A part of what was signed in Havana [Final Agreement] is precisely to give guarantees to the political opposition and hopefully ensure that what happened to the UP won't happen again. We hope that this agreement -which will guarantee the exercise of the opposition- is complied with; that's one of the things we want to emphasize at this moment of the peace process”

An unsuccessful ending of the Havana Peace Process would mean the prolongation of these dynamics and would hold back long-needed reforms for the country. The road towards Peace in Colombia is long and requires not only legal and institutional changes but essentially cultural and social transformations to be the base for national reconciliation and the construction of peace.

http://farc-epeace.org/images/A%C3%B1os80.jpg

Never again as Colombians should we turn our backs and pretend to ignore these type of tragedies, should we value some lives over other lives, should we by action or inaction legitimize the extermination of our compatriots right or left winged, LGBTI, rural or urban, black, white or indigenous, men or women. This is why Peace requires massive participation and now more than ever, Colombia needs to not let go of the possibility of opening the doors to the construction of a stable and lasting peace.

http://farc-epeace.org/newsflash/item/1773-colombia-shall-never-repeat-its-tragic-history-of-extermination.html

Victim Organizations reject proposals of Final Agreement detractors


Source: Contagio Radio

Victims' and human right defender organizations, accompanied by representatives Alirio Uribe and Angela Maria Robledo, reported their request for a hearing to be held at the Inter-American Court of Human Rights to present their concern on the proposals of the sectors that advocated the NO-vote. Impunity for victims in Colombia would be perpetuated if these proposals where to be accepted, because they are lax with crimes committed by State agents and private individuals.

In Colombia, more than 98% of crimes committed by State agents are in impunity. Crimes such as forced disappearance, with 45,944 direct victims, for which paramilitary groups and members of security forces have been blamed by 84%, in turn there are 4,475 victims of extrajudicial executions, all attributed to State agents.

According to the attorney Soraya Gutiérrez, director of the “José Alvear Restrepo Lawyers Collective”, proposals such as those given by Congressman Uribe "precisely intend to detract State agents from justice and are directed to ignore the rights of victims and particularly the victims of State crimes ".

For these human right organizations, the Comprehensive System of Justice and Reparation –established in the Final Peace Agreement- allows progress in overcoming impunity in crimes committed not only by the FARC-EP, but also by the State, its military forces, paramilitary groups and individuals who participated in the armed conflict.

Diana Gomez representative of the State Crime Victims Movement (MOVICE in its Spanish acronym) said "we believe that the measures aimed at protecting State officials, businessmen and politicians, don’t favor the right to truth that the victims have and reiterates a pact of silence" to which she added "many of the victims are not looking for jail as a mechanism for justice but to be able to know the truth".

The respective press release was signed by the following organizations:

Alirio Uribe Muñoz – Chamber of Representatives

Ángela María Robledo – Chamber of Representatives

Asociación Minga

Centro de Estudios Juan Gelman

Centro de Investigación y Educación Popular, CINEP – Programa por la Paz

Colectivo Socio Jurídico Orlando Fals Borda

Comisión Intereclesial de Justicia y Paz

Comité Permanente por la Defensa de los Derechos Humanos – CPDH

Coordinación Colombia-Europa-Estados Unidos Corporación CAHUCOPANA Corporación Claretiana Norman Pérez Bello

Colectivo de Abogados “José Alvear Restrepo”

Corporación Jurídica Libertad

Corporación Jurídica Yira Castro

Corporación PODION

Corporación Reiniciar

EQUITAS

Fundación Nydia Erika Bautista

Fundación Comité de Solidaridad con los Presos Políticos – FCSPP

Hijos e Hijas por la Memoria y contra la Impunidad

Humanidad Vigente Corporación Jurídica

Movimiento de Víctimas de Crímenes de Estado – MOVICE

Vamos por los Derechos

http://farc-epeace.org/peace-process/news/item/1784-victim-organizations-reject-proposals-of-final-agreement-detractors.html

We cannot know the hardships endured by these freedom fighters and the people of Columbia over the decades. Still, this deal stinks to high heaven, all of the onus is being put on FARC while the butchers of the capitalists walk. Whatever machinations were done to get this 'no' vote pall compared to the complicity of the petty booj who were the meat of that vote. Vengeful pricks, they deserve the fate ensured for their masters.

Portraits of Alfonso Cano I

Written by Gabriel Ángel

Victoria Sandino: To talk about Comrade Alfonso is to talk about love

After enjoying her smiling, friendly and warm welcome, I proceed to explain to Victoria Sandino the reason for my visit. Manuela and Laura had just left the room with a farewell tone until the next day, and I consider I'm lucky to have picked this hour to storm in. She is usually very busy and I feared that she wouldn't have time to receive me.

We’re in Havana, on the onset of a warm moonlit night of October, and the anniversary of the death of Comrade Alfonso is approaching. My intention is to speak to those of the Peace Delegation who were very close to him, in order to listen to the version of each one about the unforgettable leader. Victoria could not be missing, and it’s with her I decide to start.

She started working with him in '94 and until his death she was part of his closest team. We must go back many years ago. Yes, it’s the same Victoria that I met earlier in the year '95, when she was sent to Magdalena Medio to teach about Propaganda. Aside from a few extra kilos, which give her the appearance of a respectable matron, she hasn’t changed much.

http://farc-epeace.org/images/victoria.jpg

I’ll never stop being amazed by her smiling face of eternal youth and profound look, always decorated with a pair of glasses of showy color. In the final years of Comrade Alfonso´s life, she was in charge of his organizational unit, directly dependent on him and with daily communication, amid the inferno of military operations.

She recalls having asked him, during the last of the few conversations they had back then, on why he didn’t move to another area from where he was. The Army raids in southern Tolima were growing, accompanied by frequent bombings of the Air Force. There were combats almost every day. And where should I go; where there is no confrontation? he replied.

For Victoria it’s clear that when it comes to admire someone in such a way, what is really felt for that person is deep love. Not that selfish love of couples, but that intimate feeling of affection that comes from recognition of brilliance, of the astonishment of what that person is capable of performing and the way of doing it, the dazzle that their personality renders.

She has no difficulty in expressing how much love she felt for Comrade Alfonso, how much she cherished him. On more than one occasion she was surprised and at the same time surprised him when she would unconsciously answer to his call with the word dad, as if the secret force of the enormous affection that he inspired transmuted him into being her father in some part of her soul.

In the FARC, the most important leaders constitute their guard units with the guerrillas that inspire most confidence, and often have them next to them for many years. That ends up generating an almost family kind of relationship that somehow is perceived as such by the subordinate. But the leader is clear that he is not conforming a family; he is educating his guerrillas.

So after six, eight, ten or twelve years, any day the leader calls them to his office to entrust them a mission of responsibility elsewhere, with the possibility that they may not see each other again, or not very often. That’s when tears come up. In Victoria´s case, after a decade by his side, the Comrade sent her away one day, but not too far away, so she was glad they could still meet each other.

She talks with authority about those years of daily coexistence in the unit of Alfonso. She still cannot explain to herself how he managed to get so much out of time. He read a lot, talked almost every day for hours with the leaders of various units he received and had them stay there for up to one or two months.

He received and sent countless mailings, of which he would make detailed accounts to his staff in their daily conversations. He liked people to know what was happening in the other units, particularly the faults and errors of the comandantes, and he always drew precise conclusions in order to educate. He liked to describe in detail the combats that were reported to him.

He would also dedicate time to explain the progress in the organizational work and topics of the civilian population. Victoria and others were always overwhelmed by the perfect knowledge he showed regarding even the smallest details of everyday life in the camp. Perhaps it was due to the location of his sleeping area.

He would prefer the highest place, from which he could have a view of the whole place, but also caring to not be too far away from the sleeping areas of the rest and other facilities. He seemed to be attentive, despite his occupations, of how much the duty officer would talk to the troops in the formation centre, as well as what each one would do.

http://farc-epeace.org/images/AlfonsoCano1.jpg

It was not surprising that when the officer showed up before him in the morning to give him the daily report, the chief would be even more aware than the officer himself about the newest developments. One time, due to the joy shown by a girl who found two eggs in her breakfast, the Comrade found out that the ranchera (cooker) was serving a double portion to his girlfriend.

All the dishes were the same, almost equal, which is why the girl had picked up a dish that wasn't hers, which was precisely the dish owned by the girlfriend of the ranchera. Apart from using the case for the corresponding educational talk, the Comrade henceforth assumed the habit of going to the kitchen when serving meals.

Victoria doesn’t forget the moment when one of the most important leaders of the Comando de Occidente [Western Block], received Comrade Miguel Pascuas [a founder of the FARC-EP] to give a general report. When arriving to Comrade Alfonso's place to provide the general report, Pascuas was received with military honors. Although Alfonso's rank was superior, he didn't want a man who deserved so much respect and who had been in the FARC for so many years like Migue, tol report before him.

Comrade Alfonso was very demanding with the staff in relation to the revolutionary mentality and the discipline that they should maintain, but even more with the group of comandantes and still more with those of even higher hierarchy. He would not raise his voice or grunt, but with his overwhelming logic and incisive questions he could corner and shame the recipient of his critique.

If there was something with which he was sensitive, it was in relation to the expenditure of resources of the organization. Those who were sent to the village or the city to do errands -a task that he always thought women were more capable of - had to take account of their expenditures in a detailed manner and with the respective receipts.

He would not tolerate what in his opinion was improper waste of money incompatible with the proletarian mentality that should characterize the revolutionary. Once, a girl invited two people for breakfast in a restaurant in northern Bogota and for nearly three years he reproached her for such behavior. A FARC guerrilla had no right to spend the money in that manner.

That is why he took the necessary time to personally review the expense reports that were sent from different Command units. By the receipts he knew the exact price of items and he would quickly detect overruns and mismanagement. He was implacable with the authors of such misdeeds.

However, no one can syndicate him of being a cheapskate. With the troops under his command he developed an excellent human relationship and was never reluctant to address their requests no matter how strange they might seem. Like order an expensive treatment for hair loss at the express request of a combatant who feared he was going bald.

http://farc-epeace.org/images/AlfonsoCano2.jpg

Or to treat the skin of women affected by weather, or even, as happened once, viagra for a combatant of certain age who had problems because women left him after living with him for a while. And at the risk that those responsible for buying medicine, thought that [the viagra] was for him, generating confusion in the end and the most humorous situations.

Nobody like him to open one´s soul and talk about the illusions or pains residing in the heart; Comrade would stand beside those who did it and would try to help them within his possibilities in order to make that person happy. Just like with affectionate spirit of solidarity he would serve as a shoulder to cry on when someone would tell him their pain resulting from a bad romance.

Victoria even remembers her fights with him. She, with anger and furiousness would loudly argue her reasons, and he, sententious and cutting, calling for sanity and refusing to accept any arguments expressed in bad terms. Perhaps it was from such a situation, where the best talk of her life about the gender problem emerged.

Also read: Interview with Victoria Sandino "Guerrilla women aspire to play prominent role"

She, rebellious, was practically insubordinated as a result of what she judged a "macho management" by the service officer when resolving a problem in which a girl was involved. Insubordination is a serious matter in the FARC, Alfonso Comrade sided with the officer and she was sanctioned.

She spent a week digging the ground with a shovel, occasionally aided by the solidarity of boys whose arms drew in a few minutes more land than she could in an hour; lonely raging against what she deemed an unexpected attitude on part of her idolized boss. He also lasted an entire month without speaking to her.

By then she was saddened. To have lost the closeness and trust with Comrade Alfonso was the worst event that could have happened in her life. She was a guerrilla, a cadre, and therefore aware that she had badly mismanaged the situation that afternoon. She could have just waited for the Party meeting and openly express her criticism for the official.

Also read: Message to Colombian women

Or she could have even personally complained about his decision before Alfonso himself. There was in fact another way of doing things. But insubordination completely lacks of any defense in the FARC. No one that did that could claim anything in their favor before any other unit. In addition, she was embarrassed because she had even argued against the Comrade himself that afternoon when he spoke.

Then one day, he called her into his office. And with the usual affectionate treatment that he always kept for everyone, he asked her about the reasons for her rampant behavior. It was not difficult for them to understand each other this time. But then she heard him talk about the actual situation of women in the FARC and all that was needed to improve it.

To that end, he traced the origins of the force, the debate that took place soon after the organization was founded around the contemplated possibility of women entering the ranks. How the first women who entered didn’t do it as combatants but as companions of those who brought them and how they were opposed to being guerrillas. A struggle was needed for that to change.

Also read: FARC-EP about Gender Perspective in the Agreements

The entire process lived in the organization up to the 6th, 7th and 8th Conferences in which women finally obtained full recognition of their rights and duties as combatants equal to any man, and how hard they had to work in order for the written to become true through the facts through an educational process of teaching people.

Not only leaders, or men, but even women themselves, who came from civilian life with a mindset prepared for submission to man. It was a fight that had to be fought within the organization, a fair fight, but it had to be given in the proper manner. It was not against a particular leader or any woman in particular, it was for everyone.

Victoria listened. Sunken by the clarity of Alfonso about the problems of women and the difficulties of linking them first to the fight [of gender equality] and then men, in a careful process of generating consciousness. She understood well, and many years later in Havana, made into a national benchmark for gender struggle, she's still grateful to him.

http://farc-epeace.org/blogs/gabriel-angel/item/1796-portraits-of-alfonso-cano-i.html

This is how it is done. The professional revolutionary may or may not don fatigues and carry a rifle, depending upon what is the best course at that time, but will maintain the same discipline, integrity, capacity for work and humanity.

Women organizations of Colombia and FARC-EP meet in Havana

Women from different territories, ethnicities, beliefs, sectors and political positions, met in Havana with the delegation of Peace FARC-EP. After the meeting, women welcomed the spirit of dialogue and listening of the delegation. The meeting took place in an atmosphere of respect and plurality, in which there was dialogue on the neuralgic issues for women's rights and the different needs and interests.

The women assistants to the meeting reaffirm the importance of the agreement signed on September 26, 2016 for being the only one in the world that includes the gender and women's rights in compliance with international law obligations on the matter. We also recognize and support the Peace Talks as the way to reach adjustment to the Final Agreement as well as the endorsement mechanism that the Peace Process is to set.

The meeting discussed the following issues:

1. The rights of women and the gender perspective as a tool to explain the historical injustices and exclusions that women live, as well as public policies that guarantee the restitution, protection and guarantee of their rights. To that extent the gender perspective is an instrument that deepens democracy.

2. The constitutional principles of equality and non-discrimination, and the commitments concerning constitutional rights, human rights and international humanitarian law.

3. The recognition of the differential effect of the armed conflict on the lives of rural campesino women, indigenous, Afro-descendants, youth, girls, women with disabilities, urban women and LGBTI.

4. The right to truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non repetition to all women affected by the armed conflict.

5. The construction of peace from the territories and the role of women as political subjects in building peace. Peace is not possible without the active and decisive participation of women.

The Peace Delegation of the FARC-EP expressed that the statement that emerged from the meeting with Senator Vivianne Morales and Carlos Alonso Lucio, reflected the contents of the exchange that was held with them on the various issues of the Final Agreement, in the spirit of listening and dialogue that has been promoted with diverse sectors of society.

Finally, the Peace Delegation of the FARC-EP states that the adjustments to the Final Agreement text cannot be interpreted as a setback of the rights recognized for those subjects, groups, populations or sectors that have traditionally been discriminated against, excluded and that live special situations of vulnerability.

Signed by:

CUMBRE NACIONAL DE MUJERES Y PAZ

CASA DE LA MUJER

COMISION NACIONAL DE IGUALDAD DE GÉNERO Y EMPODERAMIENTO DE LAS MUJERES- PARTIDO ALIANZA VERDE.

EQUIPO DE MUJERES UNION PATRIOTICA

NARRAR PARA VIVIR-MONTES DE MARIA

RED DE MUJERES VICTIMAS Y PROFESIONALES DE VIOLENCIA SEXUAL

UN MILLON DE MUJERES DE PAZ

RUTA PACIFICA

INICIATIVA DE MUJERES POR LA PAZ

SISMA MUJER

FEDERACIÓN DEMOCRATICA INTERNACIONAL DE MUJERES – FDIM-

MUJERES DE MARCHA PATRIOTICA

COLECTIVA EMPANCIPATORIA DE MUJERES

RED MUJERES DEL CARIBE

HIJOS E HIJAS POR LA MEMORIA Y CONTRA LA IMPUNIDAD.

CORPORACION MUJER SIGUE MIS PASOS

RED NACIONAL DE MUJERES

MOVIMIENTO DE CRIMENES DE ESTADO- MOVICE-

COORDINACION COLOMBIA, EUROPA, ESTADOS UNIDOS –COEUROPA-

COLECTIVO DE ABOGADOS JOSE ALVEAR RESTREPO.

ASOCIACION NACIONAL DE ZONAS DE RESERVA CAMPESINA- ANZORC-

COLECTIVO NACIONAL DE MUJERES VICTIMAS MUJERES RESTABLECIENDO DERECHOS.

MUJERES TEJIENDO CAMINOS DE IGUALDAD.

LINEA DE GÉNERO DE LA UNIDAD DE PROCESOS POPULARES DE BOGOTÁ –UPP-.

http://www.farc-epeace.org/peace-process/news/item/1808-women-organizations-of-colombia-and-farc-ep-meet-in-havana.html

Guiding principles of the Final Agreement must be preserved

The spirit and core aspects of the Final Agreement reached between the FARC-EP and the National Government must be kept according to an open letter of jurists, academics, NGOs, institutes and professors.

After the triumph of the NO-vote to the Peace Agreement in the national plebiscite this past October 2, the Peace Process has entered a renegotiation phase in order to modify the agreement and present a new one with the inclusion of the concerns and proposals presented by the NO-camp representatives.

Government negotiators arrived in Havana with a package of more than 400 proposals presented by the NO-camp representatives in order to modify the agreement; in the midst of this process of renegotiation, a group of legal entities and personalities sent an open letter to the Peace Talks stating that "some of the guiding principles of the final agreement must be preserved".

The main concern regarding this renegotiation is related to the setbacks that a new agreement could mean to the rights of victims and the social and political conquests achieved in the previous agreement, for which the open letter outlines 21 “political and legal propositions that intend to conciliate the Final Agreement with the proposals of the NO-stand representatives”

Regarding the Comprehensive Rural Reform

The experts consider that the agreement is in line with the constitution and the law; and that in light of the concerns of certain sectors, the agreement should clarify the respect for private property and make the respective clarifications regarding issues such as the Land Fund and Peasant Reserve Zones.

The lack of these explicit clarifications was used by the NO-camp in order to state that the Final Agreement attempts against private property, something that has been denied by all national and international jurists and experts that have reviewed the agreement.

Regarding the Political Participation

As for political participation, the experts propose an alternative so that the rights of former combatants are gradually recovered, once the effective enforcement of the imposed sanctions is verified.

Regarding the Special Jurisdiction for Peace

The experts propose some alternatives such as advancing in the issuance of an amnesty law; they also believe that the Special Jurisdiction for Peace must be preserved as an autonomous and independent body from the ordinary justice system.

The document calls to make certain precisions to the agreement such as "the conditions of compliance with the effective restriction of freedom", one of the most questioned points by the detractors of the agreement.

Regarding the Gender Perspective

Lastly, the letter calls for clarification that the gender perspective does not endanger the family or religious freedom. This is due to the fact that the NO-camp promoters have repeatedly stated that the gender perspective on the Final Agreement attempts against family and religious values.

http://farc-epeace.org/newsflash/item/1838-guiding-principles-of-the-final-agreement-must-be-preserved.html

The 'No' side is trying to make this agreement a crushing victory for reaction. I don't see how FARC can deal with these people.

Thanks to the clamor of the Colombian people and as a product of the unwavering will for peace of the parties, last November 12 we signed a definitive Agreement for the end of the conflict. We are convinced that this is a victory for our combatants, the social and popular movement and all the democratic sectors of the country that love Peace.

Citizen mobilization and the contributions received from the most diverse social and political expressions have invigorated and enriched the Peace Pact, without losing the essence achieved in more than 4 years of dialogues.

It is a definitive agreement, inclusive and with the voices of all: the multiple religious creeds, women, LGBTI population, youth and students, political parties, academia, entrepreneurs, the judicial branch, human rights defenders, military and guerrilla. In it, Peace and reconciliation for our people are consecrated, without detriment of the conquered rights of any social sector.

For those who accompanied this important process in support of peace and the conquest of this final agreement, history and future generations will keep infinite gratitude and recognition.

The Final Agreement has been signed in use of the current constitutional powers of the President of the Republic, in accordance with the procedures of International Humanitarian Law, and within the framework of jurisprudence contained in Judgment C-376/2016 of the Constitutional Court.

The Agreement concluded by the parties on November 12 is a definitive agreement, signed as it reads in its Preamble as a Special Agreement under the terms of article 3 common to the Geneva Conventions of 1949, for the purposes of its international validity.

Peace cannot wait any longer nor does it endure delays.

This definitive agreement now awaits its endorsement in order to give way to its prompt implementation that the majority in the streets and squares of Colombia demand.

The Definitive Agreement is not an act of surrender of the insurgency, nor of the government, but rather a great consensus conquered with the vast majority of social and political sectors to end the war without sacrificing the essence of the rights claimed by the citizens.

A rigorous reading of the final text makes clear that, far from any propaganda artifice, none of the fundamental points that inspired our armed struggle have been yielded, which is what led us to build this path towards peace. The Comprehensive Rural Reform, the Democratic Opening, the Political Solution to the problem of illicit crops, Truth, Justice, Reparation and Non-Repetition for Victims, and the Gender Perspective remain in the document.

The reincorporation of members of the FARC-EP into civilian life and their transition to a legal political movement in full enjoyment of their political rights is guaranteed, leaving behind the longings of the “criminal law for the enemy” and a punitive and prison judicial system, to give way to a new system of restorative justice for all the actors of the conflict.

The necessary legal security of all the agreed is maintained when clearly defining that all the contents that correspond to International Humanitarian Law or fundamental rights and their related, will be obligatory parameters for the interpretation and validity of all the norms that regulate the agreement.

By preserving its fundamental architecture, the definitive Agreement possesses the transforming and democratizing power to leave behind the old Colombia of war and misery.

We are aware that the real possibility of unleashing the transformative power of the agreements rests on its political and social legitimacy, on the decisive democratic participation in its implementation and developments, to which we convene the entire Colombian people into.

This signing is not the point of arrival of the country or of our insurgent struggle. It is a step in the realization of the desire of all Colombians to live in a democratic Colombia with social justice. The FARC-EP will continue to work tirelessly to advance in compliance with the agreement and to continue our struggle for a New Colombia without the use of weapons. Therefore, we reiterate our call upon the Government to conclude with all the country's living forces, "a great NATIONAL POLITICAL AGREEMENT aimed at defining the necessary institutional reforms and adjustments to meet the challenges that peace demands, launching a new Framework of political and social coexistence ", which will allow us to continue and consolidate this wave of transformations towards the reconciliation of our country that this Peace Agreement has already unleashed.

Secretariat of the Central High Command of the FARC EP

http://farc-epeace.org/communiques/farc-ep/item/1856-the-new-agreement-of-peace-and-hope.html

Thanks to the clamor of the Colombian people and as a product of the unwavering will for peace of the parties, last November 12 we signed a definitive Agreement for the end of the conflict. We are convinced that this is a victory for our combatants, the social and popular movement and all the democratic sectors of the country that love Peace.

Citizen mobilization and the contributions received from the most diverse social and political expressions have invigorated and enriched the Peace Pact, without losing the essence achieved in more than 4 years of dialogues.

It is a definitive agreement, inclusive and with the voices of all: the multiple religious creeds, women, LGBTI population, youth and students, political parties, academia, entrepreneurs, the judicial branch, human rights defenders, military and guerrilla. In it, Peace and reconciliation for our people are consecrated, without detriment of the conquered rights of any social sector.

For those who accompanied this important process in support of peace and the conquest of this final agreement, history and future generations will keep infinite gratitude and recognition.

The Final Agreement has been signed in use of the current constitutional powers of the President of the Republic, in accordance with the procedures of International Humanitarian Law, and within the framework of jurisprudence contained in Judgment C-376/2016 of the Constitutional Court.

The Agreement concluded by the parties on November 12 is a definitive agreement, signed as it reads in its Preamble as a Special Agreement under the terms of article 3 common to the Geneva Conventions of 1949, for the purposes of its international validity.

Peace cannot wait any longer nor does it endure delays.

This definitive agreement now awaits its endorsement in order to give way to its prompt implementation that the majority in the streets and squares of Colombia demand.

The Definitive Agreement is not an act of surrender of the insurgency, nor of the government, but rather a great consensus conquered with the vast majority of social and political sectors to end the war without sacrificing the essence of the rights claimed by the citizens.

A rigorous reading of the final text makes clear that, far from any propaganda artifice, none of the fundamental points that inspired our armed struggle have been yielded, which is what led us to build this path towards peace. The Comprehensive Rural Reform, the Democratic Opening, the Political Solution to the problem of illicit crops, Truth, Justice, Reparation and Non-Repetition for Victims, and the Gender Perspective remain in the document.

The reincorporation of members of the FARC-EP into civilian life and their transition to a legal political movement in full enjoyment of their political rights is guaranteed, leaving behind the longings of the “criminal law for the enemy” and a punitive and prison judicial system, to give way to a new system of restorative justice for all the actors of the conflict.

The necessary legal security of all the agreed is maintained when clearly defining that all the contents that correspond to International Humanitarian Law or fundamental rights and their related, will be obligatory parameters for the interpretation and validity of all the norms that regulate the agreement.

By preserving its fundamental architecture, the definitive Agreement possesses the transforming and democratizing power to leave behind the old Colombia of war and misery.

We are aware that the real possibility of unleashing the transformative power of the agreements rests on its political and social legitimacy, on the decisive democratic participation in its implementation and developments, to which we convene the entire Colombian people into.

This signing is not the point of arrival of the country or of our insurgent struggle. It is a step in the realization of the desire of all Colombians to live in a democratic Colombia with social justice. The FARC-EP will continue to work tirelessly to advance in compliance with the agreement and to continue our struggle for a New Colombia without the use of weapons. Therefore, we reiterate our call upon the Government to conclude with all the country's living forces, "a great NATIONAL POLITICAL AGREEMENT aimed at defining the necessary institutional reforms and adjustments to meet the challenges that peace demands, launching a new Framework of political and social coexistence ", which will allow us to continue and consolidate this wave of transformations towards the reconciliation of our country that this Peace Agreement has already unleashed.

Secretariat of the Central High Command of the FARC EP

http://farc-epeace.org/communiques/farc-ep/item/1856-the-new-agreement-of-peace-and-hope.html

I know that the constant fighting against huge odds with the hegemon backing your enemy to the hilt took an unimaginable toll on the FARC. It has been brutal, and if the Colombian government actually lives up to its end of the bargain, then maybe there won't be any reprisals down the road, when no one is watching, anymore. But this feels bad, to me. I am glad for the end of the suffering, but this is surrender, after all is said and done.

I know that the constant fighting against huge odds with the hegemon backing your enemy to the hilt took an unimaginable toll on the FARC. It has been brutal, and if the Colombian government actually lives up to its end of the bargain, then maybe there won't be any reprisals down the road, when no one is watching, anymore. But this feels bad, to me. I am glad for the end of the suffering, but this is surrender, after all is said and done.

The government might be 'straight' but the private armies of the landowners cannot at all be trusted and I don't know that the government can be relied upon to sit on those beasts. FARC knows this, they gotta have plans 'B' & 'C' or they wouldn't be here today. It sure don't look good from here, but we can't even 'call' our own election.

The government might be 'straight' but the private armies of the landowners cannot at all be trusted and I don't know that the government can be relied upon to sit on those beasts. FARC knows this, they gotta have plans 'B' & 'C' or they wouldn't be here today. It sure don't look good from here, but we can't even 'call' our own election.

Yeah, I felt like a jackass even bringing it up. They have fought and died for decades...there's not much more to say.

Yeah, I felt like a jackass even bringing it up. They have fought and died for decades...there's not much more to say.

Colombia's Peace Trembles as 2 FARC Rebels Killed in Combat

http://www.telesurtv.net/export/sites/telesur/img/news/2016/11/17/farc_rebels_killed.jpg_1086514615.jpg
Members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia stand during a ceremony at a camp in the Colombian mountains on Feb. 18, 2016. | Photo: AFP

Published 17 November 2016 (2 hours 40 minutes ago)

The killing of two FARC rebels in combat marks the first armed confrontation between government forces and the FARC in 131 days.
In a setback to major strides toward peace in Colombia, the bilateral cease-fire between the government and the FARC ruptured Wednesday as two rebel fighters were killed in combat in the northern department of Bolivar just days after the two sides of the more than 50-year-old conflict signed a new peace agreement.
The Revolution Armed Forces of Colombia, the country’s largest guerrilla army, identified the two fallen fighters as Monica and Joaco of the group’s Front 37 unit.

Differing versions of events have surfaced from FARC commanders and Colombian authorities. The Ministry of Defense reports that the armed guerrilla rebels were well outside their designated areas and carrying out criminal activities. FARC leaders, on the other hand, claim that the troops were marching on route to so-called “pre-concentration” areas where members of the rebel army are gathering ahead of the final process of demobilization and laying down of arms.

However, both sides of the more than half century-long civil war agreed that the incident underlines the fragility of the bilateral cease-fire and the urgency of implementing the newly-updated peace agreement, finalized after four years of talks in Havana, Cuba.

Chief government peace negotiator Humberto de la Calle told local media Wednesday that the “discrepancy of narratives” isn’t the central issue. “The important this is the lesson that (the ceasefire) is fragile; we cannot delay,” he said.

The FARC has called for an “official statement” from the U.N.-backed mission charged with monitoring and verifying the cease-fire to clarify the facts around the incident. FARC leader Luis Antonio Losada, also known by his alias Carlos Antonio Lozada, wrote on his Twitter account that the military’s version of events “lacks validity,” calling on the monitoring and verification body to “determine the circumstances” that led to the deaths of the two rebels.

Spanish lawyer Enrique Santiago, who has served as a legal advisor to the FARC during the peace negotiations in Havana, wrote on his Twitter account that the two rebels were killed “by a sniper,” adding that the “violation of the bilateral cease-fire is a war crime.”

The cease-fire officially launched on Aug. 29 after the FARC and government teams finalized a historic peace agreement at the negotiation table in Havana. The agreement to cease hostilities is credited with significantly reducing violence in the country, home to the longest-running civil war in the Western Hemisphere.



But the future of the cease-fire and breakthrough rapprochement was thrust into uncertainty when voters narrowly rejected the peace agreement by less than half a percentage point in the Oct. 2 plebiscite on the deal. Negotiators restarted talks and the cease-fire was extended until the end of the year while the country’s fledgling peace hung in political limbo.

FARC and government negotiators signed a new peace deal in Havana Saturday after taking into consideration hundreds of proposals for changes from diverse sectors of Colombian society. Both sides of the conflict have described the new deal as “definitive.”

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, currently in the United States to undergo medical exams for a possible prostate cancer relapse, had repeatedly stressed the urgency of salvaging the peace deal as soon as possible to guard against threats to the delicate cease-fire.

As part of the peace deal, FARC rebels demobilize in the coming months, moving out of their jungle camps into 27 transitional zones across the country. Once they have laid down their weapons, which will be melted down to create three peace monuments, they will reorganize as a political party.

The killing of the two FARC rebels marked the first documented break in some 80 days of the official bilateral cease-fire and, according to the Center for Resources for Analysis of the Conflict, the first armed confrontation in 131 days without combat between government forces and the FARC. The center’s director, Jorge Restrepo, argued on his Twitter account that the “only way to stop the conflict and get out of the situation of risk is to begin disarmament” now that the new peace deal has been signed.

FARC leader Rodrigo Granda, also known by his nom de guerre Ricardo Tellez, wrote on his Twitter account celebrating Monica and Joaco as “heroes of peace for Colombia.”

Colombia’s 52-year internal conflict has claimed some 260,000 lives and victimized at least 8 million more Colombians.

http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Colombias-Peace-Trembles-as-2-FARC-Rebels-Killed-in-Combat-20161117-0009.html

Doesn't mean I'm not nervous as hell about it too. Either the government is untrustworthy or cannot control it's military. We'll see if there is any punishment for this, that'll tell.

videos at link

Despite Peace Discourse, Government Keeps Silence on Assassinations of Social Leaders

Posted by WORLD REVOLUTIONARY FRONT IN DEFENSE OF LIFE AND HUMANITY on NOVEMBER 20, 2016

FARC-EP

In recent days, after coming to a new final agreement in Havana, Cuba between the Colombian Government and the FARC-EP and at eves of the implementation of peace agreements, the human rights and political persecution is increasing: 4 more social and community leaders have been killed and one student activist was reported missing.
The government has not released any statement on the matter and seems to ignore the situation despite the fact that these practices of persecution to political opponents are rooted to the causes of the existence of the armed conflict itself. At this stage of the Peace process, the continuity and spike of assassinations of political opponents raises serious concerns on the willingness of the government and far right political sectors to stop the use of weapons for political means.
These cases have common elements: They are all perpetrated against members of the social and political movement Marcha Patriótica (MP hereafter) and they are all well known activists in their respective regions, their activism and organizing capacity is perceived as a threat to economic and political sectors that insist on the use of violence and unwillingness to process political differences within the framework of democracy.

The region of Caquetá:

On Friday November 25, Erley Monroy, a community leader who in recent times raised awareness and organized the community on the high environmental and social costs of the Fracking project set for the Losada-Guayabero zone, was shot dead on a road leading to his farm near the Cazadores Battalion of the Armed Forces, he was a member of MP and had denounced the Mayor of San Vicente del Caguán for stigmatizing him and the community.

https://i0.wp.com/farc-epeace.org/images/ErleyMonroyCaqueta1.jpg

This community leader was also an activist in pro of the constitution of a Peasant Reserve Zone in his region, which is something that is already contemplated in Colombia´s legal framework –but has rarely been implemented due to political constraints by powerful economic sectors- and that allows the establishment of a zone in which the environmental, territorial, economic, social and cultural ordering is planned out by the community itself according to its interests and with the assistance of the State.
Also read: Environment and Natural Resource preservation: A long path towards real transformations
Another peasant leader that worked with Erley was also shot when he was returning home from the burial of his friend; this took place on Saturday November 19 at 11pm, his name is Hugo Cuellar, also a member of the MP and president of the local peasant association of the La Victoria rural settlement, he is currently receiving medical attention after being wounded in his abdomen by a gun shot.

Unfortunately, the suffering by the peasants of this region doesn’t end there; early in the morning of that same Saturday, Didier Losada, another peasant activist member of MP was shot dead in front of his wife and child when masked men barged into his house in the San Juan de Losada rural settlement.

National spokesperson of the MP, David Flórez stated that “it is not possible to move towards a process of construction of a stable and lasting peace […] while paramilitary groups take action against very prominent leaders of the regions” to RCN radio, adding on that “we [MP] have been denouncing that despite the fact that the dynamics of the armed conflict between the FARC and the national government have decreased, the murder and persecution of social leaders and human rights defenders throughout the territory has increased”.

The regions of Cauca and Valle del Cauca:

John Jairo Rodriguez, member of MP in the Cauca region and also activist in pro of constituting the Peasant Reserve Zone of Caloto, was found dead with three gunshot wounds on the road between the Toez indigenous reserve and the village of El Palo. He was a father of four children and member of the Popular Unity Process of the Colombian Southwest (PUPSOC).

https://i1.wp.com/farc-epeace.org/images/jhonrodriguez_cauca.jpg[/img[

He was also a prominent leader and his death was only one of many that had been occurring in the region; the FARC-EP in a communiqué in rejection of the infamous murder of this leader stated that “This new murder is proof of the slow genocide against Marcha Patriotica and the popular movement carried out by sectors that are enemies of peace. Four years after its foundation, more than 120 of its leaders have been killed. These killings and other human rights violations create a climate of fear and represent a potential threat to a country that dreams of the end, once and for all, this violent conflict”.

Alejandro Ramírez, a leader of MP in the southwest region explained to Pazífico Noticias how José Antonio Velasco, activist in pro of the constitution of the Peasant Reserve Zone of Caloto was approached on the night of November 16 by unknown men in a truck, “they illegally retained him, pulled him into the truck, tortured him and left him badly injured on the road” after which he was found and taken to a medical institution where he passed away.

These cases are attributed to paramilitary organizations; Alejandro Ramírez called for “paramilitarism to end as a State policy. Paramilitaries are not only private death squads but also a product of the National Security doctrine that is still immersed in the Armed Forces” adding on that “we [MP] believe that a first step is to democratize the security policy of the Armed Forces in order for the paramilitary element to disappear”.

The dynamic of political persecution is not only something that peasants have to live with, in the cities these cases are also increasing. 24 year old student activist Hannier Hurtado was reported missing on October 30; he is also a member of MP and of the Popular Unity Process of the Colombian Southwest (PUPSOC), he left his house that day and never came back.

[img]https://i1.wp.com/farc-epeace.org/images/hannierhurtado1.jpg

A couple months before, in a pamphlet that circulated at his university (Universidad del Valle) included a list of 10 student activists of MP that were threatened to be killed if they continued their political activism. Also, in a letter written to a friend days before, Hannier Hurtado expressed that he was frightened because his life was at risk. To this day, his whereabouts are unknown.

The silence kept by government officials and the lack of coverage on mass media outlets on these cases may be understood as a form of complicity. It can be said that this is a humanitarian crisis and it is important for the national and international community to spread this information and request guarantees for the exercise of political opposition in Colombia in order to advance towards the longing of Peace.

Colombia cannot repeat its history of political extermination.

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2016/11/20/despite-peace-discourse-government-keeps-silence-on-assassinations-of-social-leaders/

Militaries recognize that they will "do nothing" against paramilitaries

Source: Contagio Radio

The Peace Community of San José de Apartadó reported that members of the Armed Forces said that they are not going to do anything against the paramilitaries who have been stationed at the “Arenas Bajas” and “Artenas Altas” rural settlements for over 30 days, and that they will also "misrepresent" all complaints that the community makes.

The paramilitaries also stated that their objective is to stay in the territory.

According to the complaint of the Peace Community of San José de Apartadó, both the military and the paramilitaries are operating in a similar way because they build their camps in the middle of where families grow their subsistence crops, damaging crops and making threats against the inhabitants of the rural settlements. The cases have occurred in the rural settlements of "la union", "arenas altas" and "arenas bajas" located in rural areas.

One of the most disturbing episodes for members of the peace community and the international observers, was when it was directly verified that paramilitaries were camped in the Arenas Bajas rural settlement and when requested by the community to leave, they said they arrived to stay, they “reiterate that they are not going to leave the area, because their main goal is to stay in the territories" said the public denounce.

http://farc-epeace.org/images/AGCComunidaddePaz.jpg

Another concern revolves around the inaction by the military forces, since farmers clearly stated that when they requested the army to fight against the paramilitaries, they responded that they were aware of their presence but that they would not perform any action and that they will deny any claim that the community where to make.

According to the account of the community, the militaries expressed that "they are aware of the paramilitary presence in the region, but they are not going to do anything, because any complaint made by that HP (sic) Community of Peace, they will distort it before the public opinion and the international community as "Peace community hoaxes".

Finally, the Peace Community calls for solidarity of social organizations both in Colombia and abroad, to demand the State to be coherent with the needs of the communities and the construction of peace “to demand a minimum coherence to a State that makes continuous promises of peace, while it acts in opposition".

http://farc-epeace.org/newsflash/item/1751-militaries-recognize-that-they-will-do-nothing-against-paramilitaries.html

Militaries recognize that they will "do nothing" against paramilitaries

Source: Contagio Radio

The Peace Community of San José de Apartadó reported that members of the Armed Forces said that they are not going to do anything against the paramilitaries who have been stationed at the “Arenas Bajas” and “Artenas Altas” rural settlements for over 30 days, and that they will also "misrepresent" all complaints that the community makes.

The paramilitaries also stated that their objective is to stay in the territory.

According to the complaint of the Peace Community of San José de Apartadó, both the military and the paramilitaries are operating in a similar way because they build their camps in the middle of where families grow their subsistence crops, damaging crops and making threats against the inhabitants of the rural settlements. The cases have occurred in the rural settlements of "la union", "arenas altas" and "arenas bajas" located in rural areas.

One of the most disturbing episodes for members of the peace community and the international observers, was when it was directly verified that paramilitaries were camped in the Arenas Bajas rural settlement and when requested by the community to leave, they said they arrived to stay, they “reiterate that they are not going to leave the area, because their main goal is to stay in the territories" said the public denounce.

http://farc-epeace.org/images/AGCComunidaddePaz.jpg

Another concern revolves around the inaction by the military forces, since farmers clearly stated that when they requested the army to fight against the paramilitaries, they responded that they were aware of their presence but that they would not perform any action and that they will deny any claim that the community where to make.

According to the account of the community, the militaries expressed that "they are aware of the paramilitary presence in the region, but they are not going to do anything, because any complaint made by that HP (sic) Community of Peace, they will distort it before the public opinion and the international community as "Peace community hoaxes".

Finally, the Peace Community calls for solidarity of social organizations both in Colombia and abroad, to demand the State to be coherent with the needs of the communities and the construction of peace “to demand a minimum coherence to a State that makes continuous promises of peace, while it acts in opposition".

http://farc-epeace.org/newsflash/item/1751-militaries-recognize-that-they-will-do-nothing-against-paramilitaries.html

I am not completely sure I got all that, what the translation and all, but it sounds bad. This bullshit about the army not moving because any action they take will be misrepresented in the "media", is dangerous and strikes me as a set-up. The army and it's bosses seem to be setting the table for a one-sided bloodbath.

Edit to add: I read "paramilitaries" as FARC, but after trying to re-read, it is somewhat unclear.

I am not completely sure I got all that, what the translation and all, but it sounds bad. This bullshit about the army not moving because any action they take will be misrepresented in the "media", is dangerous and strikes me as a set-up. The army and it's bosses seem to be setting the table for a one-sided bloodbath.

Edit to add: I read "paramilitaries" as FARC, but after trying to re-read, it is somewhat unclear.

I think by 'paramilitaries' they're referring to the private armies and punishers of the booj. And yes, this smells to high heaven.

I think by 'paramilitaries' they're referring to the private armies and punishers of the booj. And yes, this smells to high heaven.

Damn. I just cannot see these hardened FARC fighters putting down arms when you got shit like this going on. Man, and folks here think right-wing Republicans taking office is a "danger"; these Colombians are in danger and their only hope is about to be disarmed...

FARC Warns 'New Genocide' Targets Colombia's Social Movements

http://www.telesurtv.net/__export/1479751486550/sites/telesur/img/news/2016/11/21/farc_colombia_1998.jpg_1718483346.jpg
FARC Rebels seen in 1998 | Photo: Reuters

Published 21 November 2016 (2 hours 26 minutes ago)

A brutal wave of violence against activists recalls the bloody history of the systematic extermination of the Patriotic Union party.
Leaders of Colombia’s largest rebel army, the FARC, penned an open letter to President Juan Manuel Santos Monday urging him to publicly acknowledge the crisis of fatal violence targeting rural and social leaders in the country that they dubbed a “new genocide.”

“The situation is very dramatic and worrying,” wrote the FARC. “More than 200 deaths so far this year with a total blanket of impunity. A new genocide is in motion against social and campesino leaders.”

The damning letter comes after yet another campesino leader, Erley Monroy Fierro, was gunned down Friday, and just one day before Santos and FARC leader Rodrigo Londoño, also known as Timoleon Jimenez or Timochenko, are expected to sign the updated peace deal on Tuesday.

In the letter, the FARC detailed a slew of attacks in the past week threatening the safety of labor and campesino leaders with systematic violence, including three murders and two assassination attempts in the span of just 48 hours.



“Mr. President, it’s public knowledge that those behind these targeted and political assassinations are the same ones that have reaped money, power and privileges thanks to the fratricidal war that has bled the country for more than 52 years,” the letter continued. “They are the same ones for whom there will be no peace agreement that satisfies them, however good it may be, because what they want is for the war to continue (and) to continue increasing privileges and power.”

The wave of attacks against rural leaders, trade unionists and peace activists chillingly recalls the history of the violent extermination of the left-wing political party Patriotic Union beginning in the 1980s. Patriotic Union, founded by members of the FARC and the Colombian Communist Party, suffered what has been called a political genocide as two presidential candidates, dozens of lawmakers, and thousands of supporters were assassinated in the late 1980s and early 1990s. In September, Santos apologized for the Colombian state’s role — together with paramilitaries — in the systematic murder of up to 6,500 members of the Patriotic Union.

Now, the Marcha Patriotica, a political movement uniting some 2,000 social organizations, reports that more than 120 of its activists have been killed since it was founded four years ago.

Social movements and left-wing political leaders have raised alarm in recent days that a new political genocide is already emerging, a somber sign for the country’s budding new era of peace set in motion by the historic end-of-conflict agreement between the FARC and the government. Social organizations have urged authorities to implement the peace accords as soon as possible as a means of reducing violence and putting the country on a path toward building stable and lasting peace.

“If you are committed to peace in Colombia,” the FARC wrote to Santos, “act accordingly by putting an end to this extermination of innocent people — whose sin appears to be critical thinking and a new vision for the country — (and) implementing the agreement on security guarantees now.”

http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/FARC-Warns-New-Genocide-Targets-Colombias-Social-Movements-20161121-0010.html

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Colombia's Patriotic Union: A Victim of Political Genocide 0Comentarios +
“I believe, and I say it with all sincerity and at times coldly, that I know they are going to assassinate me.”

http://www.telesurtv.net/__export/1445653316330/sites/telesur/img/news/2015/10/23/flags_patriotic_union_crop1445651932279.jpg_916636689.jpg
Survivors of the political genocide of the Patriotic Union, alongside supporters, march with the party

So said Bernardo Jaramillo Ossa, the Patriotic Union’s presidential candidate in the 1990 election. And he was right.

On March 22, 1990, Bernardo Jaramillo was gunned down in cold blood inside the Bogota airport.

The murder of Bernardo Jaramillo is but one episode in the larger tragedy that was the systematic campaign of assassination and terror against supporters of the Patriotic Union party, known as the UP. Jaramillo wasn't even the first UP presidential candidate killed.

Jaramillo took over the leadership of the party from Jaime Pardo Leal, the UP candidate for the 1986 elections, who was murdered in 1987. In total 21 lawmakers, 70 local councilors, 11 mayors and no less than 5,000 supporters were killed in what was deemed a political genocide.

http://www.telesurtv.net/export/sites/telesur/img/news/2015/10/23/bernardo_jaramillo_crop1445652652377.jpg_932377639.jpg
An image of the assassinated presidential candidate of the Patriotic Union, Bernardo Jaramillo, sits in Bolivar Square in Bogota, Colombia, Oct. 18, 2012. | Photo: EFE

The Patriotic Union was a big-tent, leftist political party born out of peace negotiations between the government of President Belisario Betancur (1982 - 1986) and rebel groups, including the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

Colombians had grown fatigued with the status quo, whether it was the army massacre of workers in 1928, or the decade of conflict between the supporters of the Liberal and Conservative parties that left hundreds of thousands dead. Violence was too often used to settle political differences.

Founded in 1985, the party embodied the hope that Colombia could break with its violence-plagued past and achieve change through the electoral process.

The leaders of the FARC also acknowledged that agreements signed with the government represented a democratic opening that had not existed before.

The deal signed between the government and the FARC, known as the Uribe Agreements, sought a political solution to the long-running armed conflict. It included a series of political reforms and explicitly provided for the creation of this new legal political party that would act as a vehicle for the political ideas defended by the rebels.

Critically, the deal also included a commitment from the state to defend the political rights of those who put their faith in this new, legal political vehicle for change.

A Political Death Trap

The state not only failed to protect supporters of the UP, however, but actively formed part of the effort to extinguish the party and its members.

The deal became a trap and exposed political actors associated with an armed rebel movement — the ire of political elites, narco-traffickers and landowners — to its enemies. Almost from the very start, supporters of the UP were targeted.

The goal of the UP's enemies was to extinguish the party and ultimately the ideas that it supported, such as land reform, reduction of inequality and social investment.

Despite the constant threats, killings and forced disappearances, the UP endured. In the 1986 elections, barely a year after being created, the party won a number of posts and its presidential candidate won 4.54 percent of the vote, a historic achievement.

Colombia, traditionally ruled by either the Liberals and Conservatives, now had a third party that represented socialist ideas and was gaining support from the population.

The traditional elites felt threatened and stepped up their attacks against the UP and its supporters.

Through clandestine schemes such as “Plan Esmeralda” and “Plan Red Dance,” state forces, together with paramilitaries, worked to eliminate the influence and growing power of the UP, focusing on the areas where it was strongest.

In an effort to decapitate the party, elected representatives and party leaders in particular were targeted for assassination.

“There is a direct relationship between the emergence, activity and the electoral support of the Patriotic Union and the killing of its activists in regions where the presence of that party was interpreted as a threat to the maintenance of the privileges of certain groups,” read a 1992 report by the Colombian Ombudsperson.

http://www.telesurtv.net/export/sites/telesur/img/news/2015/10/23/fotos_victimas_up_2_crop1445652876706.jpg_931454118.jpg
Photos of forcibly disappeared supporters of the Patriotic Union are displayed as part of the “Gallery of Memory” in Bogota, Colombia, Aug. 9, 2004. | Photo: EFE

In the face of this violence, many former FARC combatants returned to the jungles and mountains of Colombia to resume the armed struggle.

The state-sponsored repression against the UP continued through the 1990s.

So great was the violence that in 1996 the president of the party, Aida Avella, was forced into exile after her car was attacked with a rocket launcher.

The party, debilitated as a result of the political genocide, was officially extinguished on September 30, 2002 when Colombia's electoral authority dissolved its official registration after it failed to get the necessary amount of votes.

The Patriotic Union Today

In 2013, recognizing that the UP lost its registration as a result of the crisis it faced after its membership was nearly eradicated, the Colombian Council of State decided to restore its legal status. Aida Avella returned from exile after 17 years and in 2014 ran for vice-president alongside Clara Lopez of the leftist Democratic Alternative Pole.

The UP is slowing rebuilding itself as a party. Aida Avella is now running for a council seat in Bogota and the party is backing Clara Lopez for mayor of Bogota.

http://www.telesurtv.net/export/sites/telesur/img/news/2015/10/23/aida_avella_up_crop1445653209134.jpg_932377639.jpg
Aida Avella, a historic leader of the UP, leads a rally in Bogota, Colombia, Nov. 15, 2013. | Photo: EFE

A new effort to secure peace with the FARC, begun in 2012, now approaches the finish line, with a final deal expected in March 2016.

But the ghosts of the political genocide still haunt Colombia.

During a speech in February 1989, Bernardo Jaramillo said, “You cannot talk about peace if you do not effectively combat against paramilitary groups.”

These irregular armed groups persist to this day and pose a serious threat to a post-conflict Colombia.

The Patriotic March, a social movement backed by many of the same progressive political forces that backed the UP, has seen dozens of its leaders assassinated. The Center for Research and Popular Education, a Colombian Jesuit NGO, released a report in May, 2014 that warned that a “genocide” against the Patriotic March was underway with 48 of its leaders killed. The NGO warned that what took place with the membership of the UP could happen to the Patriotic March.

Political activists are not the only ones threatened by paramilitary groups. A report by the organization Somos Defensores released in August 2015 revealed that attacks against human rights defenders from January to June had risen from 194 in 2014 to 399 in 2015, an increase of 105 percent.

In other words, twice a day human rights defenders were attacked or harassed — and every 5 days one was killed.

Today’s Enemies of Peace

There are also still elements inside the Colombian state that vehemently oppose peace. Colombian Attorney General Alejandro Ordoñez recently launched an investigation against a leftist senator, Ivan Cepeda, over his efforts to hold former President Alvaro Uribe accountable for his alleged links to far-right paramilitaries and their crimes against humanity.

Ordoñez is an ally of Uribe, while Cepeda is a champion of the peace process. It is worth noting that Cepeda is also the son of Manuel Cepeda, a UP Senator assassinated in 1994.

Ordoñez's actions have been criticized by progressives in Colombia and the FARC peace delegation accused the attorney general of seeking to silence “one of the leading voices of the opposition.”

It also sends a dangerous message in a country that is on the brink of ending over five decades of conflict.

Peace in Colombia is contingent on all political actors having the confidence that change can happen through legal means, lest history repeat itself and those committed to change be forced to contend with another political genocide.

http://www.telesurtv.net/english/analysis/Colombias-Patriotic-Union-A-Victim-of-Political-Genocide-20151023-0056.html

FARC Warns 'New Genocide' Targets Colombia's Social Movements

http://www.telesurtv.net/__export/1479751486550/sites/telesur/img/news/2016/11/21/farc_colombia_1998.jpg_1718483346.jpg
FARC Rebels seen in 1998 | Photo: Reuters

Published 21 November 2016 (2 hours 26 minutes ago)

A brutal wave of violence against activists recalls the bloody history of the systematic extermination of the Patriotic Union party.
Leaders of Colombia’s largest rebel army, the FARC, penned an open letter to President Juan Manuel Santos Monday urging him to publicly acknowledge the crisis of fatal violence targeting rural and social leaders in the country that they dubbed a “new genocide.”

“The situation is very dramatic and worrying,” wrote the FARC. “More than 200 deaths so far this year with a total blanket of impunity. A new genocide is in motion against social and campesino leaders.”

The damning letter comes after yet another campesino leader, Erley Monroy Fierro, was gunned down Friday, and just one day before Santos and FARC leader Rodrigo Londoño, also known as Timoleon Jimenez or Timochenko, are expected to sign the updated peace deal on Tuesday.

In the letter, the FARC detailed a slew of attacks in the past week threatening the safety of labor and campesino leaders with systematic violence, including three murders and two assassination attempts in the span of just 48 hours.



“Mr. President, it’s public knowledge that those behind these targeted and political assassinations are the same ones that have reaped money, power and privileges thanks to the fratricidal war that has bled the country for more than 52 years,” the letter continued. “They are the same ones for whom there will be no peace agreement that satisfies them, however good it may be, because what they want is for the war to continue (and) to continue increasing privileges and power.”

The wave of attacks against rural leaders, trade unionists and peace activists chillingly recalls the history of the violent extermination of the left-wing political party Patriotic Union beginning in the 1980s. Patriotic Union, founded by members of the FARC and the Colombian Communist Party, suffered what has been called a political genocide as two presidential candidates, dozens of lawmakers, and thousands of supporters were assassinated in the late 1980s and early 1990s. In September, Santos apologized for the Colombian state’s role — together with paramilitaries — in the systematic murder of up to 6,500 members of the Patriotic Union.

Now, the Marcha Patriotica, a political movement uniting some 2,000 social organizations, reports that more than 120 of its activists have been killed since it was founded four years ago.

Social movements and left-wing political leaders have raised alarm in recent days that a new political genocide is already emerging, a somber sign for the country’s budding new era of peace set in motion by the historic end-of-conflict agreement between the FARC and the government. Social organizations have urged authorities to implement the peace accords as soon as possible as a means of reducing violence and putting the country on a path toward building stable and lasting peace.

“If you are committed to peace in Colombia,” the FARC wrote to Santos, “act accordingly by putting an end to this extermination of innocent people — whose sin appears to be critical thinking and a new vision for the country — (and) implementing the agreement on security guarantees now.”

http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/FARC-Warns-New-Genocide-Targets-Colombias-Social-Movements-20161121-0010.html

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Colombia's Patriotic Union: A Victim of Political Genocide 0Comentarios +
“I believe, and I say it with all sincerity and at times coldly, that I know they are going to assassinate me.”

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Survivors of the political genocide of the Patriotic Union, alongside supporters, march with the party

So said Bernardo Jaramillo Ossa, the Patriotic Union’s presidential candidate in the 1990 election. And he was right.

On March 22, 1990, Bernardo Jaramillo was gunned down in cold blood inside the Bogota airport.

The murder of Bernardo Jaramillo is but one episode in the larger tragedy that was the systematic campaign of assassination and terror against supporters of the Patriotic Union party, known as the UP. Jaramillo wasn't even the first UP presidential candidate killed.

Jaramillo took over the leadership of the party from Jaime Pardo Leal, the UP candidate for the 1986 elections, who was murdered in 1987. In total 21 lawmakers, 70 local councilors, 11 mayors and no less than 5,000 supporters were killed in what was deemed a political genocide.

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An image of the assassinated presidential candidate of the Patriotic Union, Bernardo Jaramillo, sits in Bolivar Square in Bogota, Colombia, Oct. 18, 2012. | Photo: EFE

The Patriotic Union was a big-tent, leftist political party born out of peace negotiations between the government of President Belisario Betancur (1982 - 1986) and rebel groups, including the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

Colombians had grown fatigued with the status quo, whether it was the army massacre of workers in 1928, or the decade of conflict between the supporters of the Liberal and Conservative parties that left hundreds of thousands dead. Violence was too often used to settle political differences.

Founded in 1985, the party embodied the hope that Colombia could break with its violence-plagued past and achieve change through the electoral process.

The leaders of the FARC also acknowledged that agreements signed with the government represented a democratic opening that had not existed before.

The deal signed between the government and the FARC, known as the Uribe Agreements, sought a political solution to the long-running armed conflict. It included a series of political reforms and explicitly provided for the creation of this new legal political party that would act as a vehicle for the political ideas defended by the rebels.

Critically, the deal also included a commitment from the state to defend the political rights of those who put their faith in this new, legal political vehicle for change.

A Political Death Trap

The state not only failed to protect supporters of the UP, however, but actively formed part of the effort to extinguish the party and its members.

The deal became a trap and exposed political actors associated with an armed rebel movement — the ire of political elites, narco-traffickers and landowners — to its enemies. Almost from the very start, supporters of the UP were targeted.

The goal of the UP's enemies was to extinguish the party and ultimately the ideas that it supported, such as land reform, reduction of inequality and social investment.

Despite the constant threats, killings and forced disappearances, the UP endured. In the 1986 elections, barely a year after being created, the party won a number of posts and its presidential candidate won 4.54 percent of the vote, a historic achievement.

Colombia, traditionally ruled by either the Liberals and Conservatives, now had a third party that represented socialist ideas and was gaining support from the population.

The traditional elites felt threatened and stepped up their attacks against the UP and its supporters.

Through clandestine schemes such as “Plan Esmeralda” and “Plan Red Dance,” state forces, together with paramilitaries, worked to eliminate the influence and growing power of the UP, focusing on the areas where it was strongest.

In an effort to decapitate the party, elected representatives and party leaders in particular were targeted for assassination.

“There is a direct relationship between the emergence, activity and the electoral support of the Patriotic Union and the killing of its activists in regions where the presence of that party was interpreted as a threat to the maintenance of the privileges of certain groups,” read a 1992 report by the Colombian Ombudsperson.

http://www.telesurtv.net/export/sites/telesur/img/news/2015/10/23/fotos_victimas_up_2_crop1445652876706.jpg_931454118.jpg
Photos of forcibly disappeared supporters of the Patriotic Union are displayed as part of the “Gallery of Memory” in Bogota, Colombia, Aug. 9, 2004. | Photo: EFE

In the face of this violence, many former FARC combatants returned to the jungles and mountains of Colombia to resume the armed struggle.

The state-sponsored repression against the UP continued through the 1990s.

So great was the violence that in 1996 the president of the party, Aida Avella, was forced into exile after her car was attacked with a rocket launcher.

The party, debilitated as a result of the political genocide, was officially extinguished on September 30, 2002 when Colombia's electoral authority dissolved its official registration after it failed to get the necessary amount of votes.

The Patriotic Union Today

In 2013, recognizing that the UP lost its registration as a result of the crisis it faced after its membership was nearly eradicated, the Colombian Council of State decided to restore its legal status. Aida Avella returned from exile after 17 years and in 2014 ran for vice-president alongside Clara Lopez of the leftist Democratic Alternative Pole.

The UP is slowing rebuilding itself as a party. Aida Avella is now running for a council seat in Bogota and the party is backing Clara Lopez for mayor of Bogota.

http://www.telesurtv.net/export/sites/telesur/img/news/2015/10/23/aida_avella_up_crop1445653209134.jpg_932377639.jpg
Aida Avella, a historic leader of the UP, leads a rally in Bogota, Colombia, Nov. 15, 2013. | Photo: EFE

A new effort to secure peace with the FARC, begun in 2012, now approaches the finish line, with a final deal expected in March 2016.

But the ghosts of the political genocide still haunt Colombia.

During a speech in February 1989, Bernardo Jaramillo said, “You cannot talk about peace if you do not effectively combat against paramilitary groups.”

These irregular armed groups persist to this day and pose a serious threat to a post-conflict Colombia.

The Patriotic March, a social movement backed by many of the same progressive political forces that backed the UP, has seen dozens of its leaders assassinated. The Center for Research and Popular Education, a Colombian Jesuit NGO, released a report in May, 2014 that warned that a “genocide” against the Patriotic March was underway with 48 of its leaders killed. The NGO warned that what took place with the membership of the UP could happen to the Patriotic March.

Political activists are not the only ones threatened by paramilitary groups. A report by the organization Somos Defensores released in August 2015 revealed that attacks against human rights defenders from January to June had risen from 194 in 2014 to 399 in 2015, an increase of 105 percent.

In other words, twice a day human rights defenders were attacked or harassed — and every 5 days one was killed.

Today’s Enemies of Peace

There are also still elements inside the Colombian state that vehemently oppose peace. Colombian Attorney General Alejandro Ordoñez recently launched an investigation against a leftist senator, Ivan Cepeda, over his efforts to hold former President Alvaro Uribe accountable for his alleged links to far-right paramilitaries and their crimes against humanity.

Ordoñez is an ally of Uribe, while Cepeda is a champion of the peace process. It is worth noting that Cepeda is also the son of Manuel Cepeda, a UP Senator assassinated in 1994.

Ordoñez's actions have been criticized by progressives in Colombia and the FARC peace delegation accused the attorney general of seeking to silence “one of the leading voices of the opposition.”

It also sends a dangerous message in a country that is on the brink of ending over five decades of conflict.

Peace in Colombia is contingent on all political actors having the confidence that change can happen through legal means, lest history repeat itself and those committed to change be forced to contend with another political genocide.

http://www.telesurtv.net/english/analysis/Colombias-Patriotic-Union-A-Victim-of-Political-Genocide-20151023-0056.html

Man, this is troubling shit. This is going to go badly, I just "feel" it. I hope the FARC keeps an arms stash, close to hand.

Let words be the only weapon of the Colombian People

To achieve the signing of this Definitive Agreement, we Colombians have lived through more than seven decades of violence, half a century of open war, thirty-three years in peace processes, five years of debates in Havana, the disenchantment of the October 2 Plebiscite and the most historic effort to achieve the majority consensus of the nation.

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In this last stage we enriched and modified the previous Agreement, taking into account the concerns and proposals, clarifications and specific definitions made by the most varied groups and social organizations, opinion sectors as well as political parties and movements. We studied with care and attention everything put to the consideration of the parties at the Negotiation Table by the various groups, and we introduced important and numerous changes and substantial modifications to the old texts, until turning the Final Agreement into the Definitive Final Agreement.

The Havana Table was once again surrounded by the support of the international community, deeply concerned that the peace efforts in Colombia could safely reach the port. The voices of encouragement from the United Nations, the European Union, the United States Government, the Vatican, the CELAC and the accompanying countries Venezuela and Chile, would join the permanent presence of Cuba and Norway, guarantor countries of the process, who night and day have been watching over the successful culmination of the work of the delegations. To all of them our eternal recognition.

Colombian women's organizations are the creators of this Definitive Agreement: they manifested themselves in many ways to make known the true meaning of their aspirations. The same can be said of the LGTBI movement. We met in Havana with delegations from various Christian faiths, social movements and different political parties. Several personalities of Colombian politics were also present to contribute their stitches in the common desire to weave the wisest formulas.

http://farc-epeace.org/images/final-accord.jpg

Our feeling of solidarity and admiration for the thousands of compatriots who took to the streets and squares of cities and towns, to express their disapproval of the war, their support for the foundations of the Final Agreement, and to require the parties sitting at the Negotiation Table not to stop until signing a Definitive Agreement. Our feeling of solidarity goes to the young and university students who succeeded in awakening a genuine national mobilization in defense of the political solution, and who promoted and conquered a Youth Pact for Peace, between the majority of the political representations of the different parties and movements, including the Conservative Party and the Democratic Center.

To the indigenous, peasant and Afro-descendant communities, the agrarian and communal leaders with a long history in the work for peace in the territories, the tens of thousands of families that joined the FARC in the vigils for peace, personalities of the Catholic Church, science and the world of art, academics from different universities, platforms for peace that sprang up in the cities of the country, who joined the marches of silence, of flowers, the victims of the Patriotic Union, who founded peace camps and stayed in them, to those who called for peace acts in different cities around the world. This Final Agreement belongs to them because they helped to build it with their hopes and actions.

The people of this country are tired of violence, intolerance, stigmatization and criminalization. It wants and demands a profound change in political customs, to cease corruption, lies, deception. The first national demand is to put an end to the use of weapons in politics, to guarantee the right to dissent, to oppose, to protest against mismanagement, against unjust laws, against arbitrariness and abuse of officials in power. Let’s life, personal integrity, freedoms of movement and thought become real. That is why Colombia closes rows around this Definitive Agreement.

Because it involved deep debates with all the voices of the Establishment, involved members of the armed forces, tightened positions to the most extreme points, required singular efforts of approximation. Nobody should stay out of it. This Agreement doesn’t mean to lay down ideological, political or conscientious positions, we only put a definitive end to the war. To confront contradictions in a civil manner.

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That is why we demand its prompt and effective implementation, in order to unleash the building of democratic coexistence, peace and social justice in our country. No more assassinations of union leaders, agrarian or popular, land claimants, social activists, left-wing political opponents. No more threats or hostilities. It is unheard of that at this point FARC guerrillas continue to die with strange arguments, that the allegations for human rights violations are daily bread, that from everywhere there are complaints of communities for the plans of military occupation, for eradication operations Force of their crops despite the agreement. The violent eviction of the peace camp from the Plaza de Bolívar, the indolence of the national government before the murders of peasant leaders and activists of the Patriotic March, are astonishing to the country. While congratulating the National Army for hitting the ELN, there is no solidarity with the families of the FARC guerrilla and popular activists.

We hope to take an active part, in full legality, in the upcoming debates and just policies. We emphasize the importance for the country to form a transitional government, whose fundamental purpose would be the full implementation of the Havana Agreements, and which should be composed of all the forces and sectors that have worked relentessly for them.

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We extend our greetings to Donald Trump for his election as the new President of the United States and we hope that his government can play a prominent role for the benefit of world and continental peace. We hope that the superior purpose of peace in Colombia, which will contribute decisively to the understanding throughout Latin America and the Caribbean, will continue to count on the support and acquiescence of the new government of Washington.

We reiterate our solidarity with all the victims of this long war, regardless of the side they belonged to, as well as our request for forgiveness for the consequences that may have come from our hands. To our political adversaries our respect, our olive branch, our fraternal invitation to live in the difference. There will be no more violence among Colombians for political reasons, that fact alone should fill us with the spirit to work to make our country a much better country. We believe that for the good of the country, the word is the only weapon that we Colombians will allow ourselves to use.

Bogota, 24 November 2016

http://farc-epeace.org/communiques/farc-ep/item/1879-let-word-be-the-only-weapon-of-the-colombian-people.html

I cannot help but feel that FARC is whistling past the graveyard. Their enemies are implacable and bent on revenge.

Comprehensive Rural Reform

FARC's viewpoint on Comprehensive Agrarian Policy

The FARC-EP was originally rooted in the resistance of peasant communities. When the organization was born in 1964, the first 48 founders – all peasants - wrote the ‘Agrarian Program of the Guerrilla Fighters’, a straightforward political manifest for agrarian reform.

During the peace talks in Havana, the FARC-EP has changed and modernized this Program to the current rural context of Colombia, marked by extractivism, inequality, big landownership and Free Trade Agreements. The proposals were published under the name “100 minimum proposals on Rural and Agrarian Development for Democratization and Peace with Social Justice in Colombia”.

It is no secret that these minimum proposals made by the FARC-EP throughout the Havana peace process are not our ultimate goal as a political movement.

They are a general summary of the thousands of demands, suggestions and proposals made by different social and political organizations in Colombia. So to speak, they are the most pressing needs of a country with a neo-feudal countryside, neo-liberal economic policies and neo-colonial foreign relations.

Some of the proposals are: Stimulation of an agricultural use of lands, of food production and food sovereignty. Political recognition of the peasants, of their rights and their territories (the Peasant Reserve Areas), for which the FARC-EP proposes to set aside 10 million hectares for these Peasant Reserve Areas. Also, the insurgency proposed to use 20 million hectares for the Land Fund, to be distributed among landless or land-poor peasants.

Some proposals have been integrated into the partial agreement. Others were rejected by the Government. And there is a third group of proposals which haven’t been resolved yet; they are the so-called pending points and are still to be discussed (see: What remains to be resolved?).

The agreement made in Havana on land reform, called “Comprehensive Rural Reform” is only the first step towards a democratic agrarian policy that must transform the entire rural structure of the country, re-distributing the unproductive ‘latifundios’ of the big landowners and definitely empowering the rural communities: peasants, indigenous and black people.

The Comprehensive Rural Reform (CRR) seeks the generation of prosperity, welfare and good living conditions for the rural communities of the country, through the implementation of reforms that allow the democratization of land use.

The CRR will function under the logic of implementing three parallel layers of measures:

Immediate action; urgent measures for democratize land use and access in those regions that have suffered the conflict, formalizing the land titles of the peasant communities and implementing measures of land access to small and medium owners;
Short-term programs; generate conditions for the participatory construction of Development Programs with a Territorial Approach – DPTA, with active participation of the rural communities;
Mid-term plans with a national scope; search for the materialization in reality of the DPTA through 12 national plans, building the infrastructure of a new rural reality.

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Comprehensive Rural Reform

FARC's viewpoint on Comprehensive Agrarian Policy

Full Agreement on Rural Reform

What remains unresolved?
Pending points on the first point of the Agenda:

Comprehensive Agrarian Development with a Territorial Approach.

1. Large landholding and property delimitation: Abolition of unproductive, idle or inadequately exploited landholdings, and democratic redistribution of land ownership.

2. Restrain foreign ownership of the territory: the purchase of large areas of land by transnational companies shall be proscribed. Exceptions may be considered establishing limits over purchases. In no case, food sovereignty shall be affected. All purchases intended to be used for biofuel projects or those affecting land use at the expense of food sovereignty and environmental sustainability, will be rejected.

3. Mining and energy extraction and conflicts over land use: Solution to conflicts over land use for the benefit of society and national sovereignty.
Declare the main natural energy and mining resources of a strategic nature, and retrieve them to the Nation by redefining contractual arrangements that have resulted in inequitable conditions of usufruct by foreign investors. Reformulation of royalty payments by significantly increasing the percentage of natural resources intended for the nation, and elimination of tax incentives for foreign investors. Exact territorial delimitation of extractive economies related to non-renewable natural resources and utilization of resources recovered to the benefit of the national interest and good living conditions for the population.

Indefinite suspension of the granting of new mining titles and new concessions for oil exploration and extraction until previous studies and consultations with the respective populations determine the feasibility and socio-environmental sustainability of such activities; strict regulation or prohibition, if appropriate, of large open pit mining; effectively ban mining and energy exploitation in fragile páramo ecosystems and agro-ecological reserves.

Imposition of obligations for a comprehensive reparation of the victims of socio-environmental mining and energy predation, carried out by the concession companies with shared responsibility of the state.

Guidance and special protection to artisanal mining, contributing to preserve its socio-environmental sustainability. This includes a guarantee for the rights of traditional and artisanal miners, as well as the respect for their culture; recognition and legalization of mining titles for small and medium miners. Ending the persecution and criminalization of this activity; definition of specific regulations by the state.

4. Regulations for the exploitation of territory for the production of agro-fuels: In the case of long-term crops for the production of agro-fuels, their location, territorial limits or prohibition, if appropriate, shall be determined addressing environmental sustainability, the impact on water resources and the requirements of food supply. Agricultural exploitation developed with intensive use of agro-technologies will be discouraged.

5. Review and re-negotiation of Free Trade Agreements detrimental to the economy: While the effects of the complaints and revisions of FTAs ​​are being produced, measures of incentives, protection and subsidies for domestic food production will be implemented, in particular on peasant, indigenous and afro-descendant production.

6. Adjustments to Territorial Planning: Definition of a new law for a social and environmental, democratic and participatory Territorial Planning; territorial re-organization and land-uses for food sovereignty and the nutritional food supply for the population; Social and environmental sustainability; the right to water and protection of water resources and fragile ecosystems. Re-definition of territories for agricultural and food production; creation of new rural settlements for agricultural and food production.

Exploitation of non-renewable natural resources to the benefit of national interests and good living conditions of the population; dignifying artisanal small and medium-sized mining with social and environmental sustainability; replacement of illicit uses of crops; Alternative cadastre on land displacement and dispossession.

7. Regarding the financing of the policy on Comprehensive Agrarian and Rural Development: In order to ensure its stabilization and projection, and in line with the purposes for which they were created, peasant territories would have resources of constitutional origin, specifically allocated to them.

Without prejudice to other funds, the resources will come from the general system of contributions, from royalties, and from a specific source created with a percentage of the taxes on unproductive, idle or inadequately exploited landholdings, as well as from a specific account created within the national general budget with a fixed percentage of the total budget. All these resources would constitute the National Fund for the Financing of Peasant Territories.

The criteria for the allocation as well as the amount of resources, will be defined together with the rural communities and their organizations, which will autonomously administer the allocated resources. According to the geographical location, there will be additional resources from a fixed percentage of the budgets of municipalities and departments.

8. Quantification of the Land Fund: Definition of the number of hectares to be included in the Land Fund and the sources of financing of the project.
We propose the fund to have at least 20 million hectares of land from unproductive, idle or inadequately exploited landholdings, barren lands, or appropriated using war and displacement, as well as those retrieved from drug dealers.

9. Creation of the National Council for Land and Territory: In charge of tracing and establishing general guidelines for land-use planning, the definition of land uses, as well as disputes arising from it.

In addition to public authorities, entities of control and representative enterprises, the Council will comprise representatives from the communities of peasant, indigenous, Afro-descendent, raizales, palenqueros, ethnic and intercultural territories, as well as from the organizations of peasants and agricultural workers, chosen by themselves.

10. Definitions on tenancy right: Special regulations will be established to prevent land concentration in the hands of transnational corporations, or economic groups, large national companies, or alliances or partnerships between them.

In particular, measures against financial speculation regarding land and territory will be implemented. Tenancy rights will not be allowed if they are aimed at promoting a "legal" displacement, and the “de-peasantization” of the countryside.

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The delegates of the Government and the FARC-EP report that:

We have reached an agreement on the first item of the Agenda, contained in the “General Agreement for the termination of the conflict and the construction of a stable and long-lasting peace".

We have agreed to call it “Towards a new Colombian countryside: Comprehensive rural reform”.

In the next round of talks we will present the Table’s first periodical report.
We have built agreements on the following topics:

• Land access and use. Unproductive land. Property title formalization. Agricultural frontier and protection of reserve zones.
• Development programs with a territorial focus.
• Infrastructure and land adaptation.
• Social development: health, education, housing, poverty eradication.
• Stimulus to agricultural and livestock production and to solidary and cooperative economy. Technical assistance. Subsidies. Credits. Income generation. Labor formalization.
• Food and nutritional policies.

The agreements we have reached will be the starting point for radical transformations of Colombia’s rural and agrarian reality with equity and democracy. They are focused on the people, the small producers, land access and distribution, the struggle against poverty, encouragement of agricultural and livestock production and the reactivation of the rural economy.

The aim is that the highest possible number of rural inhabitants without land or with insufficient land may have access to it, through the creation of a Land Fund for Peace.
The National Government will gradually formalize, pursuant to the constitutional and legal order, all the land occupied by or property of peasants in Colombia.

Mechanisms will be created to solve usage conflicts, as well as an agrarian jurisdiction for the protection of property rights with the prevalence of the common good.
This will be accompanied by housing, drinking water, technical assistance, training, education, land adaptation, infrastructure and land recovery plans.

The agreement seeks to reverse the effects of the conflict and restitute the victims of dispossession and forced displacement.

It includes the formation and updating of rural information in order to update the respective cadastre, seeking legal security and an increased and more efficient information.

Thinking about future generations of Colombians, the agreement delimits the agricultural frontier, protecting areas of particular environmental interest.
It seeks social protection for the countryside, and the eradication of hunger by means of a feeding and nutrition system.

The agreements reached to date are part of a broader agreement which we expect to achieve in the following months, which contains six items. As for the next round of talks to be started on June 11, we will start discussing the second item of the Agenda contained in the “General Agreement” of Havana, called Political Participation.

One of the guiding principles of these talks is that “nothing is agreed until everything is agreed”. This means that the agreements we have been building are dependent on our reaching an agreement on the entire Agenda and, likewise, that to the extent of the progress in the discussions the agreements on each one of the sub-items may be adjusted and complemented.

We want to highlight that in these 6 months of conversations we have not only discussed the agrarian topic. During this period the conversation process was born, agreements were reached on the way to work in the plenary sessions, the commissions or separately, and different citizen participation and consultation mechanisms were established in order to receive proposals and opinions from citizens and social organizations. These working and participation mechanisms and procedures are already under way, reason for which we expect to move forward in pursuing agreements more quickly from now on.

We highlight the contribution of the United Nations Office in Colombia and the Centro de Pensamiento of the National University of Colombia, in the organization of the forums held in Bogotá on the Agrarian and Political Participation items. We have also incorporated the contributions of the regional tables, organized by the Peace Commissions of Colombia’s Senate and House of Representatives.

We thank the thousands of Colombians and the social organizations who have sent us their proposals and opinions on the Agenda items through the forums, the website or the forms that are available at Mayor and Governor offices. Each and every one of these proposals has been received by the delegations at Havana. A procedure was agreed and implemented at the Table to receive them in an orderly manner, classify them and have them available on electronic media.

We want to extend our special gratitude to Cuba and Norway, guarantors of this process, for their ongoing support and for the environment of trust they foster.

The presence of their representatives at the Table is a fundamental factor for its development. Likewise, we thank Chile and Venezuela, the accompanying countries, who are periodically informed by the delegations on the progress of the dialogues.

These four countries form a group of nations friends of the process which we especially value, and we also appreciate the statements of support from other nations, organisms and international leaders who strengthen the trust in the path we are taking.

http://farc-epeace.org/peace-process/agreements/agreements/item/934-comprehensive-rural-reform

The future of the FARC-EP as a political party (I)

For more than 52 years an internal armed conflict has persisted in Colombia, in which various political and military forces have been involved; the FARC-EP and the Colombian Government, who are two of the most important forces in conflict, are currently in the final stage of a peace process that constitutes a fundamental step towards ending the armed confrontation.

In an interview with the News Agency of the Mexican State (Notimex), Gabriel Angel, a lawyer graduated from the National University of Colombia, survivor of the genocide perpetrated against the left wing movement Patriotic Union (UP) and militant of the FARC-EP, spoke about how the organization projects itself towards peace, their political proposals and their perspectives on national reconciliation.

NTX: Will the FARC-EP in their new role as a political party remain as monolithic force or single party? Will they keep the acronym of FARC or change it?

FARC: We'll have to wait for the conclusions of our Tenth National Conference [This is the maximum decision stance within the FARC-EP]. We want to precise on the fact that the FARC itself has always been a political organization, a communist party, and has always had the idea of ​​forming a broad political movement based on a series of fundamental general principles that draw together a vast amount of Colombians. In this moment, we don’t see the need to change this conception. We will make it happen within legality.

NTX: Will you seek the conformation of a broad front of left wing and independent sectors? Based on what criteria? Are you politically located more towards the left or towards social democracy?

FARC: We could say that we agree with the first part of your question. The criteria could be the transformation of our country into a territory of peace, based on the broadest form of political democracy, the replacement of the pure form of neoliberalism that has been applied in the last 25 years, independence and national sovereignty, Latin American and Caribbean integration, equal rights for women and an end to all discrimination based on gender, environmental protection and biodiversity, among other banners that not only will appeal to traditional left wing groups but even some who are considered center or even right.

The name that we take is not as important as the lesson that Manuel Marulanda [FARC-EP founder] taught us on not letting opportunists take over our conquests.

NTX: Will the political project of the FARC in the post-conflict seek to achieve high positions of public office? In how much time?

FARC: We are not in favor of setting deadlines on these matters. But what we can say is that we have no vocation of losers, our goal is to organize and mobilize the Colombian population to wrest political power to the class that has held it for centuries, in order to create a democratic, just and prosperous country in the shortest amount of time possible.

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NTX: What proposals do you have in terms of designing a new electoral system that is more equitable and fair to all political sectors and minorities?

FARC: First of all, the creation of a completely independent and autonomous electoral organism, sufficiently endowed with a spotless plant staff and modern economic and technological resources so that all fraudulent forms that characterize the current system can be eradicated.

Secure electronic voting would have to be considered for votes not to be manipulated in any form. The opposition and minorities should be fairly represented.

In a country where the money from mafias and drug trafficking have taken over the work of political propaganda using dirty forms of corruption, the issues related to the financing of political campaigns should be reexamined.

NTX: How to ensure that the regions have a balanced representation in Congress and during the post-conflict? What expectations do you have for the upcoming regional and presidential elections? Will you present single candidates or coalition candidates?

FARC: We insist that we prefer to talk in terms of post agreements; the economic, social and political conflict that afflicts Colombia will continue to exist and certainly in a much more hectic way, only that it will not manifest itself in an armed form.

The agreements contemplate the creation of special electoral constituencies for the areas that have traditionally suffered the conflict. Through organization, mobilization and the broadest democratic struggle we will work in order to broaden such representation to the maximum.

It is still too early to talk about the upcoming participation in elections, but it is obvious that our aspiration is to contribute to the generation of a great political movement of real alternative nature, and that means thinking about acting well beyond electoral spaces themselves.

NTX: What do you propose to prevent for the illicit crop cultivation areas to be taken over by illegal armed groups linked to drug trade?

FARC: You are referring to paramilitary groups and the successors of some of these. In this regard there is a very comprehensive and accurate agreement with the National Government in the sense that they will be fought with all the power of the State. There are agreed forms of tracking the prosecution of these activities.

It is not that once the FARC-EP is gone from the armed scene the poor people would stay helpless and powerless. We will be there, doing politics, organizing the community, mobilizing them to defend their rights and the compliance of the set of very strict agreements. The agreements have to be read carefully in order to stop making such alarming observations.

NTX: What is the FARC's proposal for reconciliation in Colombia?

FARC: The signed agreements are there. If their compliance and implementation becomes a reality for Colombia, the hatred and violence will necessarily be removed from the field of politics.

http://farc-epeace.org/peace-process/news/item/1528-the-future-of-the-farc-ep-as-a-political-party-1.html

********************

The future of the FARC-EP as a political party (II)

NTX: Why did the FARC-EP decide to negotiate with the Juan Manuel Santos administration? What were the subjective and objective reasons for this determination?

FARC: We could refer to the rooted conception that the FARC-EP has on regards of the political solution, an idea that has always accompanied the formulations about the future of our country. Until February 2002 peace talks took place in Caguan, Andres Pastrana´s [Former president] government abruptly broke the talks, after three years of permanent delay in addressing the topics of the Common Agenda.

Afterwards, Plan Colombia [US military aid plan] took place, and then with Alvaro Uribe [Former President] Plan Patriota and other gigantic military operations were developed with which the Colombian government tried again to annihilate us.

War took on new levels, but even so, they didn't achieve their goal of finishing off the FARC. When Santos [current president] took office, he started talking about conversations and, despite the intensified war, the government showed certain samples of real interest in creating the conditions to reach a final agreement.

There were no constraints to the discussion; the terms of the process were agreed by both parties in an exploratory period that lasted six months.

http://farc-epeace.org/images/exploratorios.jpg

The then president of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, offered his full cooperation and the Colombian government agreed and facilitated his selfless help. Cuba was also more than ready to support all efforts for peace in Colombia to materialize.

In our country, like a chorus, and each day with more eco, a wide range of personalities, social, political and popular organizations stood in favor of a negotiated solution to the conflict. Diverse voices within the establishment began to express themselves in the same direction. There was also an international stir in the same direction.

We acknowledged, to say in a certain way, a generalized feeling of annoyance and even repudiation towards the continuation of a confrontation that seemed never-ending. Why not then try and achieve what hadn't been achieved in the past? That’s how we came to this process.

NTX: What's the bad, the ugly and the positive aspect of the negotiation process in Havana?

FARC: The ugly thing is to discover how many people and social groups have their souls full of hatred and work towards propagating it to the entire population.

The bad aspect is to find oneself talking with an interlocutor who seems to always have a double standard, one for the peace talks, signing agreements such as the Comprehensive Rural Reform, Political Participation and Solution to the Problem of illicitly used crops, and simultaneously another one for the sectors of great capital, to which it generates business facilities that are contrary to what was agreed during the peace talks, like taking unpopular measures of police and military repression that lessens their fears of social struggle, and continuing to enact plans of forced eradication of illicit crops attacking the weakest link in the chain: the State-abandoned farmer.

The good thing is to perceive the enthusiasm for peace that communities that have directly experienced the conflict show, the joy of millions of Colombians in towns and cities because a peaceful horizon is foreseen, something which could imply -if successful- real change in the economic, political and social situation of the country.

http://farc-epeace.org/images/community.jpg

NTX: The Final Peace Agreement is irreversible in the short term?

FARC: Everything indicates so. But you should know that the National Government insisted from the beginning on including in the General Agreement of August 2012, which is the basis of the Peace Process, the sentence “nothing is agreed until everything is agreed”. That means that a last-minute unbridgeable disagreement could break everything down. We hope that this will not happen, but that governmental provision does raise concerns.

NTX: Countersignature of the peace agreements: Why a plebiscite?

FARC: On June 23, a formula was agreed for countersignature. And the Constitutional Court ruled on the feasibility of the plebiscite. But we must not forget that this can only start once a Final Agreement is reached, and that this last stage of the Peace Talks has become complicated, in terms that they want to force us to accept certain formulas based on the urgencies involved with the legal deadlines for convening and holding the plebiscite.

http://farc-epeace.org/peace-process/news/item/1536-the-future-of-the-farc-ep-as-a-political-party-2.html

Paramilitaries offer money to murder social leaders

This past weekend, a pamphlet signed by “Autodefensas Gaitanistas de Colombia” a known paramilitary organization that has already committed attacks and murders of social and political leaders in Colombia, threatened a series of social leaders of Barrancabermeja as well as offered money to whoever kills the people on the list.

On social media, social and political organizations as well as democratic figures have denounced these threats that are not isolated events but rather linked to the context of growing attacks and murders of peasant leaders throughout the country, mostly in the southern and western regions of Cauca, Nariño and Caquetá.

ANZORC (Spanish acronym for National Association of Peasant Reserve Zones) stated in a public denunciation that the pamphlet expressed that the paramilitary organization would “patrol the city´s neighborhoods to ensure security and that they would carry out acts of “social cleansing”, declaring “communists”, “marijuana smokers”, “thieves” and “corrupt politicians” as their military objective”.

Specific activists of the region and social organizations such as the ACVC (Spanish acronym for Peasant Association of the Cimitarra River Valley) where listed and pointed to as militias of the FARC-EP. For 20 years this organization has worked for the community´s and for the defense of human rights of the peasantry in an area historically struck by the social and armed conflict, reason for which the association has been indicated to be a political apparatus, collaborator of the FARC-EP.

ANZORC stated that “it is necessary for the National Government to immediately implement the Peace Agreement with regard to security guarantees and the fight against paramilitary successor organizations, not only as an effective guarantee of their will to peace, but also in fulfillment of their obligation in matters International Law regarding the take of action on part of the State against Human Right violations”

Likewise, ANZORC also called for “the Tripartite Mechanism for Monitoring and Verification of the Ceasefire and of Hostilities to investigate these threats in Barrancabermeja, as well as attacks on the lives and integrity of other leaders throughout the country as a threat to the peace process”.

http://farc-epeace.org/images/panfletoautodefensasgaitanistas.jpg

panfletoautodefensasgaitanistas.jpg

Reference:

Prensa Rural: "Paramilitares ofrecen dinero para quien asesine líderes sociales" taken from http://prensarural.org/spip/spip.php?article20588

http://farc-epeace.org/newsflash/item/1890-paramilitaries-offer-money-to-murder-social-leaders.html

Paramilitaries offer money to murder social leaders

This past weekend, a pamphlet signed by “Autodefensas Gaitanistas de Colombia” a known paramilitary organization that has already committed attacks and murders of social and political leaders in Colombia, threatened a series of social leaders of Barrancabermeja as well as offered money to whoever kills the people on the list.

On social media, social and political organizations as well as democratic figures have denounced these threats that are not isolated events but rather linked to the context of growing attacks and murders of peasant leaders throughout the country, mostly in the southern and western regions of Cauca, Nariño and Caquetá.

ANZORC (Spanish acronym for National Association of Peasant Reserve Zones) stated in a public denunciation that the pamphlet expressed that the paramilitary organization would “patrol the city´s neighborhoods to ensure security and that they would carry out acts of “social cleansing”, declaring “communists”, “marijuana smokers”, “thieves” and “corrupt politicians” as their military objective”.

Specific activists of the region and social organizations such as the ACVC (Spanish acronym for Peasant Association of the Cimitarra River Valley) where listed and pointed to as militias of the FARC-EP. For 20 years this organization has worked for the community´s and for the defense of human rights of the peasantry in an area historically struck by the social and armed conflict, reason for which the association has been indicated to be a political apparatus, collaborator of the FARC-EP.

ANZORC stated that “it is necessary for the National Government to immediately implement the Peace Agreement with regard to security guarantees and the fight against paramilitary successor organizations, not only as an effective guarantee of their will to peace, but also in fulfillment of their obligation in matters International Law regarding the take of action on part of the State against Human Right violations”

Likewise, ANZORC also called for “the Tripartite Mechanism for Monitoring and Verification of the Ceasefire and of Hostilities to investigate these threats in Barrancabermeja, as well as attacks on the lives and integrity of other leaders throughout the country as a threat to the peace process”.

http://farc-epeace.org/images/panfletoautodefensasgaitanistas.jpg

panfletoautodefensasgaitanistas.jpg

Reference:

Prensa Rural: "Paramilitares ofrecen dinero para quien asesine líderes sociales" taken from http://prensarural.org/spip/spip.php?article20588

http://farc-epeace.org/newsflash/item/1890-paramilitaries-offer-money-to-murder-social-leaders.html

Well, if anybody in the world knows these right-wing pigs it's FARC. Hopefully they can get the bloodshed stopped. I haven't a lot of rosiness about it.

Victims' Families Accept FARC Apology as Peace Finally Begins

http://www.telesurtv.net/__export/1480884706517/sites/telesur/img/news/2016/12/04/colombia_farc_rebels.jpg_1718483346.jpg
Colombia's largest rebel army, the FARC, signed a new peace agreement with the government on Nov. 24, ending 52 years of war. | Photo: AFP

Published 4 December 2016

In a move toward reconciliation, the FARC recognized that the rebel army committed a "grave injustice" in killing 11 hostages in 2007.
As Colombians finally begin to witness the first steps toward building lasting peace in a country rocked by more than half a century of internal armed conflict, family members of victims killed in 2007 accepted an apology Sunday from the FARC rebel group in a move that many hope will be just the one of many more efforts at reconciliation in post-war Colombia.

FARC leaders asked for forgiveness Saturday, recognizing that the guerrilla army committed a “grave injustice” in 2007 when the group killed 11 out of 12 lawmakers who they had been holding hostage for five years in Colombia Valle de Cauca department, one of the areas hardest hit by 52 years of civil war. Families of the 11 victims embraced the move toward reconciliation.

“Our family members are alive in the love that that has transformed our hearts from 14 years of hate into a love (strong) enough to forgive their killers,” said Jhon Jairo Hoyos, the son of slain lawmaker Jairo Hoyos, one of the 11 victims.

Members the FARC — the country’s largest rebel army, which signed an updated version of a landmark peace agreement with the government on Nov. 24 — kidnapped the 12 politicians in the city of Cali on April 11, 2002, holding them hostage for five years. Then, on June 28, 2007, “cross fire” at the jungle camp killed 11 of the hostages.

Two years later, the FARC freed the sole survivor from the group of 12, Sigifredo Lopez, who was detained and then exonerated of suspected collaboration in the kidnapping.

“It was never an intentional action because we didn’t have anything against the lawmakers,” FARC leader Jorge Torres Victoria, better known by his alias Pablo Catatumbo, said in an event in Valle de Cauca Saturday attended by FARC members and families of the 11 victims.

“We hope that the future allows us to heal the wounds and build a more just nation for all Colombians,” he continued, adding that the FARC recognized the “deep pain” the deaths inflicted on families.

Lopez, the survivor from the group of 12 hostages, celebrated the apology and the families’ forgiveness as a “sincere and generous” action that helps provide closure while keeping a record of the collective memory of the war.

The breakthrough peace deal between the government and the FARC, updated at the negotiating table in Havana, Cuba, after being narrowly rejected in the Oct. 2 plebiscite, was ratified by Colombia’s Congress last week. The approval triggers the implementation of the deal, including the approval of a number of laws in Congress to propel plans laid out in the agreement.

President Juan Manuel Santos reiterated Sunday the urgency of implementing the deal as soon as possible in the face of political polarization that could freeze progress toward peace.

The historic peace accords bring an end to 52 years of armed conflict in Colombia — the longest-running war in the western hemisphere — which has claimed the lives of 260,000 people and victimized some 8 million more.

http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Victims-Families-Accept-FARC-Apology-as-Peace-Finally-Begins-20161204-0017.html

Video at link.

Why US Won't Support Peace in Colombia
By: Alice Loaiza

http://www.telesurtv.net/__export/1479878828586/sites/telesur/img/news/2016/11/23/colombia-plan.1.jpg_1718483346.jpg
U.S. intervention in Colombia has been constant and long.

Published 24 November 2016

The U.S. gave billions of dollars to Plan Colombia, and other projects, to combat and terminate the popular resistance in the country.
The U.S. has never supported peace in Colombia starting with Plan Lazo in the early 1960s and the counterinsurgency team sent to Colombia to crush the Marquetalia community shortly thereafter.

General Yarborough who visited Colombia in 1962 said, “A concerted country team effort should be made now to select civilian and military personnel for clandestine training in resistance operations in case they are needed later. This should be done with a view toward development of a civil and military structure for exploitation in the event the Colombian internal security system deteriorates further. This structure should be used to pressure toward reforms known to be needed, perform counter-agent and counter-propaganda functions and as necessary execute paramilitary, sabotage and/or terrorist activities against known communist proponents. It should be backed by the United States."

This was the beginning of paramilitary, government and U.S. collaboration in Colombia ... an alliance that continues today. The formation of revolutionary armed groups such as the FARC and the ELN was a response to the repression that followed.

In 1978-1979 the American Anti-Communist Alliance appeared as a paramilitary organization, assassinating, kidnapping and bombing Colombians. It was revealed to be a creation of the Colombian national army and the U.S. embassy in Bogota.

By 1982 cocaine was the largest export from Colombia. The paramilitary army, Muerte A Secuestradores, was formed in Puerto Boyaca by the Medellin cartel, the Colombian army, rich ranchers and the U.S.-based Texas Petroleum Company. It was decided that the resistance in the country should be dealt with by extrajudicial means so as not to be easily traced.

Political assassinations of popular leaders and disappearances increased. Most of the cocaine came to the U.S. and billions were laundered by U.S. banks. The U.S. drug cartels and banks benefited most from this business and certainly were concerned about protecting their interests in Colombia. Everyone talked about Pablo Escobar but no one pointed a finger at the U.S. drug “corporations.”

Around the same time and as a result of the same meeting, the Association of Middle Magdalena Ranchers and Farmers was formed, directed at destroying any peasant or labor organizing. U.S., Israeli, British and Australian military instructors were hired to teach at paramilitary training centers. Retired Israeli colonel Yair Klein, admitted to training troops in Puerto Boyaca.

In 1989, the Movement for National Restoration was formed to annihilate the Patriotic Union a popular, left coalition of groups that opposed the right-wing elite of the country, including disarmed guerillas who joined the group in hopes of a political solution to the conflict. Over 5,000 members of the UP were murdered and no one was ever tried for a single .

The U.S. had extensive meetings with the Colombian military in 1990 and formed a team that included representatives of the U.S. embassy's military group, the U.S Southern Command, the DEA and the CIA. It was falsely stated that this was to control drugs, but that was never mentioned in the meetings. The Armed Forces Directive 200-05/91 was a result of these meetings and it only dealt with counter-insurgency. The process that was set up was to strengthen the paramilitaries and make it look like it was not linked to the Colombian military.

Colombian governments that supported U.S. intervention in Colombia were financed and militarily aided. Alvaro Uribe, president from 2002-2010 was the creator of the Special Vigilance and Private Security Services and the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, both paramilitary groupings.

Millions were displaced from their lands; horrible massacres with chainsaws were carried out in rural communities; women and children were raped; people were assassinated in front of their loved ones; and people were disappeared. The math is easy. The paramilitaries who were accused of many of these atrocities were linked to the elite and the Colombian military which itself was linked to these terror acts and the Colombian military was bolstered and modernized by the U.S. through Plan Colombia.

Plan Colombia was a creation of President Bill Clinton in 1998, which ostensibly was called the "War on Drugs," but had nothing to do with drugs. It was a plan to combat and terminate the left-wing resistance in the country: journalists, unionists, teachers, community leaders, campesino leaders, human right workers, and armed guerilla groups.

The U.S. gave billions of dollars to the project, making Colombia one of the top recipients of U.S. aid. Campesinos suffered aerial fumigation from glyphosate that planes constantly flew over homes and lands, poisoning the people and their crops. After fumigation the land was useless and the people had to flee. But the production of cocaine grew because campesinos had no choice but to plant it if they wanted to survive so they moved to other more isolated areas.

U.S. interests secretly supported this production, making trillions on sales in the U.S., while Colombians lived in terror. The cities grew with rings of poverty due to the six million internally displaced people from the towns and the countryside, over 300,000 were assassinated, 60,000 disappeared, there still are over 9,000 political prisoners and millions are traumatized by the war and violence.

After Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa closed down the U.S. military base in Manta in 2009, the U.S. opened seven military bases in Colombia under the Barack Obama administration, with Hillary Clinton as secretary of state. It is often stated that Bogota is also a military base since the offices of the CIA, FBI, Special Forces, and DEA are all centralized there.

The U.S. bases are a threat against any progressive government or insurgency in the region, including Colombia. They are a massive intelligence-gathering tool for the entire region and there is now an extension of the School of the Americas where many Latin American military personnel are trained by the Colombian and U.S. militaries, often in paramilitary tactics. Colombian anti-insurgency forces have been trained and now travel through the Americas as well as West Africa and other areas to train other militaries. Colombian mercenaries are trained and sent to other countries to defeat movements in resistance, for example in Yemen.

There are also many U.S. companies, mines, and factories in Colombia. The exploitation of the country's many resources is great.

Drummond Company has an enormous series of open pit coal mines in the northern state of Cesar where thousands of pounds of coal are extracted each year. Drummond owns the railroad that transports the coal to the coast as well as the port at Santa Marta where the coal is loaded onto ships.

The mining giant has been sued for the hiring of paramilitaries as security that killed about 70 workers who unionized or were labeled trouble-makers. In the court case, the accusations described "how hundreds of men, women, and children were terrorized in their homes, on their way to and from work ... innocent people killed in or near their homes or kidnapped to never return home, their spouses and children being beaten and tied up, and people being pulled off buses and summarily executed on the spot."

The company has absolutely no respect for the environment nor the communities in the region. They often import worker so as not to employ people from the region. They have employed undocumented Chinese immigrants as workers. Many small towns have become even more impoverished and have lost all sense of community. Young women become prostitutes for the miners in order to live and feed their children. It is a very sad and harsh life and there is no escape.

Dole Food Company and Chiquita Brands International paid a Colombian paramilitary organization as security that included killing union organizers. This was discovered in the trials of the two companies in the U.S. They also employ great numbers of women to work in the flower industry for low wages and in sub-human conditions.

All of this evidence points to the fact that the U.S. has too much economic, military and political interests in Colombia to ever let the Colombian people live in peace. Any statements to the contrary by U.S. officials are empty rhetoric for public consumption only.

http://www.telesurtv.net/english/opinion/Why-US-Wont-Support-Peace-in-Colombia-20161120-0015.html

Video at link.

United Nations presents details on violence against social leaders in Colombia

According to the organization, after the signing of the first peace agreement in Cartagena (September 26, 2016) 13 out of the 57 murders that have been monitored in 2016 have occurred.

In a statement, the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Colombia expressed concern about the "persistent violence against persons that exercise the defense of Human Rights in the country, particularly those who live in rural areas".

According to the agency 35 attacks and 52 homicides against human rights leaders were recorded up to November 30 of this year and five more cases are under analysis.

"With concern, the Office notes that 75% of homicide victims developed their activities in rural areas, and that murder methods and attacks are more sophisticated in order to cover up intellectual perpetrators" the statement said.

Thirteen homicides since the signing of the first agreement

Likewise, the United Nations Office of Human Rights in Colombia detailed that thirteen of the 57 homicides of social leaders presented this year happened after the signing of the first peace agreement between the Government and the FARC in Cartagena. Seven were in rural areas, including those that occurred last November in Meta, Caqueta and Nariño departments.

Common Aspects

The organization explains that the rural areas where homicides against social leaders have taken place are characterized as areas where the FARC has had a historical presence. After the signing, the mobilization of the militiamen has left a void that "deepened in light of the integral absence of the State".

"For example, if there was a problem between neighbors, it was previously regulated by the FARC-EP, today it the strongest person regulates it through the use of force" notes the statement.

Another common factor to these areas is the lack of economic alternatives for survival, which favors the existence of illegal economies such as illicit crops and illegal mining.

The combination of these two characteristics, explains the UN "has favored the emergence and expansion of all types of criminality, including the entry of other groups outside the law, who are fighting for control over these economies, affecting the rights of people".

Violence against social leaders, in addition to these two factors, is also related to perceptions of these people as obstacles to achieving economic and political interests, stigmatization, use of force to regulate conflicts, dispute between illegal groups for control of illegal economies.
Finally, the organization asked the State to ensure the safety of both social leaders and the population that is involved in these acts of violence and municipal authorities to implement prevention policies and take measures to ensure the lives of these citizens. They also asked the Prosecutor's Office to prioritize these investigations.

Source: El Espectador

http://farc-epeace.org/newsflash/item/1910-united-nations-presents-details-on-violence-against-social-leaders-in-colombia.html

Paramilitaries in Guaviare
Written by Command Point Pre-Grouping of San Miguel, El Retorno, Guaviare

http://www.farc-ep.co/media/k2/items/cache/bf0a58b987aa7318ac88de52f64c5fa6_XL.jpg

Paramilitaries in Guaviare

The command of the guerrilla units of the FARC-EP found in Point Pre-Grouping of San Miguel, municipality of Return, Guaviare, informs the public opinion, the Mechanism for Monitoring and Verification of the cease-fire and hostilities bilateral and definitive, the International Committee of the Red Cross, the Ombudsman and other public institutions of Guaviare that:

1. With concern we have been receiving reports from the communities of the villages Santa Barbara, Mirolindo, El Unilla, La Cristalina, San Lucas, Pueblo Seco, La Reforma and San Miguel on the presence of a paramilitary group "Los Urabeños' close 60 commanding Arnuvio Casanova located in the middle of Mirolindo and Santa Barbara dedicated to the murder of civilians, extortion, cattle rustling, collection of "vaccines" to traders, farmers and ranchers without so far any civil or military authority it has given its decision.

2. This situation severely threatens the peace of communities across the region, as well as compliance with the Ceasefire Agreement and Bilateral and Final Hostilities in Point Pre-grouping of San Miguel where they remain until the guerrilla units operating in the area.

3. According to reports collected in the region, two paramilitary alias named "costeño" and alias "Florida" publicly claim that the goal they have is to keep track of everyone entering or leaving the area and heading towards the point Pre-Grouping San Miguel.

4. Equally we announce that Mr. Robinson Escobar Perez identified with citizen identification number 1.120.564.111 of San José del Guaviare on December 7 reached the point Pre-Grouping who when asked by our units on their presence in the place has not been able to give reasonable explanation so far.

5. Mr. Robinson Escobar has given humanitarian treatment that our standards contemplated. the presence of Monitoring and Verification Mechanism and the International Committee of the Red Cross in order to determine the above and ensure the safe return of Mr. Robinson Escobar to the bosom of his family consider necessary.

6. alert the public that such provocations can only come from those who oppose peace in our country.

Command Point Pre-Grouping of San Miguel, El Retorno, Guaviare.

http://www.farc-ep.co/comunicado/paramilitares-en-el-guaviare.html

Google Translator

Murder of social leaders is systematic

On Wednesday, December 7, a public hearing was held in Congress on the issue of murders and attacks on social leaders.

The hearing was called “No more crimes against peace” and among the invited institution was the Office of the Attorney General of the Nation represented by Prosecutor Néstor Humberto Martínez. The participation of the current Prosecutor raised various comments from social movements and social organizations attending the hearing, since according to him "there is no degree of systematicity that allows us to establish that there is a black, invisible hand that is affecting human rights leaders”.

For his part, Carlos Guevara de Somos Defensores said that "what happens is that the prosecutor needs to read a little more our reports from previous years and see if he would still be able to say that this is not systematic." According to Guevara, it cannot be said that what is happening is not systematic when at least 50 human rights defenders have been murdered in the last 5 years "we can not talk about it as something asymptomatic, of course there is a background and this began in September 2014 when the victims begin to go to Havana."

Guevara was emphatic in stating that after the victims' visits to Havana 1,000 human rights defenders have been threatened and "the prosecution has done nothing". According to Somos Defensores the Prosecutor's Office lack “looking at the past: what happens is that also for the Prosecutor's Office is and it has been very difficult to recognize that in this country there are human rights defenders, social leaders ... and whenever one of these people is murdered, the investigation begins with theses such as: they killed him for being in an area of mining or microtraffic or these are passion crimes" Guevara said.

For this organization, the situation the Office of the Prosecutor is in, is one of concern given that "the entity was handed over to a person who comes from the private sector and views this issue of the social and the popular as superficial and there is no clear intention investigate. (...) This prosecutor all he cares about are crimes somehow related to private companies”, said Guevara.

As for the Prosecutor's Office in post-conflict, according to Somos Defensores, this entity does not "have the technical capacity to respond to crimes against defenders, much less to the agreement. Although it has been prepared we see it very weak to respond properly to this stage and to face the whole issue of truth that is to come" added Guevara. Guevara concludes by saying that the doors to dialogue are open to build "we are absolutely willing to deliver detailed information, to build together, the problem is that the prosecutor we have now is a person with different interests and social questions are not something that reaches the heart a lot”.

Source: http://www.contagioradio.com/asesinatos-de-lideres-son-practica-sistematica-33507-articulo-33507/

http://farc-epeace.org/newsflash/item/1920-murder-of-social-leaders-is-systematic.html

The invisibility of victims in Santos’ speech

In the middle of the celebrations for the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to President Juan Manuel Santos, the invisibility in his speech of the victims of crimes of State has caused controversy.

For the Patriotic Union, which was about to disappear because of the genocide perpetrated by the paramilitaries, it is worrying that the State's responsibility for this type of crime is not recognized, especially when the threats, stigmatization, persecutions and assassinations of community leaders, human rights defenders, trade unionists and all those who want to achieve peace with social justice continue.

Below is the letter written by Aída Avella, president of the Patriotic Union, addressed to the Norwegian Nobel Committee:

“In representation of the victims and survivors of the genocide of the Patriotic Union, we address you to express our concern for the speech of the President of the Republic of Colombia Juan Manuel Santos when receiving the Nobel Peace Prize, a speech in which the Victims of State terrorism were invisible. Not a word about the false positives that cost the lives of thousands of young people at the hands of the military, or the extermination of the UP, or other atrocious crimes. To ignore them is to ignore the history of our country.

To recognize all the victims and not only those of the armed insurgency, is to advance in peace. To ignore them is to give encouragement to the numerous crimes committed at present - 92 from the beginning of the year - attacks and threats throughout the country. The extermination of the Patriotic Union, and the attacks against the Patriotic March, happened because the financiers and the masterminds of the massacre, not only against the Patriotic Union, but against human rights defenders, trade unionists and social leaders who paid with their life claiming rights or vindicating needs of communities, were never punished.

The lack of mention of the victims of the State in the award ceremony is the warning that they are not interested in recognizing, and less stopping the extermination, of which peasants, land reclamation leaders, human rights defenders, and nearby populations are victims as well as the people living near the areas of concentration of the insurgency that are leaving arms at present. Everything was expected of the Nobel Peace Prize, less the ignorance and the invisibility of the majority of the victims that were caused by paramilitarism with support of agents of the State.

The international community has being privileged witness of the inclement persecution of the Patriotic Union that voted for Santos in the second round of the last presidential elections, only to guarantee the continuation of the peace process that began during his first mandate and which is about to end up in the midst of selective killings in various regions of the country.


The purpose of this letter is to point out that the millions of victims left by paramilitaries and the State are missing in the President’s speech. Not acknowledging this reality places us again in the fragility position that we have suffered since the middle of 1985. We want to continue to believe in peace, but if the President has such a discriminatory attitude, what can we expect to survive in a country where paramilitary groups are resurfacing amid the fragility of the peace process?

We are grateful that you have granted the Nobel Peace Prize to Colombia and the President of the Republic, but we cannot ignore that the other victims are not recognized, because it would be contrary to our principles of inclusion and the hope of building a Colombia in which tolerance, that our country so much needs, is practiced".

Source: http://prensarural.org/spip/spip.php?article20663

http://farc-epeace.org/background/item/1923-the-invisibility-of-victims-in-santos-speech.html

Murder of social leaders is systematic

On Wednesday, December 7, a public hearing was held in Congress on the issue of murders and attacks on social leaders.

The hearing was called “No more crimes against peace” and among the invited institution was the Office of the Attorney General of the Nation represented by Prosecutor Néstor Humberto Martínez. The participation of the current Prosecutor raised various comments from social movements and social organizations attending the hearing, since according to him "there is no degree of systematicity that allows us to establish that there is a black, invisible hand that is affecting human rights leaders”.

For his part, Carlos Guevara de Somos Defensores said that "what happens is that the prosecutor needs to read a little more our reports from previous years and see if he would still be able to say that this is not systematic." According to Guevara, it cannot be said that what is happening is not systematic when at least 50 human rights defenders have been murdered in the last 5 years "we can not talk about it as something asymptomatic, of course there is a background and this began in September 2014 when the victims begin to go to Havana."

Guevara was emphatic in stating that after the victims' visits to Havana 1,000 human rights defenders have been threatened and "the prosecution has done nothing". According to Somos Defensores the Prosecutor's Office lack “looking at the past: what happens is that also for the Prosecutor's Office is and it has been very difficult to recognize that in this country there are human rights defenders, social leaders ... and whenever one of these people is murdered, the investigation begins with theses such as: they killed him for being in an area of mining or microtraffic or these are passion crimes" Guevara said.

For this organization, the situation the Office of the Prosecutor is in, is one of concern given that "the entity was handed over to a person who comes from the private sector and views this issue of the social and the popular as superficial and there is no clear intention investigate. (...) This prosecutor all he cares about are crimes somehow related to private companies”, said Guevara.

As for the Prosecutor's Office in post-conflict, according to Somos Defensores, this entity does not "have the technical capacity to respond to crimes against defenders, much less to the agreement. Although it has been prepared we see it very weak to respond properly to this stage and to face the whole issue of truth that is to come" added Guevara. Guevara concludes by saying that the doors to dialogue are open to build "we are absolutely willing to deliver detailed information, to build together, the problem is that the prosecutor we have now is a person with different interests and social questions are not something that reaches the heart a lot”.

Source: http://www.contagioradio.com/asesinatos-de-lideres-son-practica-sistematica-33507-articulo-33507/

http://farc-epeace.org/newsflash/item/1920-murder-of-social-leaders-is-systematic.html

The reluctance to investigate probably got more to do with the perpetrators being Colombian military personnel acting in official or unofficial capacity.

The reluctance to investigate probably got more to do with the perpetrators being Colombian military personnel acting in official or unofficial capacity.

Not to mention yankee "advisors" along for the "ride"...

Amnesty Law Project Discussed in Congress

The discussion of the amnesty project begins in the first Senate and Congressional Committees of the Republic.

The congressmen will work in extra sessions until the end of the year to expedite the approval of the first project to be presented in the implementation of the peace agreement signed at the Teatro Colón.

This project will aim to provide legal certainty to those members of the insurgency who are not accused of serious crimes or of crimes against humanity, that is, a large part in the ranks of the guerrilla. This measure seeks to bring amnesty as widely as possible to those who have risen in arms and committed political and related crimes.

It is worth noting that this law will also provide legal stability to members of the FARC who are in the pre-grouping areas and will be transferred to Transitional Normalisation Zones (ZVTN). Likewise, this project will cover those members of this organization who are imprisoned and who fulfill the reasons for being granted amnesty.

This project is expected to be approved in eight days.

For its part, the Democratic Center continues to underline the will of the majority of Congress to quickly begin implementation of the Agreement. It is in this sense that depending on the speed with which these issues are dealt with, a clear message will be sent to the insurgency and Colombian society that this Congress is going for peace.

The difference between amnesty and pardon is that the first is a law that must be approved through fast track by Congress and the second is the power of the President and is of immediate compliance.
Source: www.prensarural.org

http://farc-epeace.org/newsflash/item/1943-amnesty-law-project-discussed-in-congress.html

Public Report On Facts violating the BDCFH by Public Force

The Command of the guerrilla units located at the Pre-grouping Point of the municipality of Vista Hermosa, Meta, inform the public opinion, the Monitoring and Verification Mechanism, the Guarantors and accompanying countries of the Process that in order to keep loyal to the commitment to peace, and in accordance with the protocols signed at La Havana, Cuba between the government of Colombia and the FARC-EP we have ceased fire and all kinds of hostilities, as was ordered by Comandante Timoleón. 



However, we should note that in the case of our area this has not been the case as far as the Military Forces are concerned; indeed the units of the Nacional Army operating in the area of Vista Hermosa have been violating the agreement on ceasefire and bilateral and definitive cessation of hostilities BDCFH with clear intention to create an environment of distrust opposed to the spirit of the agreements signed between the State and the insurgency of the FARC-EP.

Facts: 

On December 20, at 7:00 p.m., nine National Army troops moving on high-powered motorcycles (660) overcome the limits of the PPT with the aim of taking a member of the guerrilla units staying at the point, a fact that put the highly stretched the BDCFH. It is worth emphasizing the commitment of the guerrillas who were at the time of the episode in charge of security.

They had visual contact with these army personnel for about 2 hours refraining from opening fire, a fact that confirms our desire for peace. These acts are the result of a premeditated campaign that has gone on increase in recent days following the desertion of Jader Square, a member of the Military Forces who had remained as infiltrated for 2 years in the ranks of the FARC-EP, until December 18, 2016, day on which he was collected in the vicinity of the PPT by Army men based in Vista Hermosa. 



We denounce the constant calls to our units, to withdraw from the peace process, invitations made through telephone calls to guerrillas, their relatives and friends in order to demotivate them, bring them to desertion and betrayal as happened in the case of the guerrilla Laura who was picked up by an army noncommissioned officer operating in the Piñalito area; in the same way the constant provocations around the PPT area of Vista Hermosa, as happened last day 22 of November when a patrol of the XII brigade whose members were moving around hooded, intimidating residents of the area causing anxiety. Likewise we denounce the overflight of a military aircraft between 21:29 and 21:46, flying over the Pre-grouping point for a total of 7 times.

It is hard to understand how in this final stage in which it is sought to end a confrontation of more than 52 years still persist militarist sectors putting obstacles to the construction of the peace the Colombian people so much longs for. The guerrillas located in this Pre-grouping Point ratify their willingness to comply with the protocols and agreements signed in order to achieve peace with social justice, but we call on the State and particularly on the Military Forces to display an equal attitude.

Vista Hermosa, Meta.

December 22, 2016 
Block “Comandante Jorge Briceño” FARC-EP

http://farc-epeace.org/communiques/farc-ep/item/1956-public-report-on-facts-violating-the-bdcfh-by-public-force.html

Colombia establishes mechanism to handle risks against Human Rights defenders

According to the report of Human Rights organizations, the mechanism was set up in order to deal with the serious situation of threats and risks against the lives of Human Rights defenders during these Christmas and New Year holidays.

On this past December 25, 2016, Anuar José Álvarez Armero, a community leader was assassinated by two men in motorcycles, this is another death due to political persecution perpetrated by paramilitary groups and death squads who tend to also take advantage of the holiday season to commit these acts of violence without much media coverage.

"Taking into account the grave situation against Human Rights defenders and leaders of social movements, a mechanism of temporary and agile communication was conformed between the National Government and the Human Rights movement during these dates. In this group, there are delegates of the Subcommittee on Guarantees and Human Rights of the Agrarian, Peasant, Ethnic and Popular Summit and the National Guarantees Committee" notes the document that was released on Friday, December 23 in the Colombian capital city of Bogotá.

The five delegates of the Human Rights defenders will be communicating and interacting on the urgent situations that may occur and that involve risks to the lives of leaders of the social movements, these delegates are Jael Quiroga, José Humberto Torres, Zoraida Hernández, Cristian Delgado, and Rocío Martínez. On the part of the State there are: Representatives of the Ministry of Interior, Presidential Counseling for Human Rights, Ministry of Defense, National Protection Unit and the Ombudsman's Office. In addition to these entities, the Office in Colombia of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights will also participate in this mechanism.

The situation is so serious against the exercise of Human Rights defenders and social leaders in the country, that the Office in Colombia of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights expressed concern about the increase in attacks that have left 52 dead as of November 30, 2016.

http://farc-epeace.org/newsflash/item/1960-temporary-emergency-mechanism-established-in-order-to-handle-risks-against-human-rights-defenders.html

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United Nations presents details on violence against social leaders in Colombia

According to the organization, after the signing of the first peace agreement in Cartagena (September 26, 2016) 13 out of the 57 murders that have been monitored in 2016 have occurred.

In a statement, the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Colombia expressed concern about the "persistent violence against persons that exercise the defense of Human Rights in the country, particularly those who live in rural areas".

According to the agency 35 attacks and 52 homicides against human rights leaders were recorded up to November 30 of this year and five more cases are under analysis.

"With concern, the Office notes that 75% of homicide victims developed their activities in rural areas, and that murder methods and attacks are more sophisticated in order to cover up intellectual perpetrators" the statement said.

Thirteen homicides since the signing of the first agreement

Likewise, the United Nations Office of Human Rights in Colombia detailed that thirteen of the 57 homicides of social leaders presented this year happened after the signing of the first peace agreement between the Government and the FARC in Cartagena. Seven were in rural areas, including those that occurred last November in Meta, Caqueta and Nariño departments.

Common Aspects

The organization explains that the rural areas where homicides against social leaders have taken place are characterized as areas where the FARC has had a historical presence. After the signing, the mobilization of the militiamen has left a void that "deepened in light of the integral absence of the State".

"For example, if there was a problem between neighbors, it was previously regulated by the FARC-EP, today it the strongest person regulates it through the use of force" notes the statement.

Another common factor to these areas is the lack of economic alternatives for survival, which favors the existence of illegal economies such as illicit crops and illegal mining.

The combination of these two characteristics, explains the UN "has favored the emergence and expansion of all types of criminality, including the entry of other groups outside the law, who are fighting for control over these economies, affecting the rights of people".

Violence against social leaders, in addition to these two factors, is also related to perceptions of these people as obstacles to achieving economic and political interests, stigmatization, use of force to regulate conflicts, dispute between illegal groups for control of illegal economies.
Finally, the organization asked the State to ensure the safety of both social leaders and the population that is involved in these acts of violence and municipal authorities to implement prevention policies and take measures to ensure the lives of these citizens. They also asked the Prosecutor's Office to prioritize these investigations.

Source: El Espectador

http://farc-epeace.org/newsflash/item/1910-united-nations-presents-details-on-violence-against-social-leaders-in-colombia.html

Colombia establishes mechanism to handle risks against Human Rights defenders

According to the report of Human Rights organizations, the mechanism was set up in order to deal with the serious situation of threats and risks against the lives of Human Rights defenders during these Christmas and New Year holidays.

On this past December 25, 2016, Anuar José Álvarez Armero, a community leader was assassinated by two men in motorcycles, this is another death due to political persecution perpetrated by paramilitary groups and death squads who tend to also take advantage of the holiday season to commit these acts of violence without much media coverage.

"Taking into account the grave situation against Human Rights defenders and leaders of social movements, a mechanism of temporary and agile communication was conformed between the National Government and the Human Rights movement during these dates. In this group, there are delegates of the Subcommittee on Guarantees and Human Rights of the Agrarian, Peasant, Ethnic and Popular Summit and the National Guarantees Committee" notes the document that was released on Friday, December 23 in the Colombian capital city of Bogotá.

The five delegates of the Human Rights defenders will be communicating and interacting on the urgent situations that may occur and that involve risks to the lives of leaders of the social movements, these delegates are Jael Quiroga, José Humberto Torres, Zoraida Hernández, Cristian Delgado, and Rocío Martínez. On the part of the State there are: Representatives of the Ministry of Interior, Presidential Counseling for Human Rights, Ministry of Defense, National Protection Unit and the Ombudsman's Office. In addition to these entities, the Office in Colombia of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights will also participate in this mechanism.

The situation is so serious against the exercise of Human Rights defenders and social leaders in the country, that the Office in Colombia of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights expressed concern about the increase in attacks that have left 52 dead as of November 30, 2016.

References:

Prensa Rural: “En Colombia crean mecanismo de emergencia temporal para afrontar riesgo de los defensores de Derechos humanos” taken from: http://prensarural.org/spip/spip.php?article20726 on Dec, 26, 2016

Contagio Radio: “En Cauca es asesinado un nuevo líder campesino” taken from http://www.contagioradio.com/en-cauca-es-asesinado-un-nuevo-lider-comunitario-articulo-34086/ on Dec. 26, 2016

http://farc-epeace.org/newsflash/item/1960-temporary-emergency-mechanism-established-in-order-to-handle-risks-against-human-rights-defenders.html

Sick and tired of the left being a martyr factory.

PLEASE ENDORSE THIS OPEN LETTER TO COLOMBIAN PRESIDENT JUAN MANUEL SANTOS

Hello all,



Four years ago I helped organize a delegation of people to Colombia on behalf of political prisoner David Ravelo. Now we are sending an open letter to President Santos asking that Ravelo be freed as part of the expected amnesty for some prisoners that is part of the peace process there. The open letter (see attachment and also below) is a summary of his case. When we have names of individuals (we want over 300) and of organizations we will be delivering the letter and names to the Colombian consulate in Boston in mid- January.



Instructions for how to sign on to the letter are at the head of the letter; it’s easy – just email me: atwhit@roadrunner.com.



This is important. There are over 9000 political prisoners in Colombia. For half a century US has been allied to Colombia in its anti-insurgent war. Over 200, died. Ravelo is emblematic.



Thank you for considering, and, hopefully, signing on. And, Have your friends sign on!!!!



Tom Whitney



PLEASE ENDORSE THIS OPEN LETTER TO COLOMBIAN PRESIDENT JUAN MANUEL SANTOS

President Santos: Colombian prisoner David Ravelo must go free, now!

As follow-up of its solidarity delegation to Colombia in 2012 on behalf of Ravelo, the North American Committee for the Defense of David Ravelo circulates this letter as part of the international campaign to free him. To endorse it, pleased email your name, city, state or province, and country to WT Whitney at: atwhit@roadrunner.com. We will deliver the letter and names to Colombian officials in mid-January. Thank you.

Prepared by W. T. Whitney Jr.

The case against prisoner David Ravelo collapsed long ago under the weight of lies and a misbegotten prosecution. Only an imaginative writer of fiction could pass off as plausible the vengeance and bizarre legal proceedings he’s been subjected to.

Ravelo was arrested September 14, 2010 in Barrancabermeja, Colombia. Charged with plotting to murder municipal official David Núñez Cala in 1991, he is serving an 18 – year term. Appeals have failed. His case is now before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

Ravelo is emblematic of thousands of political prisoners in limbo now as Colombia implements a peace accord. Imprisoned combatants and civilian political prisoners may soon be eligible for amnesty. Ravelo must be one of them.

Barrancabermeja

Barrancabermeja, on the Magdalena River, grew together with development of oil-processing facilities there that now produce 60 percent of Colombia’s oil products. The local oil – workers’ union is a famously militant one, and leftist ferment has been constant. In the late 1980s, for example, the Patriotic Union (UP) electoral coalition entered local politics. Soon killers were targeting UP activists in Barrancabermeja, and nationally.

In the early 1990s, David Ravelo was a UP member of Barrancabermeja’s city council and a delegate to the Santander Assembly. Charged with rebellion in 1993, he went to prison for 27 months. By the late 1990s, paramilitaries controlled the city and its surroundings. They massacred 36 Barrancabermeja inhabitants on May 16, 1998 and 17 more on February 28, 1999.

For 35 years, Ravelo was a labor organizer, community educator, journalist, and defender of human rights. He joined the Colombian Communist Party’s Central Committee. Barrancabermeja’s Catholic Diocese honored Ravelo in 2008. Responding to paramilitary violence, he founded and directed the CREDHOS human rights organization. Soon that group’s leaders were being killed or threatened, and many survivors departed. Ravelo stayed.

Ravelo in 2007 circulated a video, viewable here, showing Colombian President Alvaro Uribe socializing with Barrancabermeja paramilitary leaders in 2001. Uribe’s ties to paramilitaries alarmed the U.S. government, Colombia’s military ally. But his Justice and Peace Law (2005) eased such concerns by promoting paramilitary demobilization. The video, recalling Uribe’s grim history, invited revenge.

Persecution, lies, and vengeance

Colombia’s government in 1999 convicted paramilitary leaders Mario Jaimes Mejía (alias “Panedero’) and Fremio Sánchez Carreño for organizing the two Barrancabermeja massacres. Each received a 20 year sentence. Ravelo’s public denunciations played a role in their downfall.

From Itagüí prison, paramilitary leader Roberto Pérez Álzate “gave the order,” says Ravelo, for Jaimes Mejía “to take revenge and accuse David Ravelo Crespo and José Arístides Andrade” of murdering David Núñez Cala in 1991.

Jaimes confessed to organizing the massacres of 1998 and 1999 in order to qualify for the Justice and Peace Law. According to that law, paramilitary leaders telling the truth and demobilizing troops would serve eight years in prison. In 2008 Jaimes confessed to the Núñez Cala murder and named Ravelo and ex- congressperson Arístides Andrade as accomplices, adding that, at a meeting in Barrancabermeja, they participated in planning the murder. The accusations were aimed at building his case for entering the Justice and Peace program

His paramilitary associate Fremio Sánchez also confessed to the massacres and to his own role in the Núñez Cala murder. He too implicated Ravelo and Arístides Andrade in order to qualify for the program. He was not accepted.

When Jaimes Mejía killed Núñez Cala, he was a FARC member; he joined the paramilitaries later. Claiming that Ravelo had ties to the FARC, he showed investigators a 1985 photo of Ravelo attending a peace meeting with FARC leaders at a forest encampment. Authorities had used the old photo to put Ravelo in prison in 1993. Ravelo went free once the “Ravelo” in the photo was shown to be someone else, a journalist.

Ever so strange

Ravelo’s case rests on multiple assaults on the truth. Here’s one: a local prosecutor dismissed allegations against him in 2008. Later, the national Attorney General transferred his case to an “anti-terrorism prosecutor” in Bogota. That prosecutor, William Pacheco Granados, was a criminal.

As a police lieutenant in 1991 Pacheco arranged for the “forced disappearance” of a young man. A military court convicted him; he spent a year in prison. Law 270 of 1996 prohibits anyone dismissed from “any public office” or convicted of a crime from joining “the judicial branch.” Now Pacheco Granados faces civil prosecution for murder.

Another assault: Colombia’s Attorney General on August 20, 2014 accused Jaimes of lying when he accused Ravelo and Andrade of complicity in the murder. A judicial unit specializing in false witnesses is investigating. However, between May 26, 2015 and October 27, 2016, six scheduled court sessions were canceled.

A third: Jaimes’ criminality seems limitless. He arranged for journalist Yineth Bedoya to be kidnapped before she was to interview him in prison in 2000. She was beaten and raped. Jaimes received a 28 – year sentence and was removed from protection under the Law of Peace and Justice.

Body parts discovered in the sewers of La Modelo prison have been connected to Jaimes’ order to “disappear” fellow prisoners. He’s accused of ordering the killing in 2003 of a school head in Barrancabermeja and committing aggravated assault from prison against a Barrancabermeja businessman.

Four, Jaimes Mejía bribed fellow prisoners to testify that Ravelo and Arístides Andrade attended the murder – planning meeting. Witnesses at trial sessions in 2011 and 2012 testified that Jaimes used prisoner Fremio Sánchez to recruit them. Their contradictory testimony indicated to Ravelo that they “didn’t know who he was.” Officials facilitated meetings at which Jaimes and Sánchez conspired against Ravelo. A jailed lawyer, advising prisoners, testified to the collaboration.



Five, none of Ravelo’s 30 defense witnesses were allowed to testify during the trial proceedings. Prosecutor Pacheco closed his pre-trial investigation without hearing testimony as to Ravelo’s innocence.



Six, four weeks elapsed between Ravelo being convicted and the announcement of his conviction on December 11, 2012. The delay impeded preparations for Ravelo’s appeal and was a “flagrant violation of due process.”



Lastly, the atmosphere surrounding Ravelo’s trial was hardly favorable for securing justice; “family members and members of Ravelo’s CREDHOS organization continually suffered paramilitary death threats and harassment while the trial was in progress.”



Ravelo summarizes: “[T]he paramilitaries had ‘reasons’ for wanting to eliminate me. That’s why … they tried to assassinate me physically, but didn’t succeed. They decided to eliminate me judicially, and for that they implemented the ‘judicial façade,’ using the lie as their favorite weapon. It’s clear, therefore, that the truth is the first victim of war.

http://houstoncommunistparty.com/please-endorse-this-open-letter-to-colombian-president-juan-manuel-santos/

How would peace in Colombia contribute to the environment?


Many recognize the economic, social and political factors that have generated and reproduced the armed confrontation in Colombia, that’s precisely the premise of the need to find a dialogued and political solution to the conflict. However, transversal to these factors is the environmental issue, which is of high importance because of its role in the economic and social life.

Colombia is the second most biodiverse country of the entire world, and it’s rich in natural resources such as minerals, metals, fossil fuels, fresh water, forests, jungles and animal diversity. The national economy is based on the exploitation of these natural resources and vast amounts of rural and indigenous communities directly depend on these.

Despite the aforementioned, the economic and social inequality of the country is astonishingly high and raises questions on the type of policies that have contributed to this problem as well as the effects that these have on the armed conflict and the preservation of the natural environment.

The following are three key factors contained in the Peace Agreements that contribute to improvements in all these areas:

1. The recognition, support and establishment of Peasant Reserve Zones

The dynamics of the conflict have meant that many of the displaced have occupied and generated new rural settlements, thus contributing to the deforestation and unorganized usage of land. The agreements contemplate 10 million hectares to be adequately distributed to landless peasants and small and medium agricultural producers, many of these can be in Peasant Reserve Zones, which are forms of community organization recognized by the legal system and in which an adequate distribution and usage of land is generated.

As well, these empower the communities to have a direct influence on decision making regarding natural resource exploitation and how it will be done in a social, economic and environment-friendly manner. This is important due to the fact that the forms and methods commonly used for natural resource extraction have shown to have had negative effects on the economic, social and environmental life of the communities, especially with the fracking technique.

The previous may sound paradoxical but in fact is a common situation in those areas richest in natural resources, this is why many communities have organized and protested against the entrance of extractive companies. The contribution to resolving this problem is by enabling the communities to have a direct voice in decision-making stances and strengthening these institutional stances and their formalization.

2. Delimitation of the forest reserve and agricultural frontier

The Comprehensive Rural Reform contemplates in many of its subsections the need for rural development based on environmental sustainability and the strengthening of the institutional framework in order to generate plans and public policies in perspective of rural social equality and a better usage of the land.

With the delimitation of the forest reserve and the closing of the agricultural frontier, clear parameters are established in order to protect areas of special environmental interest. The lack of the previously mentioned has contributed to the continuous deforestation and lack of regulation to the extraction of natural resources, which has resulted in enormous damage to the ecosystems.

3. Crops of illicit use

The cycle of forced displacement and the generalized neglect of the State towards rural communities has meant that many of these located in remote areas don’t count with the sufficient infrastructure or basic institutional framework in order to be able to develop sustainable and legal economic subsistence, resulting in the growth of illicit crops as means of basic economic survival.

The paradigm that has been used for decades regarding this problem has been that of criminalization of the weakest links of the chain (the peasants) and the use of aerial spraying and forced eradication, this paradigm does not attack the structural causes of the problem and has only contributed to making it more complex and generated environmental and health damage, since the chemicals used in aerial spraying are extremely harmful to both humans and nature.

At the same time, by not attacking the structural causes, more deforestation occurs and more illicitly used crops are generated since the economic and social aspects are not taken into account.

The shift of paradigm contemplated in the agreements aim at the voluntary substitution of these illicit crops by providing living alternatives to peasants, with health care, education, technical assistance, soft loans and tertiary roads for peasants to be able to grow legal crops. With the voluntary substitution programs the peasants should be able to change quickly and voluntarily to other crops that should provide them welfare and well-being.

Likewise, the reforestation is contemplated as an essential part of the necessary retribution to the environmental damage that has been caused during all these years of proliferation of illicitly used crops and aerial spraying.

In defense of the agreements

The implementation of the Final Peace agreement was delayed, as it wasn't approved in the national plebiscite that took place on October 2, with a very slight difference of approximately 60.000 votes out of over 13 million voters; however, the peace process is not over yet and all parties, including the most notorious representatives of the NO-camp, have expressed willingness to continue working towards a positive outcome.

It is important for the national and international community to take an active role in the upcoming events in defense of the core elements and spirit of the reached agreements as they aim to benefit the vast majority of Colombians, the environment and social development.

The FARC-EP has tirelessly worked in pro of improving the living conditions of the majorities and has always been imbued in the life of the rural Colombia, the forgotten Colombia, the neglected and abandoned communities that have been subject to State and paramilitary violence. This is the reason why the peace agreements constitute a series of social and political conquests that set the bases for all the marginalized to have a voice in national politics and to generate the necessary reforms to improve the living conditions of millions of Colombians.


http://youtu.be/D_VgZprpNds

http://farc-epeace.org/peace-process/news/item/1739-how-would-peace-in-colombia-contribute-to-the-environment.html

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Environment and Natural Resource preservation: A long path towards real transformations

Written by: Roberto Cervantez - PCCC

At the 5th consecutive day of the X National Guerrilla Conference, the FARC-EP discusses “Environment and Natural Resource preservation” a topic that has direct relation to the agrarian problems in Colombia and the economic model of the country, which is primarily based in the massive exploitation of natural resources.

Based on the Gini index on land concentration which is measured from 0 to 1, where 0 represents total equality, Colombia is measured at 0.85, one of the highest in the world; a mind blowing fact that unfortunately is just one of many that proves the dire consequences of the economic model and the mostly violent forms of land accumulation in Colombia.

Indeed, the signed agreement at the Havana Peace Process between the FARC-EP and the National Government contemplates in point 1 a comprehensive rural reform, which amongst others, provides a fund of lands of 3 million hectares to be adequately distributed to landless small and medium agricultural producers and the formalization of 7 million more, totaling 10 million hectares.

The policies there contemplated are just a step towards improving the quality of life of all those peasants that have been historically forgotten and neglected by the State. Road infrastructure, technical training, schools, health care centers, technical assistance, subsidies, water pipelines, sewage, electricity and internet are basic elements that the State should have provided for its rural citizens a long time ago.

But these conquests must not be seen as an ending point but rather as a starting point for more transformations. This requires for the strengthening of the political opposition and guarantees of political participation for social and political movements, all of which are contemplated in point 3 of the Final Peace Agreement in the Political Participation agreement.

http://farc-epeace.org/images/SendasGuerrilleras.jpg

This is why the FARC-EP and all opposition movements and organizations of the country see in peace an opportunity to participate in politics and decision making without fearing of State and paramilitary violence; An opportunity to be seen and treated as a legitimate political adversary and not as an enemy of war as has been the case for so many decades.

The forms in which resource extraction takes place in Colombia have resulted in enormous environmental damage and has provided very little to the welfare of the rural communities where these resources are located, and in many cases, it has even worsened their living conditions, this is why many communities protest the entrance of multinational corporations of resource extraction into their regions such as the cases of San Martin, La Macarena, Caquetá, Tomila and Boyacá, to just name a few.

At the end of the day, these communities don´t seem to have a problem with resource extraction itself, but rather with the forms in which it’s being done and the policies behind them that only seem to benefit the foreign corporation and not the local population. Put in these terms -and as how many of the social movements have expressed it- Colombia needs to change the “deals” made with these companies. The local population and the country itself should be the primary beneficiary of resource extraction, after all, they are our national resources, and they do belong to all Colombians.

Our colonial past haunts us. The elite class that betrayed our liberator Simón Bolívar took on the same type of practices that the Spaniards had over our country, and that is the practice of plundering the wealth of the country without any interest in its inhabitants. This explains why so much blood has been shed in Colombia since its independence, the current conflict is only the one we have had to live, but before, there were many others, civil wars and partisan violence are transversal to our entire history as an “independent” nation.

http://farc-epeace.org/images/BolivarCorrePorNuestrasVenas.jpg

It’s time for change, and with these historic Peace Agreements a world of possibilities opens for the Colombian people and for the political opponents. This is why Timoleón Jiménez [FARC-EP maximum leader] said in the inauguration speech of the Guerrilla Conference “For the FARC-EP and our people, the greatest satisfaction will always be to have won peace” and in that same line of thought, Iván Márquez, in his speech when the Final Agreement was reached said “We confess that we have concluded the most beautiful of all battles: laying down the foundations for peace and coexistence”.

To have finally made the governing classes in Colombia stop their political persecution and violent wealth accumulation ways is an enormous conquest itself in a country like Colombia, furthermore, to have won, not just for the FARC-EP, but for the Colombian population, the social and political content of the agreements that the government is compromised to fulfill, is also an important conquest; But as already mentioned: it’s a starting point.

The implementation of agreements may well be considered the real peace process. And the strength of the political opposition of Colombia is to be gathered and shown if indeed there is any type of will to govern the country. The challenges that lay ahead are many, the entire country knows it, the international community also, and as for the FARC-EP “[we will] give all of our energies for the new country that the majority of Colombians dream of” as Timochenko proclaimed it in the inaugural speech.

http://farc-epeace.org/images/ResistenciaGuerrillara.jpg

http://farc-epeace.org/newsflash/item/1655-environment-and-natural-resource-preservation-a-long-path-towards-real-transformations.html

Colombian prisoner David Ravelo must go free, now!
January 8, 2017 | 3:14 pm

In an open letter we ask Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos to order his government to release political prisoner David Ravelo. We invite individuals and organizations to endorse the letter. To do so, please send a name, city, state or province, and country to W.T. Whitney at: atwhit@roadrunner.com. The letter and names will be delivered to Colombian officials in mid-January.

T. Whitney Jr. prepares this letter which is a project of The North American Committee for the Defense of David Ravelo. In 2012 the Committee sent a solidarity delegation to Colombia on Ravelo’s behalf.


The Honorable Juan Manuel Santos

President, Republic of Colombia



Dear Mr. President,



Sir, those who sign this letter hold that the case against prisoner David Ravelo (cédula de ciudadanía 13.887.558) collapsed long ago under the weight of lies and a quite illegitimate prosecution. With respect, we ask that you instruct your government to release Mr. Ravelo from prison. We point to a long, unvarying record of injustice against Ravelo.



David Ravelo was arrested September 14, 2010 in Barrancabermeja, Colombia. Charged with plotting to murder municipal official David Núñez Cala in 1991, he is serving an 18 – year term. Appeals have failed. His case is now before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.



Ravelo, we think, is emblematic of thousands of political prisoners in limbo now as Colombia implements its peace accord. Imprisoned combatants and civilian political prisoners may soon be eligible for amnesty. Ravelo needs to be one of them.



Barrancabermeja, Ravelo’s native city, produces 60 percent of Colombia’s oil products. In the late 1980s the Patriotic Union (UP) electoral coalition entered local politics. Soon David Ravelo was a UP member of Barrancabermeja’s city council and a UP delegate to the Santander Assembly. At the time, however, killers were targeting UP activists in Barrancabermeja, and nationally.



Charged with rebellion in 1993, Ravelo went to prison for 27 months. By the late 1990s, paramilitaries controlled the city and its surroundings. They massacred 36 Barrancabermeja inhabitants on May 16, 1998 and 17 more on February 28, 1999.



In Barrancabermeja, Ravelo was a labor organizer, community educator, and journalist. He is a longtime member of the Colombian Communist Party’s Central Committee. Barrancabermeja’s Catholic Diocese honored Ravelo in 2008 for his 30 years dedicated to defending human rights. In response to paramilitary violence, he founded and directed the CREDHOS human rights organization. Many CREDHOS leaders subsequently were killed or threatened.



Ravelo in 2007 circulated a video, viewable here, showing President Alvaro Uribe socializing with Barrancabermeja paramilitary leaders in 2001. The U.S. government, Colombia’s military ally, had complained about Uribe’s ties to paramilitaries. We suspect that the video, embarrassing to President Uribe, provoked his taking action against Ravelo.



Persecution, lies, and vengeance



Colombia’s government in 1999 convicted paramilitary leaders Mario Jaimes Mejía (alias “Panadero’) and Fremio Sánchez Carreño for organizing the two Barrancabermeja massacres. Each received a 20 year sentence. Having accused them, David Ravelo played a role in their downfall.

From Itagüí prison, paramilitary leader Roberto Pérez Álzate “gave the order,” says Ravelo, for Jaimes Mejía “to take revenge and accuse David Ravelo Crespo and José Arístides Andrade” of murdering David Núñez Cala in 1991.

Jaimes confessed to organizing the massacres of 1998 and 1999 in order to qualify for the Justice and Peace Law of 2005. According to that law, paramilitary leaders telling the truth and demobilizing troops would serve eight years in prison. In 2008 Jaimes confessed to the Núñez Cala murder and named Ravelo and ex- congressperson Arístides Andrade as accomplices. He claimed they attended a meeting in Barrancabermeja where the murder was planned. Again, accusations against Ravelo would ease his entry into the Justice and Peace program.



Jaime’s paramilitary associate Fremio Sánchez also confessed to the massacres and to his role in the Núñez Cala murder. He too implicated Ravelo and Arístides Andrade in order to qualify for Justice and Peace.



Jaimes Mejía was a FARC member when he killed Núñez Cala; only later would he join the paramilitaries. Accusing Ravelo of ties to the FARC, he showed investigators a 1985 photo of Ravelo attending a peace meeting with FARC leaders at a forest encampment. Authorities had used the old photo to put Ravelo in prison in 1993. Ravelo went free when the “Ravelo” in the photo was shown to be someone else, a journalist.



In the clutches of the law



The prosecution and trial of Ravelo revealed terrible procedural failings. The court, for example, accepted Jaimes Mejía’s accusation – a lie – that Ravelo and Andrade participated in a murder. Colombia’s Attorney General on August 20, 2014 charged him with lying, and a judicial unit specializing in false witnesses is investigating. Between May 26, 2015 and October 27, 2016, however, six scheduled court sessions were canceled.



Further, the prosecutor in Ravelo’s case, William Pacheco Granados, is a criminal. As a police lieutenant in 1991 he arranged for the “forced disappearance” of a young man. A military court convicted him; he spent a year in prison. Law 270 of 1996 prohibits anyone dismissed from “any public office” or convicted of a crime from joining “the judicial branch.” Now Pacheco Granados faces civil prosecution for murder.



And, the criminality of Ravelo’s accuser, Mario Jaimes Mejía, seems limitless. Jaimes arranged for journalist Yineth Bedoya to be kidnapped before she was to interview him in prison in 2000. She was beaten and raped. Jaimes received a 28 – year sentence.



There’s more: Jaimes Mejía bribed fellow prisoners to testify that Ravelo and Arístides Andrade attended the meeting where the murder was planned. Jaimes used prisoner Fremio Sánchez to recruit them, according to witnesses at Ravelo’s trial. Prison officials facilitated meetings to enable Jaimes and Sánchez to conspire against Ravelo.



And, none of Ravelo’s 30 defense witnesses were allowed to testify during the trial proceedings. Prosecutor Pacheco closed his pre-trial investigation without hearing testimony as to Ravelo’s innocence.



And, four weeks elapsed between Ravelo being convicted and the actual announcement of his conviction on December 11, 2012. This “flagrant violation of due process” delayed preparations for Ravelo’s appeal.



Lastly, the atmosphere surrounding Ravelo’s trial was grim; “family members and members of Ravelo’s CREDHOS organization continually suffered paramilitary death threats and harassment while the trial was in progress.”



Ravalo summarizes: “[T]he paramilitaries had ‘reasons’ for wanting to eliminate me. That’s why … they tried to assassinate me physically, but didn’t succeed. They decided to eliminate me judicially, and for that they implemented ‘the judicial façade,’ using the lie as their favorite weapon. It’s clear, therefore, that the truth is the first victim of war.”

http://houstoncommunistparty.com/colombian-prisoner-david-ravelo-must-go-free-now/

Colombian Defense Ministry says there are no paramilitaries

http://www.telesurtv.net/__export/1484784858280/sites/telesur/img/multimedia/2017/01/18/1192648.jpg_1718483347.jpg
To affirm the presence of paramilitarism in the country is to grant "political guarantees" to those who do not deserve them, said the official. | Photo: EFE
Published 18 January 2017

Luis Carlos Villegas said the killings of human rights activists are not systematic despite allegations of a "selective extermination" of community leaders.

Colombian Defense Minister Luis Carlos Villegas said that the killings of several human rights defenders "are not systematic" and according to him "there are no paramilitaries."

"There are no paramilitaries, so accepting that is giving political guarantees to those who do not deserve them. There are murders but they are not systematic, if they were they would be the first to accept it," the minister said.

The minister 's statement comes despite last January Colombian social organizations attributed the killings of peasants paramilitary groups seeking to disrupt the peace process in Colombia activists.

They also warned of a "selective extermination strategy" of community leaders related to the Colombian Left Movement, the Patriotic March.

Villegas said that the killings of peasant leaders and human rights defenders are related to organized crime, but that to date there is no evidence linking them to each other.

Last Tuesday, the body of Red Conpaz leader Emilsen Manyoma and her husband Joe Javier Rodallega were found dead in a wooded area of ​​El Limonar in El Progreso neighborhood in Colombia. Competent bodies investigate the case.

http://www.telesurtv.net/news/Min.-de-Defensa-de-Colombia-asegura-que-no-hay-paramilitares-20170118-0076.html

Google Translator

I do not see how FARC can tolerate this, abject surrender and suicide.

Colombia: Lack of political will to dismantle paramilitarism

Source: Contagio Radio

Social organizations and human rights defenders expressed their concern about the lack of action on the part of the government in its commitments with the creation and activation of the Investigative and Dismantling Unit of Paramilitary Structures, which would contribute and shed light on those who are behind the murders of social leaders and human rights defenders in Colombia.

Soraya Guttiérrez, an attorney that is a member of the Jose Avelar Restrepo Lawyers Collective, which is characterized for the defense of victims of State and paramilitary violence in Colombia, said that such Investigative and Dismantling Unit -which was agreed upon in the Havana Agreements between the Government and the FARC-EP- “has not yet been created, has undergone modifications and the Attorney General of the Nation has not yet had any political will in giving resources to such Unit and enable its functioning”.

Despite the fact that several national and international Human Rights reports, including UN reports, have pointed out that paramilitary presence persists in Colombia and that it is necessary to dismantle these structures in order to achieve a stable and lasting peace, the Defense Minister, Juan Carlos Villegas stated that "There is no paramilitarism in Colombia. To say that in Colombia there is paramilitarism would mean granting political recognition to bandits dedicated to common or organized delinquency ".

However, Interior Minister Juan Fernando Cristo acknowledged the presence of the paramilitary group called "Clan del Golfo" in the Urabá region, a structure that is occupying the places where the FARC-EP was previously located and stated that "the National Government will act with all its force against this criminal group". At the same time, he called for increased protection measures for human rights defenders and leaders in different regions of the country.

In the first 25 days of the year, 15 leaders and human rights defenders have been murdered; communities continue to denounce paramilitary presence near the rural settlements where the FARC-EP members regroup, there are still no concrete actions being taken on part of Public Forces.

http://farc-epeace.org/newsflash/item/2055-colombia-lack-of-political-will-to-dismantle-paramilitarism.html

Even a blind pig can see where this is going. I hate to be disrespectful but was that 'FARC" or "farce"?

Nearly transfer of FARC-EP members to disarm

http://www.telesurtv.net/__export/1486857776928/sites/telesur/img/multimedia/2017/02/11/fc11.jpg_1718483347.jpg
In total, 19 zones and seven points (smaller than the first) will be used as temporary camps for the (FARC-EP), in the demobilization phase. | Photo: Reuters
Published 11 February 2017

The overwhelming majority (of the members of that group) is already concentrated, Santos said during his tour of the department of Tolima.

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos confirmed Saturday that the transfer of members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia - People's Army (FARC-EP) to the places where they will drop their weapons is now almost complete, and must prepare for reinstatement Civil life.


Seguir
Juan Manuel Santos ✔ @JuanManSantos
6.300 integrantes de Farc ya están en #ZonasVeredales. En próximos días terminará esta histórica concentración con cerca de 7.000 miembros
17:12 - 9 feb 2017
143 143 Retweets 265 265 me gusta

The troops have traveled about eight thousand kilometers by road and, in some cases, crossing mighty rivers to occupy these scenarios in 14 departments.

https://twitter.com/TimoFARC/status/830479548303233025/photo/1


Seguir
Rodrigo Londoño @TimoFARC
Se reanuda desplazamiento de las @FARC_EPueblo en La Gabarra Hacia la ZVTN de Caño Indio.
El Apoyo de población nos alienta a continuar.
13:12 - 11 feb 2017
106 106 Retweets 142 142 me gusta

Two displacements remain (in Norte de Santander and Caquetá) to complete the mega-operation begun more than 10 days ago and which facilitated the arrival of about six thousand men and women from that insurgent movement to points and zones of transition, said the president.

https://pbs.twimg.com/ext_tw_video_thumb/830449940925132800/pu/img/AGLCadhc2DMIKZcn.jpg


Seguir
FARC-EP @FARC_EPueblo
Las @FARC_EPueblo viajaron a las #ZonasVeredales para cumplirle a Colombia y al Mundo.⏩ https://youtu.be/ZjmwiqatTKE #LasFarcCumplen
11:38 - 11 feb 2017
41 41 Retweets 43 43 me gusta

On November 24, the Colombian leader and the leader of that insurgent group, Timoleón Jiménez, signed the definitive agreement with which they pledged to end the fighting and hostilities.

Within the temporary accommodation are accompanied by a tripartite monitoring mechanism, made up of government representatives, delegates of that guerrilla and a political mission of the United Nations.

http://www.telesurtv.net/news/Casi-finaliza-traslado-de-miembros-de-las-FARC-EP-para-desarme-20170211-0034.html

Google Translator

FARC has done all the 'giving', we all want peace but a booj peace is like a 'Roman peace'....
Please, please, please, let me be wrong about this.

****************************

Being a social leader in Colombia costs your life

http://www.telesurtv.net/__export/1486761457311/sites/telesur/img/multimedia/2017/02/10/lideres-colombianos-asesinados.jpg_1718483346.jpg
Crimes against human rights and peace activists and social leaders are increasing in Colombia.

FEBRUARY 10, 2017

Crimes against human rights and peace activists and social leaders are increasing in Colombia.

So far this year, 19 social leaders have been killed, this means that from January to today, every two days a Colombian who works for their communities is murdered.
Barely two months have passed since 2017 and 19 social leaders and human rights defenders in Colombia have been killed. These crimes take on increasing frequency and spread throughout the country.

The most recent crime was that of the leader Luz Herminia Olarte , of 51 years, the 7 of February. His body was found dead in a thicket in a rural area of ​​Yarumal, according to human rights defenders in the department of Antioquia.

Social movements consider that more attention is needed from the Colombian government to stop the phenomenon and attributes a number of these crimes to paramilitary groups.

In 2016, the Institute of Studies for Development and Peace registered 94 murdered leaders . Unofficially and published by other independent organizations, 114 were registered. A worrying figure was registered in Cauca, 40 crimes and in Antioquia, 15.

To these numbers are added, between January and June, 232 threats, 21 attacks and 314 sexual assaults, according to the program Somos Defensores.

The UN Human Rights Office in Colombia reported that 13 of the 57 homicides of social leaders in 2016 occurred after the signing of the first peace agreement between the Government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia - People's Army ( FARC-EP) in Cartagena.

Both the FARC-EP and social organizations attribute responsibility for the killings to extreme right-wing paramilitary groups, a version dismissed by the Colombian government, which blames criminal gangs dedicated to drug trafficking.

Reactions in social networks for increased murders of social leaders

The year 2017 ignited the alarms of international organizations in Colombia as the murders of social leaders, activists and human rights defenders are increasing. Reactions in social networks repudiate all acts of violence.

http://www.telesurtv.net/telesuragenda/Colombia-lideres-sociales-en-riesgo-20170210-0038.html

Google Translator

"Repudiate"? Christonacrutch, are these people suicidal?

Screenshots at link.

FARC has done all the 'giving', we all want peace but a booj peace is like a 'Roman peace'....
Please, please, please, let me be wrong about this.

Man, this strikes me as an unreal setup! They are bringing all the FARC to central locations for disarmament? Helicopter gunships at the ready? Artillery in position? Yeah, man, I want to be wrong about this...

Paramilitary Groups Fight To Take Over Lands Left by FARC

http://www.telesurtv.net/__export/1485792629491/sites/telesur/img/multimedia/2017/01/30/636213435722186359w.jpg_1718483346.jpg
Thousands of FARC-EP fighters have gathered in the zones defined in the peace accord. | Photo: EFE

Published 12 February 2017

In Catatumbo, campesino organizations have blocked the demobilization of FARC-EP units in Caño Indio, arguing that they would be left unprotected,
Various illegal armed groups have started to fill the void left in rural areas by the recent demobilization of the FARC-EP rebels, as a result of the peace accord, warned a report Saturday.

With areas being abandoned by the guerrilla fighters in recent weeks, various voices have warned against a surge of paramilitary groups, reported Colombian outlet Semana.

A bishop in the town of Apartado, in Antioquia province, warned authorities about a paramilitary presence in the Uraba and Choco provinces — at least 300 fighters from the Gaitanistas Self-Defense Unit of Colombia — gathering around the basin of Cacarica River, reported local communities.

In Catatumbo, campesino organizations have blocked the demobilization of FARC-EP units in Caño Indio, arguing that they would be left unprotected, while paramilitary groups began gathering nearby.


Colombia's second guerrilla group, the National Liberation Army, currently negotiating a peace accord with the Colombian government in Ecuador, said they were considering temporarily filling the void left by the FARC-EP due to popular demand.

The FARC-EP units have left about 240 towns and joined 26 concentration zones under the watch of a multinational commission. The Colombian military have moved into some territories in Tolima and Huila, although areas with illegal mining and coca crops have proven to be more difficult to take over, according to the Peace and Reconciliation Foundation.

Criminal narco-terrorists groups, with ties to the paramilitaries, have successfully infiltrated public authorities thanks to corruption, according to the foundation.

http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Paramilitary-Groups-Fight-To-Take-Over-Lands-Left-by-FARC-20170212-0040.html

********************************

Indigenous Bari Campesinos Face Colombia Paramilitary Violence

http://www.telesurtv.net/__export/1486864781168/sites/telesur/img/news/2017/02/11/paramilitary.jpg_1718483346.jpg
Right-wing paramilitaries in Colombia. | Photo: Reuters

Published 11 February 2017

The Black Eagles held Indigenous Bari families at gunpoint, threatening to steal their land and crops.
Armed right-wing paramilitaries in Colombia are threatening Indigenous Bari families in the country’s northern Catatumbo region for their alleged connections to guerilla groups, the Patriotic March Press Office reports.

Members of The Black Eagles, a coalition of drug trafficking paramilitary groups in Colombia, approached over five households on Thursday, interrogating tribal leaders with their weapons drawn. The paramilitaries were asking about a guerilla unit that was traveling alongside a nearby riverbank.

The Black Eagles presented no proof to the Baris that they were in any way connected to the guerillas. They also threatened to steal their land and crops if they don’t provide information about the guerrillas.

“There is a high risk in our communities in Ocbabuda and Suerera [villages in Catatumbo] of a possible displacement by illegal armed actors who are now present in this area,” a Bari elder told the Patriotic March Press Office.


“This is generating a violation of human rights and international humanitarian law.”

Bari leaders are calling on the Colombian government to intervene and protect them from the paramilitaries.

The Black Eagles’ threats were made days after the Colombian government and National Liberation Army, ELN, guerillas officially began the public phase of the peace dialogue in Ecuador. Part of their peace dialogues include protections for Indigenous communities like the Bari, whom the ELN and other guerilla groups have defended for decades.

But now that groups like the ELN and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, FARC, are abandoning armed struggle, power vacuums are being created in Indigenous areas like Catatumbo that paramilitary groups are taking advantage of.

In La Guajira, for example, a region not too far from Catatumbo, Indigenous Wayuu leaders have faced escalating repression in recent weeks, Agencia Prensa Rural reports. Many there have also been threatened for refusing to give up their lands.

The Bari are part of Colombia’s Indigenous Muisca people and have inhabited Catatumbo for over a thousand years.

http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Indigenous-Bari-Campesinos-Face-Colombia-Paramilitary-Violence-20170211-0021.html

Suicide is one thing, abandoning the people is unconscionable.

What's Plan B?

Dole and Del Monte also facing crimes against humanity charges for financing death squads in Colombia: report
written by Adriaan Alsema February 4, 2017

http://colombiareports.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/dole.jpg

Colombia’s prosecution is set to charge almost 200 companies, including multinationals like Dole and Del Monte, for financing death squads in the banana-growing region of the country, according to Blu Radio.

The radio station reported contents of the alleged set of indictments a day after the country’s chief prosecutor announced his office would charge companies for crimes against humanity for their alleged voluntary support for the paramilitary death squads.

Among the companies facing crimes against humanity charges is Chiquita’s subsidiary.

In spite of the reportedly hundreds of charges against large land owners and businesses, the are in which the local businessmen and the death squads was relatively small. The “Bananero Block” controlled an area of approximately 80 by 30 miles.

(interactive map at link)

The Bananero Block specialized in the protection of banana producers’ interests and became one of the most feared paramilitary groups and led by “HH,” Raul Hasbun and Carlos Castaño who would become the leader of paramilitary umbrella organization AUC.

The group was partly able to gain so much power because the then-governor of Antioquia, former President Alvaro Uribe, promoted the formation of legal self-defense groups that ended up working together with their illegal counterparts and in many cases became par of the AUC when the so-called ” Convivir” groups were banned in 1997.

The Convivir Papagayo group that was certified by Uribe became the entity that receiving the funds funneled to the Bananero Block, according to the Prosecutor General’s Office.


A total of 194 banana companies contributed to Convivir Papagayo and the Association of Special Services. Among these are Banamex, subsidiary if Chiquita Brands, that made payments between 2001 and 2004 1.67 billion pesos ($586 thousand).
Prosecutor General’s Office

On one hand, they fought the guerrillas and violently finished off their social support base with the help of the military authorities in the region, and the businessmen who paid them to recover security in the area.
Prosecutor General’s Office

With the financial support of the local capitalists and politicians, the group violently took over the banana-growing region that in the 1990s in some parts was under political control of leftist parties and under military control of the FARC, much to the dislike of the large landowners, local businesses and multinationals began paying the paramilitaries, who were forced to pay extortion money.

Meanwhile, the paramilitaries converted the region in the home of some of Colombia’s most important arms and drug trafficking routes that are still used by AUC successor group AGC today.

By 2004, when Castaño was killed and the AUC began to demobilize, the FARC had been pushed out of Uraba and most leftist politicians, labor rights workers and human rights defenders had been assassinated.

“HH” demobilized with almost 500 men in December 2004 and was extradited by Uribe in 2008 just when he was revealing the names of the sponsors of the AUC.

Nevertheless, the Prosecutor General’s Office has been able to retrieve the list of sponsors, all of whom will be tried for crimes against humanity before the transitional justice tribunal so fiercely opposed by Uribe.

http://colombiareports.com/dole-belmonte-also-accused-crimes-humanity-financing-banana-death-squads-colombia-report/

Dunno how this jibes with other information we're getting.

Front 33 of the FARC-EP arrives to “caño indio” despite paramilitary threat

In the middle of paramilitary threats, but also of community support, guerrilla troops from the Front 33 of the FARC managed to reach the Transitional Local Zone for Normalization of Caño Indio in the department of Norte de Santander, where these troops will begin their process of reincorporation to civilian life.

In addition to the situation of insecurity, Pastor Alape of the FARC-EP, said that the government once again failed to guarantee the necessary conditions for the guerrillas to settle in that area. Despite this inconvenience, the organization reaffirmed its will to continue with the reincorporation process. "Indeed there is nothing built, the troops are organizing where to locate, looking for water and despite all this situation they maintain their will and spirit to comply with what was agreed and to overcome the adversities that have been derived by non-compliance and the government’s lack of agility".

A total of 598 persons composed of 268 armed guerrillas and 330 militiamen arrived to this Transitional Local Zone for Normalization. The FARC caravan was surrounded by approximately 1,000 peasants who demanded the government to provide life guarantees to the communities and the presence of the Armed Forces. The government's response was to deny the paramilitary siege that villagers of the area have been denouncing.

On Friday 10th and Saturday 11th of February, 200 people had moved to the municipality of Jesus Maria Semprúm in Venezuela, while two commissions made up of 500 peasants and 30 communal action councils collected the denounces made by the inhabitants regarding threats made by paramilitary group "Aguilas Negras" (Black Eagles), which stated that "they had arrived into the region in order to occupy the territory that the FARC-EP left and that anyone who was not want to work with them [paramilitaries] could leave the region".

Caño Indio was the last point of concentration confirmed after reaching agreements with the community regarding a plan for the eradication of illicit crops. At the moment, the process of arrival of the FARC into Transitional Local Zones for Normalization has been 95% completed.

Source: Contagio Radio

http://www.farc-epeace.org/peace-process/news/item/2122-front-33-of-the-farc-ep-arrives-to-cano-indio-despite-paramilitary-threat.html

This is starting to look not on suicidal but dishonorable. Please tell me there is a 'Plan B'.

Colombia decrees Amnesty Law for FARC-EP

http://www.telesurtv.net/__export/1485768622416/sites/telesur/img/multimedia/2017/01/30/farc_ep_4_nc_prensa.jpg_1718483347.jpg
The regulation of the amnesty law comes just after the mobilization of all the structures of the FARC-EP to the Veredales Zones. | Photo: @NCprensa
Published 20 February 2017 (17 minutes ago)

The consolidation of the peace process is proceeding with firm steps, the amnesty law is a fundamental tool to close the armed conflict with the FARC-EP.
The National Government of Colombia, through the Ministry of Justice, regulated the Amnesty Law through Decree 277 of 2017, which also specifies how judges and prosecutors can grant amnesties for former combatants of the Armed Forces Revolutionaries of Colombia - People's Army (FARC-EP).

The FARC-EP must give a list to the State of the members that will be benefited by the measures of reincorporación and the treatments of justice as the amnesty.

The application of this measure of amnesty to the potential beneficiary linked to the FARC-EP group is indispensable to give continuity and firmness to the agreements established at the Teatro Colón de Bogotá, at the end of last year.

The law also states that those who have been investigated or convicted for belonging to the FARC-EP will benefit. For these cases, it will be the prosecutors and the judges who are in charge of applying the measure, they will have the power to grant the amnesties to the insurgents.

The amnesty will be applied only for crimes that expressly indicate the law and that have been committed before the entry into force of the Final Agreement, that is, on December 1, 2016, crimes committed from that date onwards by some insurgent will be Ordinary legislation.

The regulation of the amnesty law comes just after the mobilization of all structures of the FARC-EP to the Verbal Areas and Transitory Points of Normalization has ended, with the arrival this Saturday of the last group of 300 members to the village of Agua Pretty, in the Montañita, Caqueta.

Juan Manuel Santos, president of Colombia, was satisfied with the fulfillment of the agreements. The president visited the Transitional Standardization Zone (ZVTN) La Carmelita, in Putumayo, and signed the decree that allocates royalties to the tertiary roads of municipalities prioritized for post-conflict.

http://www.telesurtv.net/news/Colombia-decreta-Ley-de-Amnistia-para-las-FARC-EP-20170220-0024.html

Google Translator

Report of the Verification Commission in Catatumbo


The Verification Commission that visited between 17 and 19 February several rural settlements of Norte de Santander concluded its day in the territory of Catatumbo with the commitment to continue with the accompaniment to the community, social organizations and defenders of human rights at the light of denunciations made by peasants and indigenous people about the presence of paramilitaries in the region.

Although the Ministry of Defense, members of the National Army and some media outlets denied the paramilitary presence in this territory, the Commission documented community complaints that confirm the truth of the facts.

Likewise the rejection of the inhabitants of the region to the militarization of the area was underlined as a response on the part of the State. Since the massacre of La Gabarra by paramilitaries in 1999 and cases of false Positive that since 2006 became frequent, distrust has grown among the population.

The region organized itself since 9 February in a humanitarian refugee, made up of about 2000 peasants representing the villages and towns that make up the region. They demand for the National Government to implement the peace agreement and begin dismantling the paramilitary structures that make presence in the Catatumbo and other regions of the country.

http://farc-epeace.org/images/catatumborefugio2.jpeg

For this reason, on 25 February 2017, peasants, indigenous people and the population in general will meet with State authorities to define a road map to follow before such a serious situation. The permanence in the humanitarian refuge will depend on the fulfillment of what will be agreed.

Likewise, the Verification Commission heard the report released by the Frente Fronterizo por la Paz, an organization from the neighboring country of Venezuela, which documented the situation of mass displacement of the population of Catatumbo to Venezuelan territory. They registered a total of 402 people.

http://farc-epeace.org/peace-process/news/item/2138-report-of-the-verification-commission-in-catatumbo.html

Slightly off topic, until you consider the contras, their funding and purpose, now and then.

"My father worked for the CIA," said the son of Pablo Escobar in an interview
Posted on Feb 07, 2017 3:36 pm

http://fotos2013.cloud.noticias24.com/Juan-Pablo-Escobar.jpg
Photo: Clarín

(Caracas, February 7) .- In his latest book to be published soon, Juan Pablo Escobar, the son of drug trafficker Pablo Escobar, said his father worked with the CIA. In addition, it relates how the last 72 hours of the leader of the Poster of Medellín were.

Living under the pseudonym of Juan Sebastián Marroquín, until in 2009 he confessed to being the son of the most famous Colombian narco, the man of 40 years advanced details of his new book in an interview with Infobae.

In this dialogue, Escobar related that his new publication "Pablo Escobar In Franganti" explains that his "father worked for the CIA selling cocaine to finance the fight against the communism in Central America. There are names like George Bush Sr. and so many more. "

"The drug business is very different from what we dreamed of. What the CIA was doing was buying the controls to get the drug into their country and getting a wonderful deal. "

"The drug prohibition is a big deal for some that closes at every point. I believe that the prohibition is the best propaganda for the business that is prohibited, "he said.

"My father was a cog in a big business of universal drug trafficking. When it no longer served them, they sent him to kill. "

With these statements and subsequent publication of his book, Juan Pablo is aware that he will not be able to enter the United States of America.

In another vein, the first-born of the "patron of evil" stated in a calm voice that his path of healing is reconciliation with the relatives of those whom his father ordered to be killed.

He also says that he forgave those who went in search of his father and that, according to him, generated the climate to commit suicide. "It's one thing to forgive. Another, forget. I do not forget that my own grandmother gave her son, "he says.

"I forgive my father's family for betraying, selling, delivering. I even forgive my grandmother who delivered her son, although I will never understand. They continue to hurt me daily, but I forgive them. But I do not forget, " he said, signaling his own family to contribute to the decline of Pablo Escobar.

"The last 72 hours of my father hit me a lot. At that stage of his life he lost all stirrups. He lost his love for himself. He came from having destroyed half of Colombia with his violence and he raised the telephone to have his call identified and find him, "he said.

He also claims to be an admirer of his father, although he does not share his legacy of violence: "I admire Pablo, my father, who educated me. Not to Escobar, the mafioso. "

"Pablo Escobar is by no means a role model. In many TV series he admired it and I do not share it. It is not true that a narco has riches, girls and power. The more power my father had, the poorer he lived, "Escobar finished.

With information from Infobae

http://www.noticias24.com/internacionales/noticia/121173/mi-papa-trabajaba-para-la-cia-afirma-hijo-de-pablo-escobar-en-entrevista/

Google Translator

No surprises there. The crimes of the imperium are often revealed one, two or more decades after their commission, and it doesn't seem to matter at all. The Memory Hole is obsolete, facts are irrelevant. They have always lied, but I do not think so effectively.

No surprises there. The crimes of the imperium are often revealed one, two or more decades after their commission, and it doesn't seem to matter at all. The Memory Hole is obsolete, facts are irrelevant. They have always lied, but I do not think so effectively.

It is like Anax said in one of his posts, this seems to be a different thing, now. It isn't just that they are lying, it is that no one thinks of it as "wrong" anymore.

"The US CIA supported drug trafficking and bankrolled the biggest narcos in South America."

Okay. So what?

"Well, that is illegal."

Not if the government does it.

"Yes, even if the government does it."

Who you gonna call? Besides there are 'good guys' and 'bad guys' - sometimes good guys have to do bad things in order to beat the bad guys.

"If good guys do bad things, then what makes them good guys?"

You are just naïve.

It goes even further when you think about how untruthful the MSM is. When lies are the official media's daily fare, what is the outcome?
I still hear MSM reporters talking about the "carnage" Russia is wreaking in southern Ukraine. This is so blatantly a lie as to be shocking (if you could be shocked anymore). They don't even try to support the statements with any evidence - they just make the declaration and it thus becomes "true".
I don't know where this is going, but no one will give two shits that the US supported Escobar...

"The US CIA supported drug trafficking and bankrolled the biggest narcos in South America."

Okay. So what?

"Well, that is illegal."

Not if the government does it.

"Yes, even if the government does it."

Who you gonna call? Besides there are 'good guys' and 'bad guys' - sometimes good guys have to do bad things in order to beat the bad guys.

"If good guys do bad things, then what makes them good guys?"

You are just naïve.

You have summed up the 'cop' mentality perfectly. To be even more succinct: 'might makes right'. They assume they'll always have the 'might'........

Political Prisoners FARC in the indefinite hunger strike

With this news we want to make it known that all political prisoners of the FARC-EP who are in high and medium security prison of San Isidro, Popayan, began a hunger strike indefinitely until the following demands are met:

1. We demand the improvement of the health service of this prison as it is currently very precarious, there are no medicines or specialists. Added to this is the guard's negligence which should ensure the assistance and bring the prisoners to the clinic. As in the case took place on February 9 at 3:45 when the detainee Marino Fernandez Puyo (TD 2412) was hit with a knife by a fellow inmate with psychiatric problems. The marine partner asked for help and medical care for a week, but the systematic neglect of the authorities have meant that the infection resulted from the attack has led to death his companion, the day on February 17.

This is a sad reality that continues and has lived with us since unfortunately the reported case is not the only one. We ask the government to improve the health system for the living conditions worthy of a human being.

2. We call on the national government to respect what has subscribed in the Peace Accords and to speed up work in temporary zones saw that at the time it is not even completed the 20% of the work. Not further lengthen the release of political prisoners, the amnesty law should be implemented, do not do the game of the enemies of peace.

For what concerns us, we, the FARC-EP, we have made and are making great efforts to implement and advance agreement.

The comrades who are participating in the hunger strike are 97 prisoners of war.

http://farc-epeace.org/comunicati/comunicati-farc/item/2156-prigionieri-politici-farc-in-sciopero-della-fame-indefinito.html

Google Translator

Road to peace: FARC-EP is on the verge of disarmament

Published 27 February 2017

"We are ready to begin disarmament this March 1," said leader Pablo Catatumbo, despite the delay in full compliance with the Peace Agreement.
Insurgent leader of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People's Army (FARC-EP), Pablo Catatumbo, stressed that the guerrillas are ready to begin the transition to a life without weapons next March 1st.

"We are ready to begin disarmament this March 1, but this is a 'take and give' me of two parties and we hope that the state also complies," Catatumbo told the Colombian daily El Tiempo .

In accordance with what is planned, such a procedure must take place in three phases and conclude at the end of May, when the organization aspires to begin its reintegration into civilian life and found its party, that is, to begin to do politics but without arms.

The leader of the FARC-EP explained that some problems have begun to be solved in places where they will remain for several months and that they enable with their own hands given the lack of sufficient infrastructure in many of them.

However, Catatumbo said that the members of that insurgent group are concerned about the delay to comply with other points of the agreements.

He particularly referred to the lack of amnesties for the guerrillas who are imprisoned for minor crimes, which is estimated at almost one thousand, despite the fact that the Colombian government authorized the amnesty law passed at the end of December in Congress.

"We know that it is not a lack of will of the Government, but we negotiate with the State and we must comply," added Catatumbo.

On behalf of the Colombian Executive, the commissioner of peace, Sergio Jaramillo, has declared that they carry out all the procedures to achieve disarmament.

"All preparations are being made for disarmament to begin this Wednesday, March 1," he said.

http://www.telesurtv.net/news/Camino-a-la-paz-FARC-EP-esta-a-las-puertas-del-desarme-en-Colombia-20170227-0004.html

Google Translator

*************************************

Despite government delays, the FARC-EP claims that the peace process is progressing

http://www.telesurtv.net/__export/1486496716155/sites/telesur/img/multimedia/2017/02/07/colombia-farc-ep.jpg_1718483347.jpg
The leader Pablo Catatumbo asked the Colombian government to speed up the debates in Congress so that the decrees that advance the peace process can be approved. | Photo: Prensa Latina

Published 7 February 2017

The insurgent chief Iván Márquez criticized the Government of Juan Manuel Santos for the delays in the veredales zones and the delay in the application of the amnesty.
Despite the delay in the construction of temporary camps (veredales), commanders Iván Márquez and Pablo Catatumbo declared Tuesday that the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia - People's Army (FARC-EP) continue their work in the framework of the advance Of the Colombian peace process.

Both leaders, members of the FARC-EP Secretariat, acknowledged that there are delays in the works in the semi-inhabited areas where weapons will be delivered, but they continue to work with the Government of Colombia to create the conditions for the camps.

Márquez also criticized the government of Juan Manuel Santos for delaying the application of the amnesty in favor of members of the FARC-EP prisoners, as established in the agreements.

He asked the Colombian Government for efficiency and compliance in the implementation of the signed agreement, while reiterating the FARC-EP's commitment to achieving peace. His speech took place at the 16th World Summit of Nobel Peace Prizes that culminates this Tuesday in the Colombian capital of Bogota.

For his part, Catatumbo said that "this is the great opportunity that Colombia has to end the action of armed ultra-right groups that still act in the national territory and eliminate social activists and human rights defenders."

Pablo Catatumbo, urged the Colombian Congress to expedite the debates so that the pending decrees are approved and thus move forward with the peace process already under way.

http://www.telesurtv.net/news/Pese-a-retrasos-del-Gobierno-las-FARC--EP-afirman-que-proceso-de-paz-avanza--20170207-0027.html

Google Translator

Colombia Paramilitaries Won't Stop Killing Human Rights Leaders

http://www.telesurtv.net/__export/1488225571452/sites/telesur/img/news/2017/02/27/reuters_paramilitary.png_1718483346.png
In recent months, rural communities have increasingly reported the presence of paramilitaries, targeting them with violence. | Photo: Reuters

Published 27 February 2017

Communities demand security from the Colombian authorities after yet another activist was murdered in the wake of the peace deal.
Yet another Colombian human rights defender has been murdered after a violent group attacked him in the Cauca region, amid the ongoing outcry by activists over the crisis of fatal violence against social leaders and calls for the government to ensure security and protection from paramilitary groups in the country.

Eider Cuetia Conda, coordinator of organization Campesino Security, died from shots fired to his head in the municipality of Corinto, Cauca. According to local media, hooded men shot several times at Cuetia while he was at a gathering with several of his friends Sunday around 7:30 p.m. local time.

The Human Rights Network of the Colombian Southwest reported the murder of the coordinator in the village of Los Andes, in the north of the department.

"The comrade got several gunshots in the head causing his death," said Deivi Hurtado, coordinator of the Human Rights Network.


Hurtado said that it is worrisome that this type of abuse continues to happen in the country, as just last week Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos said that the National Guarantees Security Commission would not allow criminals to continue attacking human rights defenders.

"As we can see, these policies don't have enough echo to stop these types of situations, because one of the biggest problems is that the state does not want to recognize the restructuring of paramilitary groups in the country," said Hurtado.

Since the beginning of the year, four human rights activists have been killed in Cauca and 27 in the rest of the country, according to human rights grounds.

More human rights defenders lost their lives in Colombia in 2016 than any other year that President Santos was in power, according to a new report, which partly attributes the violence to a rise in paramilitary presence following the peace process.

A total of 80 human rights defenders — community leaders, organizers and lawyers defending Indigenous people, campesinos, Afro-Colombians, labor activists, victims' groups, youth and LGBTI members— lost their lives in 2016, reported the program We Are Defenders.

http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Colombia-Paramilitaries-Wont-Stop-Killing-Human-Rights-Leaders-20170227-0008.html

The Colombian Government denies the existence of the paramilitaries.

The Colombian Government denies the existence of the paramilitaries.

This isn't a "peace" deal. This is an unconditional surrender. I am disappointed in Cuban involvement with this. Once all of FARC is disarmed, they will all be executed or imprisoned. These snakes cannot be trusted and there is no one to hold them to account. The Columbian government is one, big death-squad.

This isn't a "peace" deal. This is an unconditional surrender. I am disappointed in Cuban involvement with this. Once all of FARC is disarmed, they will all be executed or imprisoned. These snakes cannot be trusted and there is no one to hold them to account. The Columbian government is one, big death-squad.

I agree and am filled with foreboding, but.....FARC and the Cubans are not fools and we're just a couple of old farts. Gotta be a 'Plan B', right? Right?

I agree and am filled with foreboding, but.....FARC and the Cubans are not fools and we're just a couple of old farts. Gotta be a 'Plan B', right? Right?

Christ, I hope so. I would be thrilled to be shown that I don't know squat about this and it is actually a good "deal". Man, you sure can't see it from here.

Our country has been blessed by hope and can now takes its first steps towards the future

We recently carried out in Caquetá -protected by the love of the people- the march of the Third, 14th and 15th Fronts of the FARC to the Agua Bonita Transitional Zone in the municipality of Montañita, with which we closed the cycle of insurgent grouping in the 26 Transitory Zones and Points of Normalization, spaces in which the transfiguration of the FARC into a legal political party will take place, based on the reciprocal fulfillment of the commitments [Peace Agreement].

The process of implementation of the Final Agreement is progressing slowly, amidst national expectation it has become the hope of millions who long for social justice, inclusion, and peace for the future Colombia.

The implementation of the agreements will not be impossible as long as there is willingness to comply with what was signed and if the people demand so. It is very important to standardize the agreements [to introduce them into the existing legal system], but they must have an effect, because if not, it's no good.

The FARC has already handed over to the government the names of the 60 guerrillas who in a few days will be deployed to the cardinal points of the homeland in order to make peace pedagogy, seeking to socialize and approximate the agreements to citizens and ordinary people. Very soon, we will also announce the list of our people who will carry out the same work at regional levels, as agreed.

Colombia’s reconciliation pact has already been deposited as a Special Agreement before the Council of the Swiss Federation based in Bern, and the unilateral declaration of the State to the United Nations, as a commitment of the Government is underway. The Legislative Act that constitutionally protects the Havana Agreement during the next three governments has already been approved by the Congress of the Republic, with all of which the agreement is being given a greater normative protection. Two months ago the legislative power gave life to the Amnesty Law, but this still demands its immediate application, without legal entangling or bureaucratic obstacles. While the process of constitutionalisation of the Special Jurisdiction for Peace -described by the former Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Luis Moreno Ocampo, as a work of art- makes progress in parliament, the Legislative Act of Political Reincorporation of the FARC Guerrilla starts to make advancements. Thanks to this peace process, the Opposition Statute, an unfulfilled constitutional mandate, will become a legal reality after 26 years. Through the special legislative procedure or by presidential decree many other commitments related to peace have been approved, or simply make progress in the legislative debates, indicating that the normative development of the agreements is a reality. Good work from Congress, right?

What now follows is to ensure that budget resources are provided for this policy framework to be implemented in real and material terms. That is what we hope through the Legislative Act of the Framework Plan of implementation.

The FARC is not involved in delay tactics towards the [peace] process, and we are aware that the government must be given some time in order for it to fulfill its commitments. That is why, further contributing to the strengthening of the peace objective, we announce to the country that next Wednesday, March 1, despite the obvious delays in the logistical adaptation of the Transitory Zones and Points of Normalization, we will carry out as a matter exclusively involves the FARC and the UN -according to the agreed protocol- the registration of weapons in all camps, and we will readjust the plan of destruction of unstable or explosive weapons that had already begun last year in the Yarí Savannahs. We also announce today that as a firm beginning of the process of decommissioning of weapons, and as a sign of our unrestricted commitment to peace, the weapons of the FARC-EP members that are part of the MM&V (Monitoring and Verification Mechanism) will be placed in the custody of the United Nations.

It is understandable and reasonable that in parallel with the process of decommissioning of weapons that begins today, legal security for the guerrillas must be guaranteed in a transparent and tangible way. This has to do with the release of those who are pardonable and the application of the amnesty law without further delays, because it has already been approved. We hope that the entry into force - in the same terms as the Havana Agreement - of the SIVJRNR (Comprehensive System of Truth, Justice, Reparation and Non-Repetition) and its justice component, the Special Jurisdiction for Peace, which places its emphasis on the victims of the conflict, will stimulate the advent of reconciliation of the Colombian family.

It is reasonable, after the sad extermination of opposition political alternatives in Colombia, that we all think that we must guarantee the physical security of the guerrillas who are now preparing the Constitutive Congress of the political party with which they will act in legality.

It is also understandable and reasonable, that socio-economic guarantees should be provided, productive projects that ensure the decent transit of guerrillas to civilian life. We do not want to fail in the attempt, as has happened in the development and implementation of other processes.

We hope that the Nobel Peace Prize that presides over the destinies of Colombia devotes his greatest efforts to the implementation of the agreements during this final section of his mandate because the construction of the lasting and stable peace with which we have dreamed our whole lives rely on it.

Colombians: our country has been blessed by hope and can now takes its first steps towards the future.

It is time to leave violence behind in a definite manner, overcoming, above all, the causes that generated the confrontation. We have guided our guerrillas to work shoulder to shoulder with the communities and authorities, making the Transitional Zones and Points true scenarios of integration and expansion of the feeling of peace. We know that we can work together, including soldiers and police in our country. Let us look and compare ourselves, to arrive at the most natural and simple conclusion: we are children of the same people, amalgamated with the kind clay of the common people. People that want the situation to change favorably with the implementation of the Peace Agreement so that the war is relegated to the new story that we will write, like a distant memory cornered by a powerful collective voice that says at every moment NEVER AGAIN, NEVER AGAIN.

May peace be with all

http://farc-epeace.org/communiques/farc-ep/item/2164-our-country-has-been-blessed-by-hope-and-can-now-takes-its-first-steps-towards-the-future.html

We, the FARC-EP militants, the Clandestine Communist Party and the Bolivarian Movement for New Colombia, have a global vision of the world, a reading of the society. And we want to expose our points of view on varied themes with a common denominator: we are interested and want to share.


We are not alone, there is a people who accompany us

Created: Saturday, 04 March 2017 00:00
Written by : María Aureliana Buendía

http://mujerfariana.org/images/lk.jpg

Life is of contrasts and contradictions. The contrasts make it beautiful and contradictions arise the new. When contradictions are antagonistic, as in the struggle of social classes, the solution also implies the emergence of the new, but almost always with pain and suffering. From huge sacrifices we know a lot in the FARC, such as stoicism, of the characteristics of now political contradictor, their real limitations and their "bad milk."



All these reflections, and many more, passed through the head, with other words, feelings and expressions, of Pilar and Germán marching, perhaps for the last time, with the house on their backs. The serious and transcendental reflections collided harmoniously with the feelings of joy and emotion that arose in crescendo.

We are not alone! How many people have come out to greet us, how many hands, hugs, squeezes. No doubt we are his children, the children of the people who return from the war. That people who accompanied us, who grew up in the heat of the military struggle: subdued, cornered, displaced by the official army, by their paramilitary allies, by private armies of landowners, latifundistas, narcotraficantes, narcoparacos, in synthesis by the Colombian State.

Ask Pilar how often her parents were persecuted and displaced. They were communist militants and they confronted the different governments in search of better conditions of life, but the wars, the way in which the power in Colombia confronts who protests or thinks different, sent them to Militia fariana. As soon as he could, Pilar's brother also became a militiaman. The death at the hands of paramilitaries of his loved one, truncated that beautiful relationship of inseparable brothers united forever by the blood, fused in the fight.

On each face of the woman he saw the, perhaps, furrowed face of his mother. He felt the strong arms of his father with the embraces he received from peasants stationed on the road. A lump in the throat, the tears at the tip of overflowing its limit and at the time that uncontrollable smile of happiness.

Germán marches beside him, is his companion, the man he loves. She is tall, medium-build and strong, she seems to be the most handsome in the world. Walk soft, effortless despite weight. In the guerilla life Germán has had to load behind him 5 and up to 6 arrobas (125-150 pounds) of weight. In addition to the rifle and the fornituras.

Germán was head of the armament workshop of the Eastern Block. There were made mortar of 60, 80 and 120 mm and the pumps for these; Repaired the damaged armament, produced parts and patches wholesale. The workshop had 14 lathes, the heaviest of seven tons; Two milling machines, four tree drills, an electric blade, plus the tools needed and typical of any workshop.

They worked to confront the Plan Patriota in the framework of strategic Plan Colombia, they had to supply the guerrilla troops with mortars and projectiles, to try tirelessly and almost fruitlessly to equal the official Army in technical means. Isolated in the jungle, in a space reduced to the minimum necessary, suffering the inclement heat of hot earth added to that of the machines and the smelting stoves. Twelve hours a day, day by day, month by month, year after year, women and men Farian guerrillas under his command made possible the emancipatory deed in which the FARC-EP were engaged.

But Germán does not stay in the memories, he thinks about the future, his future with his beloved Pilar, his comrades, the future of the FARC and the country. It does not matter that in front of your eyes you see a real "pebble", that the Transitional Standard Zone Zones (ZVTN) constructions do not exist, that the government bureaucracy does not comply, that they are stealing the silver of peace.

The contrasts and contradictions: the generosity of an organization like the FARC, which is putting everything to build a country in peace. The pettiness of a system that demands a lot without giving anything in return, does not even socialize what is the heritage of all Colombians, nobody wants anything given away, we want what is ours.

The ZVTN will build them with our own hands, with our own effort. For that we were forged, that's why we are the children of Marulanda and Jacobo. The struggle will continue to wrest from the system demands not only for us, fundamentally for the people who accompany us and together we will make the new country.

http://mujerfariana.org/vision/783-no-estamos-solos-hay-un-pueblo-que-nos-acompana.html

Google Translator

Another social leader killed in the municipality Bello (Antioquia)
TELESUR 04 MARCH 2017

https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-6rX31xJRD9U/WLof3joWMVI/AAAAAAAAHk0/zmUU_gr4ZH8BXg3VO7vVnV0tnykvRLaxgCLcB/s1600/asesinado-lider-Fabian-Antonio-Rivera-03-02.jpg

The president of the Communal Action Board of the Rosalpi neighborhood, Fabián Antonio Rivera, was shot and police investigate possible perpetrators of the crime.


The Office of the Prosecutor and the Police of Colombia investigate the assassination of the president of the Community Action Board of the district Rosalpi of the municipality Bello, Fabián Antonio Rivera Arroyave, shot by assassins while it was mobilized in a motorcycle by the sector of Niquía.

The violent event occurred in the early morning of March 2 in the vicinity of the San Andrés Cemetery, on Diagonal 61 and 49th Avenue, in the neighborhood of Niquía Camacol, a sector controlled by the band El Tío allied with the band El Mesa.

The Bellanite Communal Movement rejected "with deep indignation the vile crime of this communal leader and we asked the competent authorities to find those responsible for the event."

The Urban Analysis portal indicated that so far this year there were more than 16 homicides in the municipality Bello, In addition, the Gaitanista Self-Defense Groups of Colombia (AGC) make the territory a center for crime and violence, impeding the normal development of the activities of social leaders who are also defenders of human rights.

"In the municipality of Bello paramafioso cogobierno is a reality and is found in 90 percent of the territory protected by a sector of the institutionality that grants them official protection," the media reports.


The Communal Movement Bellanita rejected "with deep indignation the vile crime of this communal leader". Photo: EFE

http://www.pacocol.org/index.php/comites-regionales/antioquia/141-otro-lider-social-asesinado-en-el-municipio-bello-antioquia

Google Translator

ELN and Paramilitary Fighting Displaces Hundreds of Colombians

http://www.telesurtv.net/__export/1488898700832/sites/telesur/img/news/2017/03/07/6254887.jpg_736776827_crop.jpg_1718483346.jpg
Members of Colombia's National Liberation Army, ELN. | Photo: EFE

Published 7 March 2017 (1 hours 46 minutes ago)

As the FARC begins to disarm, other paramilitary groups continue to fuel violence across the country.
Hundreds of Colombians were displaced in the country’s northwest over the weekend as fighting erupted between members of the National Liberation Army, ELN, and Colombia's paramilitary group, Gaitanistas Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, or AGC, commonly known as “Los Urabeños.”

According to reports, a group of around 200 “Urabeños” attempted to push out ELN forces from the Baudo region in the northwestern Choco province. They arrived in the Peña Azul community on Saturday by boat and started firing indiscriminately into the community while screaming that they had come to kill ELN troops.

Over 300 people were displaced by the fighting, including children and elderly, and fled north to Pie de Pato, according to AFP.

While it was unclear if there were any civilian casualties or injuries from the fighting, the ombudsman of the Choco department, Luis Enrique Murillo, warned that there were still eight families from Peña Azul who could not leave the community and whose location remained unknown.


The region has been known as a stronghold of Colombia’s second-largest rebel army, the ELN, who have recently been seeking a peace deal with the Colombian government similar to the one reached with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, the country’s biggest rebel group.

“Los Urabeños” evolved from the officially disbanded “United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia,” or AUC, a right-wing group that supposedly demobilized between 2003 and 2006 during the government of former President Alvaro Uribe.

RELATED:
Indigenous Bari Campesinos Face Colombia Paramilitary Violence

While peace between the FARC and the government was reached in November and the rebel group continues to demobilize, other paramilitary groups continue to operate throughout the country with deadly consequences.

The current government under Juan Manuel Santos has claimed that paramilitary groups do not exist and have demobilized. Yet paramilitary groups continue to wreak havoc in the vacuums created by the FARC, leaving rural leaders and human rights defenders vulnerable, partially with the lack of state protection.

http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/ELN-and-Paramilitary-Fighting-Displaces-Hundreds-of-Colombians-20170307-0005.html

video at link.

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Colombia Pardons First FARC Troops Under Amnesty Law

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Under the amnesty law former FARC members can be pardoned from serious crimes, but not human rights abuses. | Photo: EFE

Published 28 February 2017

Around 4,500 former FARC combatants are expected to be eligible for amnesty as part of the peace deal with the Colombian government.
The Prosecutor's Office of Colombia granted amnesty to four former members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, on Monday as part of an amnesty law included in the historic peace deal between the FARC and the Colombian government.

The amnesties granted for political crimes during the five-decade-long conflict are the first of many. In a statement, the prosecutor's office said that up until Feb. 23, it had received 98 applications for amnesty.

Around 4,500 former FARC members currently held in prisons will be eligible for amnesty under the conditions of the peace agreement. But prison conditions and the slow process of granting amnesty to prisoners led to strikes earlier this week.

The amnesty law was approved in December and allows the pardon of former FARC guerrillas for political crimes, but will not cover FARC members who have committed serious crimes under the Rome Statute, including crimes against humanity, war crimes, sexual abuse or recruiting minors. The bill would also pardon Colombian state troops involved in minor offenses.

Former FARC combatants who receive amnesty are required to the sign a declaration that they consent to the conditions under the Special Jurisdiction for Peace, JEP, which has jurisdiction over all crimes committed during the conflict and functions as a type of truth commission.


Those granted amnesty will have to continually report their residence to the JEP and are not permitted to leave Colombia without prior authorization.

The amnesty process is seen as an important part of adhering to the peace deal approved by Colombian congress in November, ending 52 years of conflict that saw more than 260,000 people killed, 45,000 disappeared and at least 7 million displaced.

The amnesty law, and indeed the peace deal as a whole, has drawn heavy criticism from the country's far-right, who argue that it lets FARC members evade justice and get away with crimes.

As the FARC continues its demobilization, other paramilitary groups have entered former FARC strongholds, leading to violence and killings of human rights defenders.

http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Colombia-Pardons-First-FARC-Troops-Under-Amnesty-Law-20170228-0002.html

video at link.

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Colombian FARC Members Outside Zones to Be Arrested: Military
http://www.telesurtv.net/__export/1488167038744/sites/telesur/img/news/2017/02/26/604_crop1432263736791.jpg_1718483346.jpg_1718483346.jpg
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia troops | Photo: Reuters

Published 26 February 2017

After arresting some FARC members within the zones, the Colombian military now threatens to arrest any outside of zones.
“Any FARC member found outside the concentration zones will be arrested and charged by the attorney general,” said Colombia's Military Commander Alberto Mejia Saturday.

“If they don't have any criminal record, they will be handed to the monitoring mechanism on the orders of the Army's High Command.”

Some guerrillas will be allowed to leave the zones only with special authorization, he added, commenting the recent arrest of a few FARC members in one of the zones located in La Guajira for allegedly attempting to extort local businesses.

FARC leader Ivan Marquez demanded the release of Julio Enrique Lemos Moreno, or “Nader,” claiming his arrest was a violation of the peace accord by the Colombian government.


Also known as “Temporary Hamlet Zones for Normalization," each hamlet consists of encampments where FARC troops are stationed.

No civilians can enter the concentration areas, except for unarmed civilian authorities who can enter the areas to provide health care or to issue identification cards. The FARC can also provide education to its troops to further aid reintegration.

A monitoring and verification mechanism for the concentration areas was carried out by the members of the Colombian government, the FARC and a U.N. mission. The mechanism gives full access to concentration zones to investigate incidents or violations and publish recommendations and reports on the peace process.

About 6,900 FARC guerrillas have moved to 26 camps so far. The peace agreement settled that the FARC would have to put down their arms within 180 days after Dec. 1, when ratified by Congress, set for June 1, before the group can transform into a political party.

http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Colombian-FARC-Members-Outside-Zones-to-Be-Arrested-Military-20170226-0017.html

video at link

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Indigenous Bari Campesinos Face Colombia Paramilitary Violence

http://www.telesurtv.net/__export/1486864781168/sites/telesur/img/news/2017/02/11/paramilitary.jpg_1718483346.jpg
Right-wing paramilitaries in Colombia. | Photo: Reuters

Published 11 February 2017

The Black Eagles held Indigenous Bari families at gunpoint, threatening to steal their land and crops.
Armed right-wing paramilitaries in Colombia are threatening Indigenous Bari families in the country’s northern Catatumbo region for their alleged connections to guerilla groups, the Patriotic March Press Office reports.

RELATED:
Fifth Activist Killed in Antioquia, Colombia This Year

Members of The Black Eagles, a coalition of drug trafficking paramilitary groups in Colombia, approached over five households on Thursday, interrogating tribal leaders with their weapons drawn. The paramilitaries were asking about a guerilla unit that was traveling alongside a nearby riverbank.

The Black Eagles presented no proof to the Baris that they were in any way connected to the guerillas. They also threatened to steal their land and crops if they don’t provide information about the guerrillas.

“There is a high risk in our communities in Ocbabuda and Suerera [villages in Catatumbo] of a possible displacement by illegal armed actors who are now present in this area,” a Bari elder told the Patriotic March Press Office.


“This is generating a violation of human rights and international humanitarian law.”

Bari leaders are calling on the Colombian government to intervene and protect them from the paramilitaries.

The Black Eagles’ threats were made days after the Colombian government and National Liberation Army, ELN, guerillas officially began the public phase of the peace dialogue in Ecuador. Part of their peace dialogues include protections for Indigenous communities like the Bari, whom the ELN and other guerilla groups have defended for decades.

But now that groups like the ELN and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, FARC, are abandoning armed struggle, power vacuums are being created in Indigenous areas like Catatumbo that paramilitary groups are taking advantage of.

RELATED:
ELN and Colombian Govt Begin Public Peace Talks in Ecuador

In La Guajira, for example, a region not too far from Catatumbo, Indigenous Wayuu leaders have faced escalating repression in recent weeks, Agencia Prensa Rural reports. Many there have also been threatened for refusing to give up their lands.

The Bari are part of Colombia’s Indigenous Muisca people and have inhabited Catatumbo for over a thousand years.

http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Indigenous-Bari-Campesinos-Face-Colombia-Paramilitary-Violence-20170211-0021.html

Is Colombia going from war to peace to genocide?
written by Mira Galanova March 6, 2017

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With at least 23 social leaders killed in three months of peace with the FARC, community leaders are terrified they are at the dawn of a wave of paramilitary violence not seen in Colombia since the 1990s.

The daughter of survivors of the Patriotic Union genocide that virtually wiped out the socialist Patriotic Union (UP) party in the 1980s and 1990s, did not survive three months of peace with the FARC.

Alicia Lopez, a community leader and farmers’ rights defender, was shot dead in plain daylight in Medellin on Thursday, becoming the 23rd victim of a series of assassinations targeting social and community leaders throughout Colombia.

Last year, 116 of these leaders were assassinated in an ongoing string of assassinations that are terrifying community leaders and their communities alike.

(Interactive map at link)

Lopez’ family are among the few survivors of the genocide of the UP, a party that aligned with the FARC to allow the guerrillas to become a political party under a peace agreement with then-President Belisario Betancur.

The current wave of violence seems to target pluralist civilians supporting the communist guerrillas’ inclusion in politics, among other motives.

The Lopez family has repeatedly been threatened and displaced by paramilitary groups because of their social activism, according to the Peoples’ Congress, an organization to which Alicia Lopez belonged.

The family was forced to leave the Medellin’s neighborhood Comuna 13 during a military operation in 2002, in which the army, with the help of paramilitaries, targeted left-wing militias that were controlling the periphery of the city.

Following the assassination, activists expressed outrage after the authorities tried to classify Lopez’ murder as a common homicide.

Her assassination in the Olaya Herrera neighborhood, from where she had been displaced with her family, demonstrates that the organizations that operate today in the city of Medellin are the same paramilitaries who were committing murders in the past.
Peoples’ Congress

According to the Peoples’ Congress, rumors spread around Olaya Herrera after the killing that the victim’s mother and sisters are the assassins’ next target.

Lopez lived in the Pacific Choco province. She was in Medellin to work on a project seeking to improve food sovereignty of indigenous and Afro-descendant communities on Colombia’s Pacific coast.

Medellin crime website Analisis Urbano suggested that the killing was carried out by members of crime syndicate “Oficina de Envigado,” once founded by Pablo Escobar and long run by now-extradited paramilitary warlord “Don Berna.”

The majority of the perpetrators of the assassinations that have taken place since 2016 are unidentified. In other cases, the killings were either carried out by known paramilitary groups or by the security forces.

One of these assassinations happened on the first day of peace with the FARC already.

Some of the victims of the post-conflict assassinations are believed to have been killed because of their involvement in the execution of the peace deal with the FARC.

Others were displaced farmers demanding the return of their land.

At least two of the 23 peasant leaders killed since the peace deal were members of coca growers’ committees.

As a part of the peace deal, community assemblies are to create plans for voluntary substitution of coca for legal produce. However, the armed groups that are keen to take over the lucrative drugs trade after the FARC, oppose coca substitution and threaten farmers who comply with the plan.

Some of the victims had strongly denounced both the drug trafficking and the paramilitary presence in their area.

In Corinto, Cauca, where multiple assassinations have taken place, social leaders denounced the presence of hooded men and the appearance of graffiti allusive to the Gaitanista Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AGC), a.k.a. Los Urabeños, the primary heir of paramilitary organization AUC, which officially demobilized between 2003 and 2006.

Colombia’s largest neo-paramilitary group AGC claims to have 8,000 members

In January, a pamphlet signed by the officially defunct AUC placed a bounty of on the heads of social rights workers and indigenous leaders in the department of central province of Tolima, the birthplace of the FARC.

Notwithstanding, Defense Minister Luis Carlos Villegas has vehemently denied the existence of paramilitary groups in Colombia, claiming the groups carrying out the political killings are drug traffickers.

Following the FARC’s demobilization, the military was supposed to take control of guerrilla territory and begin imposing state law instead of guerrilla rule. However, there are indications that what was agreed in the peace deal is not actually happening.

Consequently, a power vacuum has formed, allowing in many rural areas both paramilitary groups and drug traffickers to assume the territorial control.

On February 5, President Juan Manuel Santos announced the military offensive called “Plan Victoria” for the third time, saying that 68,000 soldiers would be deployed in the 160 municipalities considered risk areas.

However, in many parts of the territory chronically neglected by the state, the army is yet to be seen or has only had sporadic movements.

http://colombiareports.com/colombia-going-war-peace-genocide/

FARC-EP informed on Delays on Transitory Zones

On March 6, in the library of the Distrital University, the FARC-EP held a press conference on the "Progress Report on Transitional Zones of Normalisation (ZVTN)", related to the period February 1 - March 1 of this year.

This document says that it is not true that the adjustments of the common areas are almost finished (with 80% completed), as has been said by the national government and Carlos Córdoba, responsible for the zones.

The establishment of the zones on several occasions has indicated that soon the necessary adjustments will be delivered for the ZVTN. However, the days go by and the advances are not many, this has been denounced by the insurgency and has been registered for two months. In addition, according to the report, the progress in the villages with respect to the works of installation of public services is of a 77% of non-compliance by the Government.

As for food, the National Logistics Agency, which is responsible for distributing food to the camps, presents delays in the delivery of rations, sometimes leading the guerrillas to actually suffer hunger, as was the case with insurgents who moved to the ZVTN of Icononzo, Tolima, who had to wait up to 24 hours to eat, on the way to the camp, as Carlos Lozada reported to the media.

Likewise, food arrives expired or in a high degree of decomposition, which indicates the interruption of the chains of refrigeration and lack of care that should be given to these supplies. In contrast, it is also important to note that the exaggerated increase in food prices in these areas by speculators was reported.

On the other hand, necessary measures and facilities are not yet available for pregnant women and their infants, who are also provided with poor food. According to the report, "food for babies, children and pregnant women counts for just 3% nationwide".

As for the mobilizations of the guerrillas to the ZVTN and the transitional points of normalization, security problems arose because of the paramilitary presence that prevented, as in the case of the Catatumbo, the displacement in the agreed terms. In these marches also were not taken into account the conditions of sick insurgents and pregnant mothers.

Given this scenario, what is the message that the National Government is sending to the guerrillas who are in the process of abandoning arms and in transit to an unarmed political organization? In the words of Carlos Antonio Lozada:

"If an adequate process of reincorporation of the combatants is not guaranteed, it may be failing, so it is essential and crucial that the State fulfill its commitments regarding the logistics of the zones, since there is going to be developed the process of reincorporation that will surely go beyond 6 months."

Fuente: www.prensarural.org

http://farc-epeace.org/peace-process/news/item/2180-farc-ep-informed-on-delays-on-transitory-zones.html

Please, please, hang on to your guns folks.

Precariousness, Corruption and Insecurity in Transitional Zones


Denounces regarding the Government’s non-compliance with the Peace Agreement are still coming out; in addition to the precarious conditions in which the Transitional Local Zones for Normalization are at (in which FARC-EP guerrillas are grouped in order to comply with reincorporation and decommissioning of weapons process), there has been presence of Colombian Armed Forces near these Zones, which is a direct violation to the ceasefire protocols.

Likewise, the high costs of food, the lack of care for pregnant and lactating mothers and their babies, and the lack of materials to continue the construction of homes have been reported.

In a recent press conference, the FARC delegation said that there is an 80% lack of compliance on part of the Government in these Transitional Zones. These are the most recent situations that have occurred in some of the zones in which the members of this guerrilla group are located.

Tumaco

Through a statement, FARC guerrilla spokespersons located at the Ariel Aldana Transitional Zone, said that 3 boats of the National Navy were located "on the river bank and shipped non-identified elements".

This event violates the protocols, given that according to the agreement on the Transitional Zones, Armed Forces are not to enter within a 1 kilometer distance from these Zones where the insurgency is grouped in order to avoid incidents between military forces and members of the FARC.

Icononzo

345 FARC-EP members currently live in this Temporary Zone (Antonio Nariño), of which 39 are ill, including a pregnant mother. According to the denunciation of several social organizations of the region that have been monitoring this process, there currently are no minimum decent living conditions for these insurgents that are in reincorporation process.

According to the president of the agrarian union of Icononzo, "the children of the guerrillas are sleeping in some huts in bad conditions, conditions that show the negligence of the government in the guarantee of the rights of children and adolescents".

Caqueta

Jhon Chavarro, a human rights defender in Caqueta said that on March 8 while participating in an activity commemorating the International Women's Day in the Agua Bonita Temporary Zone, several men of the National Army were seen with recording devices recording all those who were present at the scene.

"With cell phone cameras and cameras that are incorporated into their helmets, we observed how members of the Public Force began to record. They took pictures of motorcycle license plates".
In spite of this, the people who decided to accompany this commemoration at the Temporary Zone stayed for the event. Nevertheless, when leaving this zone, the human rights defender, Jhon Chavarro was victim of irregular behavior on the part of the military.

"At 8 p.m. when I left the Transitional Zone, the military stopped and interrogated me. I was asked four times if I had any guerrilla family. Then they asked for my name and documents [take into account that this procedure is exclusive of Police, military forces don’t have that duty and much less to harass the community]. They registered me and I am making this of public knowledge, taking into account the high number of murders that social leaders have suffered all across the country "concluded Chavarro
The provision prices for the Transitional Zones are too high

In addition to all these situations, another one is taking place and it almost seems unbelievable: the prices that are charged to the State by the contractor suppliers are much higher than the average market prices.

This complaint was made in a press conference by Pastor Alape, Marcos Calarca and Carlos Antonio Lozada, [FARC-EP Delegates] who asserted that the products they bought while they were at war were much lower.

In the invoice that was published by Semana Magazine, the high prices of products are shown, a pound of coffee of 500 grams, for example, is at 14 thousand pesos [5 dollars] and a trisalsina seasoning of 200 grams is $ 25 thousand [9 dollars].

The above mentioned is a classic form of corruption in which the suppliers that the State hires overcharge the State and then the over-cost is divided between the suppliers and the government officials who helped to grant of the contract to these specific supplyers.

Source: Contagio Radio

http://www.farc-epeace.org/newsflash/item/2186-precariousness-corruption-and-insecurity-in-transitional-zones.html

" national Navy shipped unknown elements...." = contras

This is looking so bad.....

This is looking so bad.....

Literally makes me sick.

Fear and oblivion. Five days with the 500 displaced people of Alto Baudó

Source: Pacifista

Text and photos by: Mauricio Morales

He says it’s been four times. Then he thinks about it and says takes it back, he says that it’s been five times. Pedro does not remember very well the number of occasions that the war has forced him to move from Peña Azul, a rural settlement on the banks of the Baudó river, in the Chocó department of Colombia, surrounded by jungle, always wrapped in rain and always nailed to the mud. Like everyone in this place, he speaks in a low voice, does not say much, but by bits he manages to tell what happened in his town last March 3: which caused him and other 526 people to leave the area in stampede from one moment to another.

The history of the war in Colombia has been for many decades, unfortunately, a history of versions. Just as well, the story of what happened just twelve days ago in Peña Azul and other surrounding communities is also a story of versions.

What happened - says another displaced person with whom I spoke - was that some paramilitaries arrived with their armbands and their rifles to announce with shouts that they were coming to stay. Some others handle a different version: in which before the 'paras' [paramilitaries] arrived, strangers had killed a guy and dragged him through the yellow dirt of one of the town's tracks. And others further explain that what lit the wick was a combat with the ELN [another insurgent organization].

Between the afternoon of that Friday, March 3 and the night of Saturday, the war drew 527 people out of their ranches, of whom 256 are minors. They were taken out, says an intelligence report quoted by 'El Tiempo' by the so-called Gaitanista Self-Defenses, commanded by a man nicknamed 'Furia' linked to the Úsuga Clan, and a crossfire with the ELN.

But, I repeat, the war displaced them.

A mass displacement in full 2017, in the Colombia of peace.

http://farc-epeace.org/images/desplazadoschoco.jpg

A week later, on Friday March 10th, I traveled by plane, bus and boat to visit for five days the victims of the displacement of Peña Azul. I arrived to Pie de Pató, municipal head of Alto Baudó, and soon found the temporary shelter where the new displaced people live: a sports center that is one of the few cement buildings of the place.

I was immediately struck by the number of women, children and the elderly. The women cooked and mopped the floor in a vain effort to keep their bodies and minds occupied. From time to time men came in with muddy feet.

A Black Hawk that flew over the village for several minutes finally landed, children running on the ground did not wait for the propellers to stop to approach the helicopter that brought a pair of generals on board. These came to speak to the community. The generals were given coconuts and pineapples, and the uniformed men told the people that they were there to take care of them, but that they could not guarantee this if they did not count with their collaboration. They promised military operations and marine patrols through the river.

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Then came the turn of the community. And the speech of its representatives focused on an old and well-known topic: abandonment [on part of the State] and lack of opportunities. At one point, the Mayor of the municipality confronted one of the generals and said: "Here, we have to grow coca because there is nothing else from which we can earn a living. You know that! ". The general looked at her quietly. The woman continued: "There is no way to market the other products here. The coca brought economic satisfaction to the peasant, and also brought violence". At that moment a voice interrupted to add to these claims: "You not only fumigated the coca, also the household crops".

When the meeting ended, the people disengaged, first in silence and then looking and laughing until someone dared to say, "The same old promises". The night passed, some in the hostel or in the homes of relatives that live in the municipality, and others preferred to wander around the village.

During the days that I spent in Pie de Pató, there was no lack of food, neither the medical nor the psychological attention. But that was precisely what made me feel like I was in a tough zone of the conflict. MSF personnel, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the local authority were everywhere in the process to look after the displaced persons. People were nervous, but not at the level I had hoped to find them. It pains me to say it, but I felt that they were, somehow, accustomed to being victims.

They seemed to know by heart the script of the operation before their eyes: soon the journalists would leave, then the doctors, later the aid, and the army would stay for a fortnight more, maximum a month. And in the end: back to the same.

But I did feel that they were anxious to go back to their ranches and get on with their lives. Their problems are abundant, they told me, and the armed conflict is only one of them. There is also poverty and neglect. And - why not? - the concerns of a peasant: his land and his "little animals".

http://farc-epeace.org/images/desplazadoschoco2.jpg

"I was in the working in the bushes when I saw everyone embarking to leave, I had to leave my hens abandoned" says Liz Esther. Like Pedro, she does not remember if this is the fourth or fifth time she has had to flee her home with just what she has on her. This time she wants the wait to not be too long in order to return, and she does not want to go to the city because, "who will take care of the ranch and the animals?".

A group of indigenous women share the kitchen. The 'blacks' and the 'cholos' – that’s how they refer to each other- must collaborate. If they could leave, each one would take a different path, but the war that brought them here and the mountain work that occupies them has united them for these days. They are sitting eating at a table, again, rice with tuna, the same as yesterday. They say they feel lucky that the food is not lacking and that there are no major health problems. But they explain that, perhaps, it is because they have only been in the shelters for just a few days.

"I have the right to be happy. These problems are not my fault, they are society's ... ". Some children sing and repeat what the psychologist of the medical mission of the Governor of Chocó is telling them. Others run to join the choir, but maybe they do not understand what they sing. Several of them are children of people who have already gone through this.

Now, their kids have to go through this.

http://farc-epeace.org/images/desplazadoschoco4.jpg

While navigating through the Baudó River, it is possible to see the disaster that the displacement of the communities leaves: the almost high-pitched emptiness, closed houses, loose animals, the feeling that we live in a country that is indifferent to the blows of violence.

A boy approaches a soldier and grabs his hair: "Are you Rambo?". Then he runs away. The soldier gives him an intense look. The army members stationed at Pie de Pató are not very close to the population. They patrol the mountain with hard faces, their glances come and go, but don’t relate with the people. It must be the years of war and the awareness that here, in these areas, everything is very mixed: paramilitaries, guerrillas, drug traffickers, poor people, and a half-represented State.

Little by little, people have begun to return. Some do not have the patience to wait until the security guarantees of the Army and the Police are fulfilled. The older ones say that they don’t have time for it. Others, however, have decided to stay here now. The crisis will dissipate and soon it will become an uncertainty, the uncertainty that is so well known to those who live in these lands that seem to belong to another country, to another world.

Gallery, the displacement of people in Pie de Pató, Chocó

All photographs taken by Mauricio Morales

http://farc-epeace.org/images/desplazadoschoco5.jpg
http://farc-epeace.org/images/desplazadoschoco6.jpg
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http://farc-epeace.org/images/desplazadoschoco11.jpg
http://farc-epeace.org/images/desplazadoschoco14.jpg

http://farc-epeace.org/newsflash/item/2197-fear-and-oblivion-five-days-with-the-500-displaced-people-of-alto-baudo.html

Other photos at link.

500 Ex-FARC Rebels and 500 Colombian Victims to Get Medical Scholarships to Study in Cuba

http://www.telesurtv.net/__export/1489678526599/sites/telesur/img/news/2017/03/16/farc_scholarship_to_study_medicine_in_cuba.jpg_1718483346.jpg
Cuba has offered 1,000 medical scholarship to Colombia over the next five years, 500 for the FARC and 500 for the government. | Photo: AFP / WHO

Published 16 March 2017

Cuba has extended its hand to Colombia to support the country's first steps in building peace after more than 50 years of war.
Five hundred former FARC rebels and 500 Colombian civil war victims are set to receive scholarships to study medicine in Cuba as part of a gesture of solidarity from Havana to give a boost to the South American country’s budding new era of peace.

Cuba will offer a total of 1,000 medicine scholarships to Colombia over the next five years, handing out 100 per year to the ranks of the demobilized FARC guerrilla and another 100 to the government to distribute to aspiring Colombian doctors who were displaced or otherwise affected by the armed conflict.

The first 200 scholarships will be handed out for the 2017-2018 academic year for students to begin their studies in Cuba in September.

The scholarship program was unveiled in a letter penned by Cuba’s ambassador to Colombia, Jose Luis Ponce Caraballo, to FARC lead and chief peace negotiator, Ivan Marquez.

In the letter, dated Tuesday, Ponce Caraballo wrote that Havana wished to provide the scholarships as a contribution to Colombia’s post-conflict development and in support of the peace agreements that brought an end last year to over half a century of internal armed conflict between state forces and the FARC, Colombia’s largest rebel army.

http://www.telesurtv.net/export/sites/telesur/img/news/2017/03/16/cuba_raul_castro_colombia_farc_timochenko_santos.jpg_861175491.jpg
Juan Manuel Santos and Timochenk shake hands.
Marquez thanked Cuban President Raul Castro for his support, extending in a message on his Twitter account “gratitude for filling Colombia with love and solidarity.”

“You helped the peace and you offered us doctors,” the FARC leader added in his message to the Cuban leader. “Cuba’s contribution to the process of implementing the Havana Accord and to the post-conflict (era) in Colombia is a pure gesture of humanity.”

Colombia’s historic end-of-conflict deal was negotiated in Havana over the course of four years, hitting a breakthrough last August with a final agreement to end the civil war that has claimed the lives of over a quarter of a million Colombians.

Now, the FARC is demobilizing. Some 7,000 rebels have gathered in transition camps across the country to lay down their weapons and prepare to reintegrate into civilian life, while the guerrilla army is set to reorganize as a political party that will participate in elections beginning next year.

Cuba has a long history of supporting Colombia’s peace process. In 2008, late Cuban revolutionary leader and former President Fidel Castro published a book titled “Peace in Colombia,” fulfilling a longstanding desire to write about the topic.

“Other issues have occupied my time,” he wrote in the introduction to the book. “Now I fulfill my promise.”

Decades earlier, in an iconic speech to the Cuban people in 1962 — two years before the FARC took form, organized by armed campesinos fighting against inequality — Fidel Castro likened revolutionary struggle for a new society to the work of a doctor bringing a baby into the world.

“The revolution is in history like the doctor who assists at the birth of a new life,” said Fidel, who in his book years later expressed disagreement with some of the strategies of the FARC’s revolutionary method. “It does not use the tools of force need*lessly, but will use them without hesitation whenever necessary to help the birth, a birth which brings to the enslaved and exploited masses the hope of a new and better life.”

Colombia’s 52-year civil war claimed the lives of 260,000 Colombians and displaced more than 7 million more. The rights of victims of the conflict, a focus on truth and reconciliation and ensuring the participation of former FARC rebels in society and politics were key cornerstones of the agreement that brought an end to the long-running conflict.

Now, both victims and former guerrilla fighters will benefit from Cuba’s medical training to give back to their country in a valuable way as it embarks on the path toward building “stable and lasting” peace.

Cuba is globally renowned for its high-quality doctors, medical internationalism and medical innovation and training. In Colombia, medical school is one of the most expensive post-secondary programs.

http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/500-Ex-FARC-Rebels-and-500-Colombian-Victims-to-Get-Medical-Scholarships-to-Study-in-Cuba-20170316-0010.html

UN reports killings of activists in midst of peace process


The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has released its latest report on the human rights situation in Colombia, detailing the huge challenges facing the country in the midst of the peace process. While it praised the advances towards peace and the human rights guarantees included in the peace deal, the report stated that the peace agreement must be diligently implemented to combat structural human rights abuses in the country.

Attacks against and killings of human rights defenders is one of the major concerns highlighted in the report. The UN stated that 127 killings were reported in 2016. Just under half of these (59) were human rights leaders, with the rest being trade unionists and members of social and political organisations. The report detailed 389 attacks in total, including threats, forced disappearance, sexual violence, amongst others. The areas of the country with the highest assassination rates of social leaders were Cauca, Antioquia, Norte de Santander and Córdoba.

The majority of killings occurred in areas previously controlled by the FARC. The withdrawal of the FARC has increased the risk of violence for the communities in those areas. Illegal economic activities have increased, state authorities are not protecting the local population and numerous armed groups are competing for territorial control. Violence in these areas is also being facilitated by poverty, marginalisation and a lack of opportunities.

UN representative Todd Howland stated: "There is a pattern here relative to where the killings are occurring. It is a really important moment to consolidate the implementation of the accords."

Forced displacement has not ended in Colombia despite the peace process. The UN also stated that 47 emergencies as a result of mass displacement occurred in 2016, with 13,864 people affected.

The report criticised the failure to finish the special reinsertion zones in time, stating that this has created an atmosphere of distrust and put FARC members in a vulnerable position.

The report also raises some concerns about the peace accord itself, in particular the legal framework applicable to members of the police and armed forces who have committed human rights abuses. The UN stated that this does not comply with international human rights standards on superior and command responsibility.

The UN furthermore criticised the ongoing refusal in some sectors to recognise that state agents committed human rights violations. The report documented six cases of arbitrary detention of civilians by state agents in 2016 and the worrying involvement of members of the armed forces in citizen security, which should be the jurisdiction of the police. The report also criticised the failure to advance in the fight against impunity in relation to forced disappearances committed by armed forces in the past.

Source: Justice for Colombia

http://farc-epeace.org/newsflash/item/2203-un-reports-killings-of-activists-in-midst-of-peace-process.html

Marxist, Leninist, Bolivarian and Vanvanero

"If I do not speak of you I die:
My are for you goes whole.

You work morning and afternoon
and you do not show any boasting.
You work thousands of hours
and always without the delay.

If I eat bread, my brother
is for your healthy work.
If I live rightly, it
is because you have loved it.
My son is for the worker,
for the man who gets up early, sometimes
even fasting, he
works without any but. "

Mi son Entero- Juan Formell and Los Van Van de Cuba.

http://farc-ep-occidente.org/images/articulos/147/imagen1.jpg

I am an irredeemable Vanvanero, Marxist - Leninist
Image BOCAC , Farc-ep 2017

"I am Marxist, Leninist, Bolivarian and Vanvanero," he tells me, surely to provoke me. He leans on the chair, interlacing his fingers behind his head, closes his eyes and becomes solemn, trapped by the music that for that moment is at a delirious point. The historic "solo pailas" made by maestro José Luis Quintana Fuentes "Changuito" in "It will be over" of 1984. With an exaggerated political sense caused by such an implausible phrase, I immediately confront it. It is not possible that a comrade of my own party and clandestine cell, just after finishing four hours of party meeting, two of which took place in a detailed exposition of the concept of original accumulation of capital dare to raise to such a musical taste .

The third in our cell, about to leave, smiles between amazement and misunderstanding. Thirty seconds (misqualified) of bewilderment and everything changes. Reiterative movements without apparent intension and facial gestures in which it is possible to guess pleasure, belligerence, rage, joy and a series of emotions that contradict the above are taken over by my comrade, those in the clinic are called postural stereotypies and altered facies, own Of delirious states, are incontrovertibly present, to that state he was dragged and "Changuito" that for this moment, in a sort of psychotic state imitates with his mouth the sounds produced simultaneously while "breaking the pailas".

When I see him, I find myself hopelessly in front of a mirror, and I understand it, I have lived that delirious state many times, of that we are also made communists of this cross of mules that became a city, that someone had to call "world capital of The historic memory sauce "confronting the thesis of" world capital of salsa ". In any case the Afro-Latin rhythms are core and constitutive of our identity, so we feel it. To claim VanVaneros is then a way to exalt the greatness and admiration for Juan Formell the giant, that also extends to Chucho Valdéz and Irakere, Buenavista Social club, Pacho Alonso, Son 14, Adalberto Álvarez, NG the band, Pupy and the Who are son, Charanga Habanera, Eddy Meza, Manolito and his Trabuco, Dan Den Orchestra,

Two songs later, we reflect, affirm Vanvanero is to claim that revolution within a revolution led by Juan Formell in a defense of popular Cuban dance music, that with which also, thousands of miles, we grew up in the neighborhood. Combativity that the master latent in compositions like "I am not of the great scene" of 1989.

"What a shame, what a shame, if I'm not the big scene,
shame, shame, because it seems that's a problem,
I am a Cuban man, militant fighter,
I am national forefront so much work
and that Go away to the other side those who say to me
I have what they do not have that I am authentic I am realized "

No one can be blamed for what he says when he is disconnected from reality, delusional at the end of the day, but it is also unwise to dismiss all truthfulness in the affirmation. We say Vanuers and with serenity we conclude that it is a syncretism, a beautiful word in which we want to group the cultural legacy that constitutes us, legacy deeply politicized as we incorporate it into our life, legacy in the middle of a historical dispute.

"Marxists, Leninists, Bolivarians and Vanvaneros" we now repeat as we laugh, unlikely we think, until "we are Cubans" of 1999 that now sounds in our team, reminds us again the ephemeral veracity of that statement. That which we can only understand as we are moved, hallucinated, belligerent, strengthened and vindicated, we are dragged into delirium by the force of Samuell Formell who at that moment begins to play his solo drummer in the celebration of 40 years of orchestra history .

Here we are present with our identity, vanvaneros in the joy of the triumphs partial and vanvaneros with the moral raised to the adversities, vanvaneros but mainly Communists, vanvaneros as only can be understood when one really is shaken. We are going to fulfill our tasks, with the socialism in force on the horizon, we are exalted to claim the insurgent struggle of our America with the song "what a stick is that" from 1983:

"That stick is that mayombero, that stick
My stick the palo guerrillero pi palo is very hard to peel
Which stick is that mayombero, that stick
My stick the stick of this people
That has the power that I do not know"
... That stick is that Mayombero, that stick
My stick of Cuba and Nicaragua
Guatemala and also El Salvador
Que Palo "

Silvio Stalingrado
Clandestine Colombian Communist Party - Suroccidente.

_________________________________________________________
1. Juan Formell and Van Van de Cuba, album: "Come, come and move" 1984, song "will be finished" composition and arrangements Cesar "pupy" Pedroso.
2. Juan Formell and the van van de Cuba, album: "Crónicas" 1989, song "I am not of the great scene" composition and arrangements Juan Formell.
3. Juan Formell and the van van de Cuba, album: "Van Van arrived" 1999, song "We are Cuban" composition Samuell Formell.
4. Juan Formell and the Van van de Cuba, album: "what track" from 1983, song "palo that is" composition and arrangements by Juan Formell.

http://farc-ep-occidente.org/images/articulos/147/imagen2.jpg

http://farc-ep-occidente.org/articulo/Marzo-2017/marxista-leninista-bolivariano-y-vanvanero/

Google Translator

Violence made me join the guerrilla

By: Yorleny Duque, FARC-EP

I was a peasant. I lived with my parents and 6 brothers in the countryside in the Narciso rural settlement, 3 hours from the Urrao Municipality of Antioquia. Like many peasants, we barely survived with the crops that we cultivated.

My parents always worried about us being able to study, but they had to work very hard. They said they did not want their children to be like them, who never went to school due to lack of resources. My longing was to study, my brothers and I were lucky enough to finish elementary school but there was no way to continue studying because in there was no school in the village and in the city’s school we had to pay tuition and my parents had a hard time because 4 of us wanted to study and it meant a high cost. I always dreamed of being an educator to teach the children of my region, but that dream was never fulfilled.

http://farc-epeace.org/images/YorlenyDuque.jpeg

It was heard that armed groups had arrived and that they were murdering and displacing the peasants, something that was causing terror and many peasants moved out leaving all their goods and dreams behind. In 2001 these armed groups arrived where I lived, the threatened us and accused us of being guerrilla collaborators, they took my older brother by force, and until now I have never heard from him again. I saw that things were not going well and I could not find a solution for my future, I was only 14 years old and did not understand the reasons of why this was happening. I didn’t know what to do. The neighbors said that there was another armed group called the FARC, and that they were fighting against these paramilitaries and that there where women among them, but I had never seen them.

A few days later another armed group arrived and I was frightened and thought they were the same group that had done all those things on that painful day. But when they arrived I realized that they were different from the other groups I had seen in the sense that they did not mistreat the people and on the contrary were very pleasant and had women among them. I didn’t know why they fought, or who they were, but I liked them. Later I learned that they people called them Elenos [a form of referring to the ELN, National Liberation Army, another insurgent organization], but they never again passed by.

Those groups that people called “paramilitaries” continued their presence in the region, displacing the people to take away the property and recruiting the young people of the region by force, just as they did with my brother.

I had reached the age of 17 and for 3 years we had been displaced from rural settlements to other rural settlements with my parents. I remembered those guerrillas I had seen with rifles, they seemed dignified and beautiful. One day I went for a walk and by chance I found another group of guerrillas, this time it was not the “elenos” but the FARC. I saw very formal and attractive people, I started talking to some of them and asking them why they were fighting. They told me that they were peasants, that the State had run over them and left them no choice but to take up arms to defend themselves. I told them that I wanted to be like them, dress in olive green and carry a gun to do the same. I was told that this life was not easy because it required a lot of walking, sometimes at night, walking while being wet, it required to endure hunger because there is no way to cook safely. They asked me if I was still willing to go in and I answered yes, because the paramilitaries were murdering many peasants in the region and I was very afraid that they would mistreat me.

When I joined the FARC, I thought it was going to be hard for me, but I was strong enough to get around all the tasks and difficulties. I got used to life in the jungle, to war and to the collectivity of the organization. The most important thing is that I learned many things and I never regretted it.

Today I am part of the group that makes pace pedagogy from the 57th Front of the FARC-EP and I know that I am closer to achieving my dream of being a teacher.

Source: Mujer Fariana

http://farc-epeace.org/newsflash/item/2233-violence-made-me-join-the-guerrilla.html

Colombian Army Confirms It Killed 8 ELN Guerrillas

http://www.telesurtv.net/__export/1491190642924/sites/telesur/img/news/2017/04/02/download.jpg_1718483346.jpg
Colombian military forces. | Photo: Reuters

Published 2 April 2017 (18 hours 11 minutes ago)

The ELN has been in peace negotiations with the Colombian government in Quito, Ecuador, since February.
Eight ELN guerrillas from the sixth commission of the northeastern front have allegedly been killed during a military operation that bombed their camp.

According to General Juan Pablo Rodriguez, a guerrilla fighter known as Gabino was killed in the town of El Carmen in Santander province. As it turned out, it was not ELN Commander Nicolas Rodriguez Bautista who was killed, as first reported, but another member of the ELN who also goes by Gabino who was killed.

Meanwhile, in Quito, Ecuador peace negotiations between the Colombian government and the country’s second-largest guerrilla group, the National Liberation Army, also known as the ELN, took place, with both sides announcing progress. It remains to be seen what will happen now.

The ELN is thought to have around 1,500 active members and has been fighting since 1964. The ELN is the second-largest militant group in the country behind the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, who are currently slowly implementing their peace accords with the government.

http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Colombian-Army-Confirms-it-Killed-8-ELN-Guerrillas-20170402-0035.html

The Colombian government (just a thin proxy for US government) cannot be trusted, period. How many Colombian soldiers are actually US soldiers in disguise? And is there really any difference?

Over 900 university students carry out Peace Volunteering activity with FARC-EP

Over 900 students from different universities from all over Colombia visited around 10 Transitional Zones where FARC-EP troops are grouped in order to carry out the “Peace Volunteering” initiative held by the University Students Federation (FEU). Diverse activities were held in for 4 days between FARC-EP troops and students.

“This experience has completely changed my view of the FARC-EP since I had the image that mass media and politicians portray of them, but once here I got to know who the guerrillas really were and I realized that they are not the ‘monsters’ that political discourse has made them look like” said Fernanda, a psychology student from the Externado University.

http://farc-epeace.org/images/VoluntariadoPaz6.jpg

For decades, most Colombians who live in the main cities have only heard of the FARC-EP from what news outlets and politicians have said about them, for which there has been an image built around the insurgents that portrays them as soulless guerrillas who’s objective is of making war for personal benefit and not a political organization made up of mostly peasants of rural Colombia that have not had any other life opportunities or that have suffered violence on behalf of military and paramilitary forces.

This initiative is important in the sense that people, and most of all young people, get to know firsthand members of the FARC-EP, get to hear what they have to say, why they joined the FARC-EP, why they took arms as an option of defending themselves and fighting for a political ideal and most of all that they are not the “monsters” that many think they are but rather Colombians, just like them, that are committed to doing everything possible in order to change the state of things for better.

“I came here because I wanted to know who they were, what they had to say, and I did not expect to find people of the FARC-EP with which I could empathize and relate with” said Armando, a civil engineering student from El Rosario University.

http://farc-epeace.org/images/VoluntariadoPaz5.jpg

“I learned that despite our differences, we can all come together to share our ideas and build peace […] hopefully the implementation of Peace is carried out in a good manner so that Colombia move on and allow for political opposition to have security and legal guarantees to be able to do politics within the framework of a broadened democracy” said Luisa a Law student from the National University of Colombia.

It is expected for this Peace Volunteering program to continue and in the upcoming months to bring more people to FARC-EP camps, as well as to broaden the reach of the program and be able to build a network of citizens that can pressure the Government to fully implement the agreements reached and signed by the FARC-EP and the Colombian Government.

http://farc-epeace.org/images/VoluntariadoPaz3.jpg
http://farc-epeace.org/images/VoluntariadoPaz15.jpg

http://farc-epeace.org/peace-process/news/item/2279-over-900-university-students-carry-out-peace-volunteering-activity-with-farc-ep.html

Other photos at link

Mining and resource extraction in Colombia: a political and economic dispute

On Sunday March 26, the municipality of Cajamarca in Colombia held a Popular Consultation, which legally serves as a referendum type of elections in which citizens responded Yes or No to the question “Do you agree, yes or no, with the execution of mining projects and activities in Cajamarca?” to which the NO-vote won by 97.92% to a 1.21% that responded YES.

The reasons why so many citizens are against mining projects in the region have to do with the immense socio-environmental costs that it implies and the threat that this poses to the agrarian activities and economy that these communities live on.

http://farc-epeace.org/images/cajamarca.jpg

Colombia is a country whose national economy is primarily based in the extraction of natural resources, reason why national and local government officials have played an important role in the promotion of these activities throughout the country, however, in most cases, these mining and resource extraction activities have left great amounts of socio-environmental costs to the communities due to the forms in which these projects are carried out and the lenient legislation towards the multinational companies.

Taking the previous into account, what occurred in Cajamarca sets a precedent of sovereignty and direct decision-making by communities, something that is immersed in the local and national dispute on where to take Colombia’s economy and what economic model to prioritize, that is to say, if to continue on the high dependency on the production and exportation of fossil fuels or to develop alternative proposals for development, such as agrarian and industrial development.

http://farc-epeace.org/images/cajamarca2Web.jpg

To this dispute many different social and political sectors have ideas and stakes, for instance, while opposition sectors highlight that Colombia needs to further develop other aspects of its economy that benefit the broad of low and medium class economic activities, the government on its part seems to prioritize the further development of the current economic model based on the dependency of production and extraction of fossil fuels (which is very unstable due to the shifting international costs for these raw materials).

The Mining and Energy Minister, Germán Arce, stated that the results of the Popular Consultation don’t affect the already existing and conceded licenses to mining corporations, furthermore, that the fact that these resources are in the subsoil, the decision of its extraction is competence of the central government and not of the political decision of the municipality through the consultation. The previous is an interpretation of the law, something which the judicial branch of government would have to resolve.

It is clear that there are differentiated approaches to this problem, in any democracy this is something normal and that needs to be resolved through the excersise of politics and democracy, hopefully, in this case that presents itself in the midst of the implementation of the Peace Agreements and the objective of ending the armed conflict, the political differences and approaches can be resolved in a civilized, democratic and peaceful manner, not with the use of violence against political opposition and the silencing of communities through paramilitary terror, as it has been the case for decades in Colombia.

http://farc-epeace.org/newsflash/item/2225-mining-and-resource-extraction-in-colombia-a-political-and-economic-dispute.html

Another indigenous leader from Colombia, Cauca

http://www.telesurtv.net/__export/1492653752317/sites/telesur/img/news/2017/04/19/3441046_n_vir3.jpg_1718483347.jpg
With the murder of Gerson Acosta, there are already more than 30 social leaders killed so far this year. | Photo: Colombia Public Prosecutor's Office
Published 19 April 2017

Despite having security measures of the National Protection Unit, the indigenous governor was murdered in his residence.

The governor of the Kite Kiwe Cabildo, Gerson Acosta Salazar, was killed Wednesday in the rural area of ​​Timbío, south of the Department of Cauca, Colombia.

According to information from the Association of Indigenous Cabildos del Norte del Cauca (Acin), in the afternoon the Newemex indigenous authority , 36, was attacked by criminals who entered his residence in the village of La Laguna, where he was intercepted And shot him with bullets until he was killed.

Acosta, who was also a defender of human rights, had alleged security measures of the National Protection Unit of Colombia, who at that time were not with the social leader because they expected in the municipal head the call of the leader for the respective accompaniment , According to the escorts.

The native governor was one of the survivors of the massacres of the Naya, in the northwestern Cauca in 2001 and was displaced from the area and relocated to the region where he was assassinated.

The Indigenous Guard activated operatives to find the whereabouts of those responsible for the murder and called for community support to avoid actions by armed groups remaining in the area.

The incident ignited again the alarms in the Cauca, where the government of the president of Colombia, Juan Manuel Santos, promised several times that it would not allow one more case of crimes against social leaders and defenders of human rights.

http://www.telesurtv.net/news/Asesinan-a-otro-lider-indigena-de-Colombia-en-Cauca-20170419-0069.html

Google Translator

In Columbia the ruling class will make a devastation and call it peace.

If some measure is not taken very soon they might as well change the name to 'FARCE'.

The Central General Staff of the FARC-EP communicates to the public that on April 16, 2017 in the village of La Guayacana, Llorente, municipality of Tumaco, Nariño, our comrade Luis Alberto Ortiz Cabezas, Pepe, has been murdered.

Our comrade, who had benefited from the Amnesty and Pardon Act as established in the Final Agreement and who had been released days before was murdered while visiting relatives. Pepe leaves a 6 months old baby girl.

According to information from inhabitants of the area, this murder is being attributed to the criminal known in the area as Renol, a paramilitary drug trafficker who works at Tumaco and who is responsible for threats and homicides against the social and popular movement.

These facts demonstrate the survival of paramilitarism in the territories and undermine the confidence in the real guarantees of security to the life and the integrity of the people, who, in the last, are exclusive responsibility of the State. How many more dead will have to wait for Tumaco to begin to implement the consensus of Security Guarantees established in the Final Agreement?

Much distress generates in the guerrillas of the FARC-EP and the whole country such killings. It is not possible that, in the midst of the peace-building process, its main actors are being killed before the whole world without anyone answering. Aware of our strict compliance with all that corresponds to us in the agreed, we demand that the government also complies.

Likewise, we demand the full clarification of the responsibilities for the paramilitary presence in Tumaco and insist that this municipality should become a territory of peace and progress.

Its citizens deserve it.

Central High Command of the FARC-EP

http://farc-epeace.org/communiques/farc-ep/item/2292-our-comrade-luis-alberto-ortiz-cabezas-has-been-murdered.html

And the beat goes on.....

The only thing you can trust about the booj is for them to act as booj.

The High Commissioner for Peace, once again
Written by Timoleón Jiménez

Is he aware that the way in which he presents his statements fuels the irrational hatred of sectors willing to drown the country in another sea of blood?

At the end of March, the FARC-EP´s Leadership Command in the Transitional Zone "Amaury Rodríguez" of Pondores at the municipality of Fonseca in Guajira sent a letter to the 15 mayors of that department with the purpose of proposing the realization of some joint actions framed in the idea of working for the implementation of the Havana Agreements.

The letter, elaborated with the best spirit of uniting efforts for what is derived from the implementation of the Peace Agreement ended with the respectful invitation to a meeting in the Transitional Zone on April 6 or on a date convenient to the recipients, given that the department of La Guajira -within the criteria contained in the PDET*- is one of the prioritized territories.

For the sake of discussion we could accept that it was a concise document, which perhaps required a broader and cordial explanation on the raised issues. We understand that the responsibilities of local officials involve very strict agendas, and that their variation due to sudden invitations can give rise to difficulties in their patriotic function.

But another thing is the dimension that some officials and sectors from the local and national press decided to attribute to it, who preferred to interpret the letter as an outburst and unnecessary pressure, arguing that the FARC has not yet disarmed. Examples of this are the statements given by the Governor of La Guajira, Wilder Guerra Curvelo.

To him, this is an inadmissible, illegitimate and tremendously arbitrary action, because in his opinion the mayors are called to be held accountable, as in the worst days of armed conflict. There were similar expressions on part of some political sectors that are characterized by their sick hatred to the materialization of the Havana Agreements.

Among all the declarations that came up, I would like to point out those pronounced by Dr. Sergio Jaramillo, the High Commissioner for Peace due their significance and because of the repetitive nature of his attitude:

"... this can be considered as a violation of the ceasefire because the FARC have not finished disarming and it is a pressure on society, it is a disturbance of the order in the region and the agreement clearly states its prohibition"
"Anyone can feel [the invitation to the meeting] as a form of pressure and the agreement says that any pressure on society or on authorities is a violation to the ceasefire."
"... if the FARC wants to do politics, if they want to dialogue in this way with the institutions, they must accelerate the process of decommissioning of weapons because they have not finished their disarming"
The High Commissioner for Peace knows the Agreements perfectly because from the beginning of the talks up until the final signing he remained at the Negotiation Table, expressing his points of view and those of the National Government. His signature appears in each of the formal copies. In addition he has assumed –though not always with the same consistency- the rigorous exercise of exposing and interpreting the peace agreements.

He is well aware that the Transitional Zones and Points for Normalization were not conceived -and this was contemplated in the Bilateral Ceasefire Agreements and Protocols- as ghettos in which the FARC guerrillas group in their transit to civilian life in which they are supposed to remain completely isolated from society and without any contact with the outside world.

That is why the construction of reception areas within these Transitional Zones was agreed, where any person or official could go and talk to the FARC in the spirit of the agreements or even for personal reasons, as is the case with the relatives and friends of the guerrillas. That is why these reception areas were included as common areas whose termination [in terms of their construction] was privileged in the Cartagena conclave*.

He also knows -because he was one of its promoters- that in the point on Comprehensive Rural Reform of the Peace Agreements, the Development Programs with Territorial Approach (PDET) were agreed, which are to cover the totality of rural areas of the country, in which the most helpless and urgent areas are to be prioritized in terms of the implementation with greater speed and resources from the national plans that are to be created under the Agreement.

The agreement says that in order to meet its objectives "it is necessary to elaborate in each participatory area a plan of action for regional transformation, including all levels of territorial organization, agreed with local authorities and communities." Therefore, the unhelpful tantrum of Dr. Jaramillo is incomprehensible.

I am sure that our colleagues at the “Amaury Rodríguez” Transitional Point of Normalization of Pondores acted in the spirit of the agreed, and were naturally encouraged by the urgent need to make the Agreements known to local officials, something which clearly the Office of the High Commissioner for Peace does not do.

A few days ago, the Fifth Monthly Report of the Monitoring and Verification Mechanism was released, which reports the country's compliance with the Agreement by the parties and possible violations of the ceasefire during the period from March 7 to April 7. This organism -authorized by the Agreements- does not think the same as the High Commissioner.

It would be convenient for this official to personally take care of and look out for the repeated non-compliance on part of the State, which has been officially indicated by the only mechanism legitimized to do this, instead of going out making frequent shows in open violation of the agreement with the high government on the way and mechanisms to address the differences that present themselves during the implementation.

From what he expressed not only in this occasion but also on similar ones, it seems that his only desire lies in the complete decommissioning of weapons of the FARC, with indifference regarding the respect to other commitments agreed upon. If that is his concern, he should be satisfied with the official report of the MM&V [Monitoring and Verification Mechanism], which is very clear with regard to our strict compliance.

On social networks there is currently a video being show in which a shameless person longs for the times of Carlos Castaño [a paramilitary leader] and openly announces the beginning of an urban war that aims to exterminate Colombians that are committed to the Peace Agreements, including even the President of the Republic in these threats without the least reluctance and in a manifestation of the fascist delirium of the ultra-right.

It’s reasonable to wonder if the High Commissioner for Peace is aware of the way in which he with his irresponsible declarations contribute to incite and nourish the irrational hatred of sectors willing to drown the country in another interminable sea of blood, just when victimized, decent, democratic, and dignified Colombia insists on forever burying such intolerant dementia.

La Havana, April 12, 2017

*PDET: “Development Programs with Territorial Approach”, this is contained in the Peace Agreements signed by the Colombian Government and the FARC-EP and their objective is to provide the implementation of a series of reforms, programs and public policies to the most affected regions of the armed conflict in order to provide the economic, social and living conditions to these regions that contribute to guarantee the rights of its inhabitants and the socio-economic conditions for their development.

*Cartagena conclave: On the 25th and 26th of March of this year, 100 days after the beginning of the implementation of the Peace Agreements, FARC-EP and Colombian Government met in the city of Cartagena to make a balance of what has been of the implementation of the agreements and came to a series of mutual agreements for its further implementation highlighting the need for the Government to put its part in finishing with the construction of Transitional Local Zones and Points for Normalization where FARC-EP troops are currently grouped.

http://farc-epeace.org/blogs/timoleon-jimenez/item/2291-the-high-commissioner-for-peace-once-again.html

The disarmament is looking more and more unwise.

Cura denounces paramilitary presence in northwestern Colombia

http://www.telesurtv.net/__export/1493219281841/sites/telesur/img/news/2017/04/26/paramilitares_de_colombia_antioquia.jpg_1718483347.jpg
The religious details that this circumstance affects more than 400 peasants who live in San José de Apartadó and its Villages of Peace. | Photo: Sputnik Nóvosti
Published 26 April 2017 (3 hours 48 minutes ago)

Father Javier Giraldo Moreno is concerned that the Colombian government is unaware of the paramilitary presence in rural areas of the country since the withdrawal of FARC-EP to the surrounding areas.

Jesuit priest Javier Giraldo Moreno denounced the presence of paramilitaries in the rural area of ​​the municipality of Apartadó, in Urabá, department of Antioquia, Colombia.

The priest said that this group was consolidated in recent months as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia - People's Army (FARC-EP) left the territory to the veredales zones.

Father Giraldo, who is a researcher at the Center for Research and Popular Education (Cinep), compiled the history of this community in the book Fusil or toga toga and rifle.

Among the most recent events in the area highlights the meddling in the middle Mulatos village of 30 armed men in the procession of Good Friday on April 14 and the report of rape of a 13-year-old girl in the village of La Hoz in San José de Apartadó at the end of January.

Father Giraldo said that in the last five months paramilitaries consolidated their presence in a wide territory, between the municipalities of Apartadó, Turbo, and Carepa, in Antioquia; And Tierralta, in Cordoba.

It shows that about 500 men of the group that calls itself Self-defense Gaitanistas de Colombia constantly patrol the region. These paramilitaries also built a road that runs from the village of Rodoxali in Apartadó to Nueva Antioquia, Turbo, he said.

Father Giraldo says to draw attention to the ignorance on the part of the authorities on this road.

According to the priest, this circumstance affects more than 400 peasants who live in the Peace Community of San José de Apartadó and its Villages of Peace. The cleric invites the people of Urabá to be consistent with peace, and not admit any armed group.

http://www.telesurtv.net/news/Cura-denuncia-presencia-paramilitar-en-noroeste-de-Colombia-20170426-0013.html

Google Translator

Father Javier Giraldo Moreno is concerned that the Colombian government is unaware of the paramilitary presence in rural areas of the country since the withdrawal of FARC-EP to the surrounding areas.

The Colombian government knows. Their naive, play-stupid act is from orders direct from US. Someone better guard that priest, he'll he filling a hole by month's end.

New massacre against relatives of FARC-EP guerrilla
Written by Staff of the FARC-EP

http://www.farc-ep.co/media/k2/items/cache/374fef18d9a564adff2f3808d7fd487b_XL.jpg
New massacre against relatives of FARC-EP guerrilla

The General Staff of the FARC-EP is allowed to report to national and international public opinion the following events against members of our organization:

1. On April 24, 2017, being approximately 8:30 pm in Taraza - Antioquia neighborhood of Maria Gaín, the bodies of: Kellys Henao, 20 years old, Alberto Osorio, 33 years old, and the youngest Marcela Osorio 14, who were brutally massacred inside their home. All of them are family members of Guillermo León Osorio, member of the FARC-EP who is located in a Transitional Verification Zone of Normalization "Juan Carlos Castañeda".

2. So far relatives surviving from these terrible events state that the perpetrators are suspected members of paramilitary groups operating in the area, who said that "until they finished killing all that family did not stop."

3. This case was brought to the notice of the monitoring and follow-up mechanisms provided in the Final Peace Agreement to the competent authorities in order to provide security measures to relatives and known survivors. The authorities said that "they can not provide security to families because there is no budget on the part of the Taraza Police and that it can only do the lifting of the bodies and no more."

4. Even the family moments of Willson Adrian Tapias, a member of the FARC-EP in the Veredal Zone in Carrizal and survivors continue in Taraza receiving threats by these groups, not having the appropriate and due protection by the National and Departmental Government. Consequently, the measures of persecution and investigation have not been carried out in order to prosecute the material authors and determiners of these behaviors.

5. The previous events were preceded by the circulation of threatening leaflets in the municipality of Taraza according to information provided by relatives and surviving neighbors, in which the members of the FARC-EP and their families were mentioned and threatened.

BACKGROUND.

1. On November 24, 2016, the National Government and the FARC-EP guerrilla group signed the Final Agreement for the Ending of Conflict and the Construction of a Stable and Lasting Peace.

2. That in point 3.4 of the Final Agreement there exists a duty on the part of the Colombian State to provide full guarantees of security and fight against the organizations and conducts caused by the organizations considered as successors of Paramilitarism.

3. That until now the Colombian State, despite the need for an autonomous and independent body to investigate the serious crimes committed by paramilitary organizations, has not implemented the Special Investigation Unit for the dismantling of responsible criminal organizations and conduct Of homicides and massacres that attack human rights defenders, social movements or political movements, or that threaten or threaten the people involved in the implementation of the agreements, among others.

4. In the last weeks, the brothers Dalmiro Cárdenas and Anselmo Cárdenas, brothers of the guerrilla of the Farc Robinson Victorio, have been kidnapped, tortured and beheaded by paramilitary groups operating in the Chocho, in the Chiquinquirá Prison. These events were preceded by the assassination in the Department of Nariño of Luis Alberto Ortiz, an active member of the FARC-EP and beneficiary of the Amnesty Law, who once recovered his freedom was attacked with a firearm, which caused him immediate death.

APPLICATIONS

1. The rights to life and physical integrity of the surviving relatives and victims in the Municipality of Taraza are urgently and immediately guaranteed and continue without any protection by the national and departmental authorities.

2. The General Prosecutor's Office and the other competent authorities should investigate in an efficient, prompt and impartial manner these serious facts that give account of the occurrence of a massacre.

3. The Ombudsman's Office, the Attorney General's Office, Personería and other relevant entities, verify the facts described and promote the requests for guarantees and protection of the rights of the victims affected.

4. To the monitoring, verification and monitoring bodies provided for in the Final Agreement, in a special way to the United Nations Organization to investigate within the framework established for that purpose in the Final Agreement, since these constitute a Serious affection to the Cease-fire, Bilateral and Definitive signed between the National Government and the Guerrilla of the FARC-EP.

5. The National Government to implement urgently the mechanisms of guarantees, protection and security provided in the Final Peace Agreement.

We invite social organizations and human rights defenders, living forces of civil society, the various political and economic sectors to develop the broadest pact that mobilizes us in defense of the lives of all Colombians.

http://www.farc-ep.co/comunicado/http-www-farc-ep-co-comunicado-nueva-masacre-contra-familiares-de-guerrillero-de-las-farc-ep-html.html

When is 'enough' enough?

Public denounce: Paramilitary presence in Transitional Zone limits

We inform to the public and at the same time denounce before the international community who serves as guarantor of the implementation and compliance of the Havana Agreements, the presence of a paramilitary group in events that occurred as follows:

On 28 April in the early hours of the night a paramilitary group was present at the El Rincón town, of the El Rosario-Nariño municipality. Simultaneously they arrived and positioned themselves in the edge of the route that leads from El Rincon to Bella Esperanza rural settlement of the municipality of Policarpa, which is the limit of the demarcation of this Transitional Zone [where FARC-EP troops are grouped in compliance with the peace agreement and developing their reincorporation process]. They repeatedly shot their rifles. They identify themselves as the RAUC, and threaten to assassinate all FARC collaborators and carry out a "social cleansing" operation. They are fully uniformed with garments exclusively used by Colombian military forces and carry new and shiny Galil rifles.

http://farc-epeace.org/images/rauc1Web.jpg

All the walls have been painted with the acronym RAUC, just like the cars of all kinds of objects that this group comes across with.

This occurred at the very limits of this Local Transitional Zone for Normalization (ZVTN). The blatant appearance and permanence of this group at sight of everyone near our location without receiving immediate persecution on part of the public force creates doubts that would be good to clear out in time. This inactivity against this paramilitary group is bordered with complicity, a worrying situation because it is the State itself the one expected to make the greatest contribution to the solid construction of peace.

http://farc-epeace.org/images/raucWeb.jpg

Both the communities affected by this situation, and the people who are in the process of joining the legal life of the country, demand from the State and from the government a real will for peace, with zero permissiveness in light of the actions of these groups, and a timely implementation of the agreements on social matters and that benefit all the Colombian people.

Our commitment is with the foundation of peaceful coexistence and the construction of peace with social justice!

Directive Command, FARC-EP, Transitional Zone "Aldemar Galán" Alto La Paloma - Betania Policarpa, Nariño.

http://farc-epeace.org/communiques/farc-ep/item/2342-public-denounce-paramilitary-presence-in-transitional-zone-limits.html

UN Delegate Kidnapped as Security Council Arrives in Colombia

http://www.telesurtv.net/__export/1493909549318/sites/telesur/img/news/2017/05/04/645x344-un-observers-slammed-for-party-with-colombia-farc-militants-1483453555356_crop.jpg_1718483346.jpg
FARC guerrilla commander Pedro (R) walks with members of the U.N. Observation Mission during thier visit at the Front 34 Alberto Martinez encampment. | Photo: AFP

Published 4 May 2017 (3 hours 14 minutes ago)

While Colombia has officially reached peace, implementing the accords and preventing ongoing violence remains a major challenge.
Representatives from the United Nations Security Council arrived in Colombia on Wednesday night to support and oversee the country’s implementation of the peace accords with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. Their arrival comes amid concerns over the killing of human rights leaders and the confirmation of a U.N. representative being kidnapped by a FARC splinter group.

The 15 members of the Security Council were in Bogota and and set to meet privately with Colombian President Manuel Santos and his government, lawmakers and civil society representatives on Thursday morning.

On Thursday afternoon, the Council will then meet with civil society members including, NGOs, women’s organizations, the Tripartite Monitoring and Verification Mechanism and the Monitoring, Impulse and Verification Commission. On Friday the Security Council Members are due to meet with FARC representatives and visit a FARC transition camp where rebels are disarming.

“The Council believes that it is timely to express its support and at the same time to make contact with all parties in the process, in order to see how the United Nations is helping and can continue to do so,” said Uruguay's U.N. ambassador, Elbio Rosselli, who is who is a co-leader on the visit.

Jean Arnault, head of the United Nations Mission in Colombia said that the visit would be an opportunity for the Council to understand the process first hand, where “Colombia remains by far the most encouraging process on the Council’s agenda.”


But as the Council headed into meeting on Thursday, Colombian authorities confirmed that a U.N. official had been kidnapped by a group of dissident FARC rebels on Wednesday afternoon. Arley Lopez, a Colombian national working as a delegate with the U.N. monitoring and verification mission, was kidnapped in municipality of Miraflores, in the south-central department of Guaviare, a major cocoa growing region known for having a number of FARC fronts refusing to demobilize.

The delegate was reportedly in the area meeting with locals about coca crop substitution programs but was intercepted by a group of armed men in vehicles while driving back to the town of Miraflores.

Colombia’s senior advisor on post-conflict issues, Rafael Pardo, said that authorities believed the delegate was expected to be released around midday Thursday, labeling the kidnapping as “absolutely unacceptable.”

The Colombian military estimates that there are around 300 FARC rebels who have refused to lay down their arms and Ivan Mordisco has been touted as a major commander leading dissident fighters. Some 7,000 rebels have moved to transition zones to surrender their weapons and reintegrate into civilian life.

In January 2016, the U.N. Security Council adopted a resolution for the U.N. mission in Colombia to help monitor and verify the laying down of FARC arms and to verify the bilateral ceasefire between the rebels and the Colombian government.

On Thursday, the mission said that 1,000 weapons surrendered by FARC rebels will be collected and stored in containers. The handing over of weapons and implementing disarmament zones has been a slow and bumpy process. The U.N. has reported that around half the disarmament camps, originally due to be vacated by the end of May, have not even been finished.

Because of poor conditions in camps, the FARC had asked the deadline for weapons surrender to be pushed back, further complicated by the fact that the FARC never kept accurate records of their weapons, making it difficult to determine how quotas would be met.

The U.N. mission has repeatedly voiced its concern that the Colombian government needs to better implement parts of the peace deal and prevent an upsurge in peacetime violence. The government, however, has accused the mission of not knowing the real situation on the ground.

In particular, the U.N. has expressed concern over the ongoing killing of human rights leaders and those living in rural areas who have been targeted by right-wing paramilitary groups who continue to swoop in on territory left open as FARC troops demobilize.

On Monday, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein confirmed that 41 Colombian political activists were assassinated in the first four months of 2017. Colombian Interior Minister Juan Fernando Cristo, however, claimed that only 14 social movement leaders have been killed so far.

http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/UN-Delegate-Kidnapped-as-Security-Council-Arrives-in-Colombia-20170504-0004.html

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Colombia Chiquita Brands Paid Armed Groups for Defense: Report

http://www.telesurtv.net/__export/1493864288287/sites/telesur/img/news/2017/05/03/paramilitaries_100.jpg_1718483346.jpg
Members of the right-wing paramilitary group United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia raise their weapons in the air near Colombia's border with Venezuela in 2001. | Photo: AFP

Published 3 May 2017

Payments were made to vying armed groups so that Chiquita workers would not risk the threat of being killed or kidnapped.
For years, Chiquita Brands International’s Colombia-based offices paid money to armed groups to guarantee that their personnel and facilities would not be harmed during the country's civil war, according to a new report by Verdad Abierta and the National Security Archive.

The armed groups, according to the report, include paramilitaries, the Colombian Army and leftist guerillas.

Recently-declassified documents released by both organizations reveal how staff from the renowned banana company had long questioned the company's payments to the aforementioned groups, asking whether Chiquita had gone beyond extortion in its efforts to operate in Colombia. Top company executives were deemed as becoming “comfortable” with the idea and practice of paying off armed groups.

A seven-year-long legal battle undertaken by the National Security Archive against the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC, and, eventually, Chiquita, has resulted in the Chiquita Papers, tens of thousands declassified records outlining how the company engaged in illicit payments during Colombia's civil war.

The documents enabled the group to identify Chiquita executives who oversaw and authorized payments.


Jorge Forton, a Peruvian accountant and chief financial officer for Banadex, Chiquita's wholly-owned subsidiary in Colombia, confessed that payments were being made that were “impossible to audit” and that Chiquita officials were becoming “comfortable” with such payments.

During his deposition to the SEC, Forton pondered, “We are funding their activities, or we are protecting ourselves. It's questionable.”

Two of the names from Chiquita's Security Department who handled the illegal payments were John Stabler and Juan Manuel Alvarado. One of the main intermediaries used to link the company with armed groups was Rene Alejandro Osorio J., a key bridge between Chiquita's Colombia operations, and John Ordman, a company official, who described the payments as “a leap of faith.”

Forton, according to Verdad Abierta, was always aware of the “sensitive payments.” They were made so that Chiquita workers did not have to face the threat of being killed or kidnapped and to make sure its plantations would not be set ablaze.

Though cognizant of Chiquita's camouflaged payment system, Forton told the SEC that he was “not comfortable” with such payments: “How do I feel those payments are really going to those groups? I mean, how can I audit that? I cannot ask them to sign a receipt,” he said.

http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Colombia-Chiquita-Brands-Paid-Armed-Groups-for-Defense-Report-20170503-0033.html

Videos at both links.

A Dark Labyrinth in the Transitional Zones

Gabriel Angel


In these days three girls deserted from the Transitional Zone of Normalization Héroes de Marquetalia, located south of Tolima, near the place where the FARC was born 53 years ago.

Their names de guerre were Paula, Monica and Maira. The curious thing is that the three went to present themselves to the military base of Planadas, the nearest municipality.


That the deserter guerrillas were indeed in that base was known for information provided by the government delegates of the Local Monitoring and Verification Mechanism. Nevertheless, these people objected to this fact being recorded in the routine report that the Mechanism daily elaborates for its superior instance.


Colonel Martinez, of the Monitoring and Verification Mechanism, far from the site of the desertions, promptly told Jeferson, our delegate in that instance, that three girls had deserted from the area and had reported themselves at the Planadas base. At the time of his comment it was very doubtful whether the deserters had arrived there.
 From what was said by the official delegates in the two mechanisms of monitoring and verification, it can be deduced that, before the actual arrival took place, they already knew that the deserters would go to the aforementioned base.

The comrades of the area leadership decided to invite the father of Paula, one of the deserters, an inhabitant of the region, to inform him of the fact. 
Servando, as the gentleman is called, arrived at the Transitional Zone in the company of the president and vice president of the Community Action Board where he lives.

From the conversation with him it was concluded that he would approach that military base in order to find out about the situation of his daughter. It was agreed that he would invite the corregidor and the parish priest of Gaitania to go along with him, so he would not go alone.
At the base they were attended by one Major Méndez, who with his attitude gave them to understand that he already knew the reason of their visit.

He informed them that the three girls had actually arrived early but that they were no longer there but had been transferred to Ibague. Servando, very worried, asked for information on how to contact them.
 The Major marked in his presence several numbers on his telephone, without obtaining any answer from the other side. In the end he assured that the best thing was that they presented themselves to Ibagué in person.

This generated distrust as in the local monitoring mechanism some soldiers ventured that the girls were to be in Chaparral. It all sounded strange.
A good source had said that at eight o'clock in the morning the deserters were at the base. Not enough time had passed for them to be in Chaparral or Ibagué.

Servando later received a call on his telephone. On the other side a male voice told him that he was going to put on the phone someone who he would be happy to hear. He then heard his daughter's voice.


The girl quickly told her father that she was well. And that later she would call again, because for now she could not make calls. As soon as he hung up, Servando saw the number 320 8498580 in the call log, and he called back.

The person who answered said hello to him calling him by his name, he said to be called Mario and added that he would call him back when he was with his daughter.
 Servando called the Ombudsman's Office in Ibagué and reported what was happening to him. He also made arrangements to meet with the UN human rights delegate in order to inform and obtain help.

When finally the meeting of the United Nations official with Servando took place, the attitude of the latter disconcerted them all.
He had simply come forward to say that he was not going to disturb any more, that he was not going to look for his daughter or anything else, because he had received a call from her and she had told him that if he really loved her, he would not look for her anymore.

Apart from his decision not to do anything else, it was obvious that the preoccupation he had shown the day before had disappeared.
The previous story, completely true, resembles the script of a series of those stories that the National Army presented on television in order to discredit the FARC.

Several indications indicate that at least a couple of the boys living in the Transitional Zone Heroes of Marquetalia are in telephone communication with the military intelligence services.
There must be a cat trapped there, as people say. To the above may be added another fact that is very suspicious.

A week ago in Gaitania leaflets appeared with the signature of the Autodefensas Gaitanistas de Colombia, which warn the population that they have in mind to carry out a cleaning operation in the area. 


At 18:30 hours of yesterday, May 3, a citizen of Gaitania was seriously injured after receiving several shots from an unknown aggressor. The aggressor, a tall, thin man dressed in black, according to witnesses who followed him after the shooting, flew through a coffee plantation in the direction of the military base located in Tolú, a place of Gaitania.

To the surprise of the direction of the Transitional Zone Heroes de Marquetalia, that is located about twenty minutes from Gaitania, the government members of the Local Monitoring and Verification Mechanism maintained that the attacker fled towards the Transitional Zone and demanded that a police patrol be allowed to enter the area in search of the gunman.

If we evaluate the above facts, it is obvious that there is a predetermined interest to weaken the environment around this Transitional Zone. We remember now that a national media published a few days ago the audios in which from Battalion 21 Vargas in Grenada, Meta, Army personnel promoted the desertion of the guerrilla units.

Since the conclave realized in Cartagena in late March, the FARC brought to the attention of President Juan Manuel Santos this type of maneuver, incomprehensible in the light of the Agreements signed for the Termination of the Conflict and the ongoing bilateral and definitive ceasefire and cessation hostilities between the FARC and the Colombian State.

We are witness of the President's rejection of this type of actions, as well as of his willingness to immediately address a practice that reveals the buried interest of some military commanders in putting obstacles to the ongoing peace process.

Why the commitment to encourage desertions with promises of money when the end of the conflict is agreed?
Through media and social networks we can recognized the irrational offensive of the ultra-right sectors, enemies of the Havana Agreements and of peace and reconciliation for Colombia, against the process of abandoning arms and reincorporating the FARC into legal policy.

We have no doubt that these sectors are behind such dark events as those described.

A last-minute incident again draws attention to what has been said. In the morning of today, May 4th, a truck, with driver and assistant, showed up to leave logistic material in the Transitional Zone Heroes of Marquetalia.

The appearance of the assistant caught the attention of the commanders of the guerrilla, who proceeded to politely question him.

It turned out he was a plainclothes policeman, Jorge Rivera, patrolman attached to the district 2 of Campo Alegre, Huila, substation Silvania, whose commander is Sergeant Edier Bermeo Chavarro. He has been seven years in the Police and was carrying the C.C. 1113306907 of Sevilla, Valley.

The boys took a picture of him before he returned in the truck.

What was his mission and why? What does this mean?

http://www.farc-epeace.org/peace-process/news/item/2349-a-dark-labyrinth-in-the-transitional-zones.html

It means trust fascist to behave as fascist. Look to your comrades and your arms.

Colombia Police Attack Strikers in Choco Protesting Poverty

http://www.telesurtv.net/__export/1494474951278/sites/telesur/img/news/2017/05/10/choco-twitter_jpg_1718483347_jpg_1718483346.jpg_1718483346.jpg
Choco residents in 2016 held a civil strike demanding better health. care, education, safety and transportation | Photo: Tiwitter / @XimenaCanal

Published 10 May 2017

Clashes erupted between the police force, ESMAD, and the people of Choco.
Wednesday saw a general strike in the Colombian department of Choco. Political commitments made by the government of President Juan Manuel Santos, like investments in health, education and roads, have gone unfulfilled and the people have not swayed from their demands.

Clashes erupted between the police force, ESMAD, and the people of Choco. According to Semana, a member of the civil defense force was injured and had to be taken to a hospital.

"The police are firing tear gas. People are throwing rocks. Everyone is running," one reporter said in a video, Semana reported.

A public transportation driver from Quibdo said, "The transportation union is committed to Choco's struggle and we'll remain faithful to the strike and our demands until the end. Since yesterday (Wednesday) the public transportation in the department has been suspended."

Meanwhile, negotiations between the leaders of the Civic Committee for the Salvation and Dignity of Choco and the Colombian government, headed by Ministry of the Interior Guillermo Rivera, are underway.

At the end of the meeting, Rivera assured that he could not divulge any information. However, he said that the government is committed to making important investments in the department.

http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Colombia-Police-Attack-Strikers-in-Choco-Protesting-Poverty-20170510-0035.html

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Choco, Colombia’s Poorest Region, Calls for Civil Strike
Published 9 May 2017

Organizers of Wednesday's strike argue that the Colombian government hasn't met commitments made to Choco residents following a strike held last year.
Colombia's Ombudsman Carlos Alfonso Negret convened an extraordinary meeting with high government officials Tuesday to analyze and propose solutions to ongoing humanitarian crises in the country’s Choco department.

The meeting comes as residents of the northern Colombian department have called for a civil strike on Wednesday in protest against rampant poverty and violence.

Organizers of Wednesday's strike have argued that the Colombian government hasn't met 2 percent of the commitments made to Choco residents following a strike held last year. These commitments include improvements in the areas of health, education, safety and transportation.

Dilon Martinez, spokesperson for the Civic Committee for the Salvation and Dignity of Choco, insisted that the government has largely ignored the needs of the people in the region.


“The overwhelming majority of our petitions that the government agreed to implement have not been implemented,” Martinez told Caracol.

Residents are also demanding greater security from the proliferation of right-wing paramilitary groups propping up in the area.

Choco, home to large Black and Indigenous communities, is currently the poorest department in Colombia. Some 65.9 percent of Choco’s population now live below the poverty line, according to Colombia Reports. Apart from economic and social crises, there's also the plight of those dislocated from their homes, kidnappings, death threats and homicides.

According to a 2014 report commissioned by Negret’s office, 36 percent of the children in Choco did not have a healthy size for their age and their weight. The report also found that child mortality was higher than the average rate in the rest of the country.

Nothing has changed since the report's release.

“We hope that all government ministry representatives participate in order to respond to the necessities of the people of Choco,” Negret said, according to Caracol.

“Tomorrow begins a civil strike to demand greater attention for the state.”

http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Choco-Colombias-Poorest-Region-Calls-for-Civil-Strike-20170509-0021.html

Peace in Colombia receives troubling blow, implementation at risk

The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia – People’s Army and the Colombian Government developed a peace process that has lasted since 2012 and reached a Final Agreement on November last year, giving an end to a war that has lasted over 50 years.

These agreements are to be implemented with laws, public policies and programs through the institutional framework of the country. In order to carry out this task and to implement and incorporate into the legal system the most urgent, necessary and basic laws to begin the implementation, a “Fast Track” legislative procedure was created, in which laws are passed to Congress for their discussion and approval.

In order to maintain the spirit and core aspects of the Final Agreement, these laws can only be modified while passing through Congress if these changes are consistent with the agreement and are approved by the Government Administration; also, these laws are to be voted as a whole by Congress. For example, regarding the Amnesty Law, Congress had to approve the law itself as a whole instead of article by article.

As of the moment it is calculated that only about 12% of the required laws and decrees for the incorporation of the Peace Agreement to the Colombian legal system and institutional framework have been approved. The rest are still pending, and time is ticking since this special “Fast Track” legislative procedure has only a maximum duration up until October of this year in the best of cases.

Constant delays have permanent within Congress and this has caused for only 12% of the required laws to be passed. The electoral race for the 2018 presidential and congress elections has already started, and it seems that Congressmen are more concentrated on their own political agendas than that of the establishment of Peace in Colombia.

http://farc-epeace.org/images/pazenriesgo1.jpg

Added to all this uncertainty and fooling around with the country’s future, the Constitutional Court of Colombia has made a revision to the “Fast Track” legislative procedure ruling and has removed two of its most important rules that are directly associated with the assurance that these laws will maintain the spirit of the agreed:

Modifications to the laws regarding peace can be done in Congress without any consultation or authorization by the government administration. This poses as an enormous risk to the spirit and core aspects of the Peace Agreement since these can be modified without any regulation and at will of the members of Congress that are no precisely interested in the application of these laws.
These laws cannot be voted a whole, but article by article. This also opens the door to even further modifications to the agreed upon.
The result of this may well be the introduction of a series of laws far away from the spirit and core aspects of the already agreed upon between the FARC-EP and the Government.

It must be noted that Colombia is regarded as one of the most corrupt countries in the world, and there are many conflicts of interests among the members of Congress who are financed by or are themselves part of economic conglomerates, multinational corporations, landlords and banks etc., that don’t precisely have an interest in aspects of the agreement such as a Comprehensive Rural Reform, the Special Jurisdiction for Peace or the democratic opening that implies the entering into politics of the FARC-EP and also many other alternative political projects.

Diverse political sectors that are in pro of Peace have expressed their concern, the FARC-EP troops have entered into “Permanent Assembly” and citizen protests are being convened for the next days.

Why is Peace a problem?

The Peace Agreement aims to resolve and reform some basic aspects of the socio-political ordering in Colombia to once and for all abolish violence within politics and its political persecution through a democratic opening and abolishment of paramiltiarism, as well, it aims to modernize the Colombian country side in order for millions of peasants to have life and economic opportunities so that they don’t face misery situations that lead them to join or conform an armed group nor to have to grow illicit crops such as poppy, coca and marihuana in order to survive.

Also read: Brief guide to understand Peace Agreements in Colombia

Another core aspect of the agreement is for the truth, justice, reparation and non-repetition guarantees to be established for all the victims of the conflict and for all Colombians. This also generates great discomfort among various politicians, high commanders of the Armed Forces, massive landowners and companies that have also been participant of the armed conflict through the promotion and/or the financing and creation of paramilitary death squads and actions aimed at the intensification of the armed conflict through direct support to an armed group or committed, coordinated and commanded genocides and tragedies.

On its part the FARC-EP has agreed to respond to this Special Justice System for Peace, tell the truth, repair victims, and comply with the sentencing that this justice system is to establish for each case, but it is necessary for all actors, parties, and participants of the armed conflict in general to also comply with this justice system.

"It's the moment to unite hopes and gather hearts for Peace. Difficulties have never paralyzed us"

http://farc-epeace.org/peace-process/news/item/2384-peace-in-colombia-receives-troubling-blow.html

"bending over backwards" is so inadequate, it seems FARC is not going to be blamed for scuttling the peace, but I'm starting to get the notion that despite my handwringing there is a 'Plan B'.

FARC on High Alert as Colombian Court Decision Slows Peace Process, Ends 'Fast Track'

http://www.telesurtv.net/__export/1495137466215/sites/telesur/img/news/2017/05/18/download_x10x.jpg_1718483346.jpg
Soldiers of the Colombian Army disembark from a helicopter in a zone previously occupied by FARC rebels, Saiza, Colombia, Feb. 3, 2017. | Photo: Reuters

Published 18 May 2017 (20 hours 58 minutes ago)

The “hit to the heart of the peace process” will significantly slow the ongoing efforts toward peace, putting FARC rebels on “high alert.”
In a surprising decision that could be a major impediment to the ongoing process to end the 52-year-long Colombian internal conflict, the country's Constitutional Court struck down the "fast track" process for approving the deal in Congress, declaring parts of the measure unconstitutional.

From now on, the laws and reforms that implement the peace accords and protections for demobilized FARC members will have to be voted on article by article, rather than in blocks, significantly slowing the process and opening up more opportunities for interference and change in the agreements.

The leader of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, Rodrigo Londoño, also known as Timoleon Jimenez or Timochenko, announced on his Twitter account that in response to the sudden decision to end the fast track process, FARC members in “all the regions and points of transition and normalization enter into permanent assembly."

Another FARC leader, Jesus Santrich, clarified that permanent assembly is “a way of saying that all of the soldiers enter into a state of alert,” Colombia's Semana magazine reported.


In a live broadcast, Ivan Marquez, lead negotiator for the FARC in peace talks with the government, questioned the Constitutional Court's authority, urging President Santos to do whatever he can to keep the implementation of the peace accord on track, "We need fewer laws and more action," adding that the FARC would continue to hold up its end of the accord.

Marquez called on the Colombian people to mobilize in support of the peace accord, which he said took six long years to reach and should not be derailed by judicial actions.

The fast track process that just came to a sudden halt was approved by the court last December in order to allow Congress to carry out a special legislative procedure that would accelerate the implementation of the historic peace deal to end the war between the government and the FARC guerilla army. It sped up the approval process for key bills needed to implement the deal, most notably an amnesty bill that gave guarantees of safety to FARC members after they demobilize.

With FARC demobilization still underway with United Nations supervision, the decision casts doubt over the future of the process.

According to Semana, Senator Roy Barreras, one of the early proponents of the fast track process, expressed that he was “very worried” by the decision of the court, adding that it is a “hit to the heart of the peace process.”

"Just as we should be very worried from now on, the judges must also know that they made the the peace process much more difficult," Barreras continued.

The Colombian conflict erupted in 1964 when the FARC and National Liberation Army, known as the ELN, took up arms for rural land rights. The conflict drew in various rebel and paramilitary forces and drug gangs as well as state forces, leaving at least 260,000 people dead and displacing more than 7 million, according to authorities.

Ending the 52-year long conflict between the government and FARC has been a long and difficult process. In recent months, as many regions formerly controlled by FARC demobilize, power vacuums have opened up giving space to right-wing paramilitaries to gain footholds in areas with lucrative illegal economies. In some areas, violence has actually increased in the midst of demobilization.

http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/FARC-on-High-Alert-as-Colombian-Court-Decision-Slows-Peace-Process-Ends-Fast-Track-20170518-0015.html?utm_content=buffere1f91&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

National Government cheats the democratization of land agreed in the Final Peace Agreement

Communiqué # 3 of the FARC-EP delegation to the Follow up, Promotion and Implementation Commission (CSIVI)

We recently reported with satisfaction the achievement of agreeing with the Government the draft decree "By which measures are adopted to facilitate the implementation of the Comprehensive Rural Reform contemplated in the Final Land Agreement, specifically the procedure for the access and formalization [of land] and the Land Fund "advancing in this way in overcoming the difficulties caused by repeated government failures to comply with the normative implementation of the Comprehensive Rural Reform.

In a formal session of the Follow up, Promotion and Implementation Commission (CSIVI), the Office of the High Commissioner for Peace undertook to send such a project to the Permanent Bureau of Consultation with Indigenous Peoples and Organizations for the Prior Consultation procedure. However, yesterday we learned that the project was not only out of line with the version prepared jointly by the CSIVI, but also introduced changes that were openly contrary to the agreed provisions.

Loyal to the Final Peace Agreement, the agreed version recognized peasants as beneficiaries of land access. The rigged version extends the benefits to large [land] owners through the granting of rights of use. In addition, it limits the foreseen community participation.

With this cheating act, the National Government not only betrays the Final Peace Agreement, but also the peasants who hold the hope that the Comprehensive Rural Reform will make the de-concentration and democratization of land possible, which this decree made viable through the creation of the Land Fund, adjudication and formalization procedures, and community participation.

The historic opportunity to close the cycle of violence -whose origin has been the unresolved problem of land tenure- is at stake.

http://farc-epeace.org/communiques/farc-ep/item/2398-national-government-cheats-the-democratization-of-land-agreed-in-the-final-peace-agreement.html

"Trust capitalists to act like capitalists."

NATIONAL STRIKE IN BUENAVENTURA
Submitted to Black Alliance for Peace
https://afrocolombian.files.wordpress.com/2017/05/bv.jpg?w=620

By Esther Ojulari
Monday 22nd May 2017

The city of Buenaventura on Colombia’s Pacific coast is home to the country’s main international port through which billions of dollars of imports and exports pass every year. Yet due to decades of abandonment form the government, the mainly Afrodescendant and indigenous community of Buenaventura does not have access to adequate health services, education or running water. Further, neoliberal development projects to expand the port threaten the very existence of communities as traditional fishing livelihoods are destroyed and whole communities violently displaced from their ancestral lands.

Since last Tuesday 16th May the community of Buenaventura (along with communities in the Chocó region of Colombia) has been on general strike demanding that the government fulfils basic human rights to water, education, health, culture, land and freedom from racism and violence. Businesses were closed, road blocks were set up at several points along the main road and peaceful protestors chanted, sang, danced and banged cooking pots to call attention to the desperate situation. On the first day along the Chamber of Commerce reported the strikes had caused up to 10,000 million pesos (about $3.5 million USD) in losses.

For three days there was a sense of joy and hope as the Civic Strike Committee entered into discussions with the government. But unfortunately due to lack of consensus the discussions were suspended and on Friday 19th the national government sent the ESMAD (riot squad) to repress the protestors and violently remove the road blocks. The crowds and communities were attacked with tear gas throughout the day and into the night of the 19th causing numerous injuries. Tragically in the community of Punta el Este, located at the end of Buenaventura’s main bridge to the port and city centre, Puente Piñal, a baby was suffocated from the gas causing outrage and indignation throughout the community. The ESMAD had one aim here, to open the road for the trucks to leave the port and allow the global capitalist machine to clunk back into action. Once again private business interests were prioritised over the lives of the black and indigenous community.

On Saturday the government installed a prohibition on public demonstrations and a curfew in response to looting of supermarkets by some people, although many have claimed these actions were instigated by outside forces. Nevertheless the peaceful protestors have remained firm in their objectives and calls for a satisfactory response to their demands. On the 20th March over 30,000 people put on white shirts and marched to the city centre to demonstrate that the strike would go on, and on the 21st, National day of Afro-Colombian Heritage, we estimate that up to 200,000 marched to the outskirts of the city. Up to 200 people have been detained by the authorities accused of participating in looting and rioting and while the freedom of some has now been secured many have ongoing legal processes.

Today as the Committee returns to discussions with the government the people of Buenaventura continue to strike and continue to march under the calls “el pueblo no se rinde carajo” (the people won’t give up…), and “pueblo unido, jamás será vencido” (a united people will never be defeated).

In solidarity with the struggling people of Black Colombia and in defence of fundamental human rights, the Black Alliance for Peace calls on the people in the United States to sign the petition below, but also to circulate information on this situation through your networks since it is being “whited out” by the corporate press. We are also asking that you send statements of solidarity to Charominarojas@gmail.com

https://www.change.org/p/solidaridad-con-el-paro-civico-en-buenaventura?source_location=minibar

https://afrocolombian.org/2017/05/22/national-strike-in-buenaventura/

May 27th, 53rd anniversary of the FARC-EP

By: Gabriel Angel, FARC-EP

Of the 53 years of the FARC-EP, I spent the last thirty in their ranks. I arrived in 1987, a month before Dr. Jaime Pardo Leal, president of the Patriotic Union political movement -to which I joined less than two years before- was killed. I was a lawyer from the city, so the contrast with my previous life was enormous.

The nights seemed too dark for me, and the incessant choir of crickets that only disappeared in the light of day provoked a strange feeling in me. Rain was falling with deafening rays and one would have to walk through monstrous mudslides. The weight on the back and the arms became new organs that you had to learn to dominate. The only joy came from others.

Throughout the the days, months and the years I learned that the country-side and the jungle have their own scents, and that these get attach to the body without one noticing. In my times in the Sierra mountain range of the Colombian caribbean coasts, I could sometimes see from the heights the night lights of Barranquilla and other cities. Also, on sunny days, I appreciated the immense blue of the sea merging with the sky on the horizon, in prodigious contrast with the green vegetation behind.

I was marvelled by the immense white moles of the snowy mountains, which in the early morning sent out an icy mist. Later, when I was transferred to the Magdalena Medio region, the beautiful landscapes were replaced by more hostile ones. Nowhere did I find such heat or clouds of mosquitoes. They were throwing themselves on top of us and only the mosquito net in the evenings protected us.

From the mosquitoes I learned the malarial fevers, as well as the medicines to cure them. If in the Sierra I learned of poisonous snakes, in my new home I confirmed how terrible their bite could be. I observed that in the flat lands, the rivers don't carry stones but mud, and their waters are brown or black like those of the Opón. Within these rivers the invisible stingrays lurks with its silent and cruel dagger.

In the Sierra we talked about the Contraguerrilla [Counter-guerrilla] as troops to watch out for. In the Magdalena Medio it was the Mobile Brigades. In the caribean coast [where the Sierra is], paramilitarism was just beginning to flourish, while in the Magdalena Medio paramilitarism was master in its criminal perversity. The Masetos, which was the name of the local paramilitary group, used its terror to impose themselves on the peasant population and to turn it against the guerrillas. Their coordinated work with the military and civilian authority gave them impunity.

My best memory of the Sierra and the Magdalena Medio is the immense affection that the people had for us, the faith they had in the guerrilla commanders, the respect, the solidarity and their disposition to even take risks and sacrifices if necessary to help us out. Their organizations and their spirit for the struggle were the best encouragement to give it all for them.

Then came the time of the Caguán, [which was the town where a peace process was held between the FARC-EP and the Government from 1999 to 2002 without reaching any final agreeement] the public hearings that the entire country could hear and watch through radio and television. I was thrilled by the fervor of men and women who came from the remotest places of Colombia to make their presentations and speeches which were full of nonconformity, projects and dreams for their regions. The government burnt all that down, just as it got rid of the Common Agenda for Change, signed as an agenda for the Caguán Peace Process with the FARC-EP.

Once these Peace Talks came to their unsuccessful end, I stayed long years in the Eastern Bloc of the FARC-EP. There, I met with the most intense part of the war. There was no more civilian population to turn to, only jungle, marches [long walks within the mountains and jungle], winters, summers, aircraft overflight, bombing, landings, machine-gunning, combats. One morning in November we exchanged goodbye hugs with Domingo Biohó, Simon Trinidad and Lucero [FARC-EP members] who moved to the South Bloc without imagining what was awaiting them [Simón Trinidad was captured and sent to a U.S. prison where he is currently held, while going to a secret meeting with the United Nations officials in Ecuador in order to resolve the situation of Prisoners of War that the FARC-EP had in their control; Domingo Biohó, who was a recognized commander, and Lucero who was the sentimental partner of Simón Trinidad died in an aerial bombing in 2010].

I shared with young men and women of heroic stamina the most difficult circumstances. It was common to hear of their death or injuries, or of their disappearance after battle without ever hearing any news of them again. They gave their lives for the cause and there was not even time to mourn them. Many loves and dreams were truncated, but also dreams were reborn without end. What a beautiful smile the guerrillas had, what a loud laugh the guerrillas gave.

I crossed hundreds of miles through almost virgin landscapes of the Catatumbo wich is located in the Magdalena Medio region. With Timo, current Commander-in-chief of the FARC-EP, came the Havana Peace Talks and the Final Agreement with the government. The recognition of the FARC as a prestigious political force took on a universal dimension. A prize to Jacobo and Manuel [FARC-EP founders], to the tens of thousands of combatants with their stories full of humanity and greatness.

The viciousness against us during these 53 years never ceased. The powerful, the greedy, and the intolerants have shown their fear to words, desperately trying to silence us.

Upon returning to Colombia from Havana, Cuba, we are confident of having reached an important achievement. The cause of peace today more than ever belongs to the peoples, it involves justice and rights.

Colombia knows this.

http://farc-epeace.org/blogs/gabriel-angel/item/2412-anniversary-of-the-farc-ep.html

FARC-EP, 53 years of struggle for PEACE.
Written by General Staff of the FARC-EP

http://www.farc-ep.co/media/k2/items/cache/b1da35673a92af40fb0d8e72cefac177_XL.jpg

FARC-EP, 53 years of struggle for PEACE.
We have always stated that the fate of Colombia can not be war. No no no! We have to raise Colombia from the mire of war to the summit of humanity.
Companions and companions:

As a result of the Havana Peace Dialogues and the majority support of the nation that has never stopped dreaming of a homeland in peace and dignity, a new cycle of the history of resistance and armed struggle of the FARC begins. Originated with the military attack on Marquetalia in 1964, May 27.

Before the bombing and landing, Manuel Marulanda Vélez, Jacobo Arenas and his companions touched all the doors of the dialogue to avoid the beginning of a new stage of war in Colombia, but more could the local intransigence and the intrigue of the North that he feared for Continental America the reissue of the experience of the Cuban Revolution.

Going back in time we can observe the consistent persistence of the FARC in the search for a political solution to that confrontation generated by those who since the death of the Liberator imposed injustice and political exclusion in Colombia.

Always consistent with the essential element of its strategy, which is peace, the FARC made 5 attempts at a political solution to Colombia's internal conflict.

We tried it in the Dialogues of La Uribe during the Betancur Government, turning the FARC into the launching pad for a new political movement, the Patriotic Union, which was shattered by the obsession and intolerance of regime militarist sectors. There were more than 5 thousand killed and massacred. Honor and glory to those who gave their lives dreaming in New Colombia.

Then we sought reconciliation in the conversations of Caracas and Tlaxcala, an effort that was drowned by the democratic opening, the miserable neoliberalism that wrested that hope.

San Vicente del Caguán was the persistence of the FARC's dream of peace frustrated once again by the perfidy of a conservative leader who was only looking for time to think about reengineering army that would allow him to continue and win the war.

But despite the vicissitudes and touched by the pain of homeland that has produced this prolonged confrontation, we managed to rekindle the flame of hope with the Dialogues of Havana where we were finally able to sign a treaty for the construction of stable and lasting peace .

We thought, how much our founding fathers Manuel Marulanda Vélez and Jacobo Arenas, Alfonso, Raúl, Jorge, Efrain and others, wanted to lead the realization of this historic moment of their dreams. They, and all who gave their lives for the sake of the poor, will live on in the feelings of concord of generations to come.

The FARC do not forget and evoke grateful the role of Hugo Chávez Frías, commander of the Bolivarian Revolution of Venezuela, who guided the first steps of the contending parties towards the Table of Dialogue. Thank you, thank you very much in the name of Colombia, President Raúl Castro for the contribution of Cuba to our reconciliation. Norway, Kingdom of Norway receive our recognition of their important role in the search for peace. President Bachelet, President Maduro: to you who in the name of your people accompanied us as guardian angels throughout the process, we carry them in the heart.

Today we are witnessing the transition from armed struggle to the conversion of the FARC into a legal political party. The decision has been taken and endorsed unanimously by the highest authority: the Guerrilla Conference. Now we need to unite all of us who want homeland and humanity so that the implementation of the agreements change for the better, the life of Colombians.

The Security Council of the United Nations, recognized world authority, will verify the commitments of reincorporation and of respect for Human Rights. We will also be accompanied in this arduous task of consolidation of the peace, the beloved Pepe Mujica and the ex- president Felipe González and a constellation of international organizations. We are not alone. The world of the sensible is with us.

We want to remember, however, that the important thing is not only to sign the agreement, but to fulfill it. That peace is not a matter of laws, but of political will. How much would Colombians gain if we succeeded in cutting off the intricate legal vine that still delays the march of peace and the implementation of what has been agreed.

Backed by the advances of the agreement, in the name of the FARC we place today in the hands of the people, the transforming power we have built over 53 years of struggle and resistance. The use of the universal right to rebellion, the armed uprising against the oppression of a people was a success because it generated an intangible, if invisible but powerful force, for the Colombian people to claim the rights violated by privileged minorities.

We are going to politics because that is what peace processes are all about. A policy not only derived from the proposal to change bullets by votes, but goes beyond the electoral and sets its sights on the future, on living well in democracy and dignity of the new generations.

As we advance towards the Constitutive Congress of the new party, we prepare our flags that are the same feelings of the people wanting to tremble. Meanwhile, like Jose Arcadio in his laboratory of alchemy we prepare the glue that must serve to unite the scattered dreams of decorum and homeland for all. We need unity like the air to breathe.

We want Colombia to burst the sound of harmony until it floods and overflows across borders. We are not the arsonists of enmity between peoples, but the standard bearers of the establishment of relations of respect and friendship with the neighbors and nations of the continent, the propagators of solidarity and love among peoples, dreamers of an old dream of homeland Great that flickers in the sky, and that in the stellar moments of history reminds us that together we will be strong and deserve respect; Divided and isolated will perish.

No one can stand against hope if it is embodied in millions of souls who claim humanity and NO VIOLENCE. Hope belongs to us all: it is the peasant and the businessman, the pure Indian and the media director, the youth and women, the guerrilla, the military and the police. Also of the paramilitary who does not want more blood. Black and white. The hope is of the Christian and is of the opponent blinded even by hatred, because peace belongs to all. Nobody can stay behind the train of peace that has begun to walk.

Definitely, among all, we can turn the bloody page of violence that was written with lyrics of exclusion and contempt of the human being. For this, it takes the TRUTH of what happened during this sad conflict. Let no one be afraid of the truth, let no one flee like the devil to the cross. As Zaffaroni says: there are very serious wounds that really require reconciliation, because otherwise, those wounds become infected. We want to reiterate the sentiments of Timochenko in Cartagena de Indias when signing the Peace Agreement: pardon for the affectations that we have been able to cause in this long conflict, is more dilated of Our America. Let him who is without sin cast the first stone.

That the commission of choice in its wisdom choose the members of the Commission for Clarification of the Truth and the magistrates of the peace of Colombia. They are welcome.

Something tells us that this Government has the keys to giving to all of Colombia its inalienable right to live in peace and dignity. The consolidation of peace has the tool of the Constitution and must be used to prevent any irresponsible from fulfilling its threat of breaking it. While war is the failure of law, peace exalts life, as Alvaro Leyva says.

We have always stated that the fate of Colombia can not be war. No no no! We have to raise Colombia from the mire of war to the summit of humanity. In a very short time, we hope to hear the symphony of voices of inclusion, which is true democracy, proclaiming that we have won the most beautiful of all battles: that of peace.

http://www.farc-ep.co/comunicado/farc-ep-53-anos-de-lucha-por-la-paz.html

It is getting hard to maintain my respect, knowing the history of ruling class treachery, what has changed?

Attacks against peace continue


In the Jaime Pardo Leal Transitional Zone, on May 31 at 00:36 hours, Marine Infantry units entered the Transitional Zone with the objective of capturing a guerrilla from the camp zone.

As a result of the above, security units acted, calling the militaries to stop after which they began to maneuver, some shots were fired into the air as they were carrying weapons. As a product of the complexity of the events, a captain was injured and a military was captured. The latter one was handed over to the Monitoring Mechanism [composed of United Nations, Government and FARC delegates] in perfect state of health at dawn.

The Marine Infantry performed this operation with the help of Rodrigo Guerrero, whose civilian name is John Faber Henao, who deserted from the Zone with the help of the mentioned force on May 3, 2017.

We denounce the constant violations by the Marine Infantry, who had already carried out this type of operations of extraction of guerrillas from the Zone. The evidence has been submitted to the Monitoring and Verification Mechanism.

It is also common for guerrillas –who have permission to visit their families due to a calamity- to be detained and invited to adhere to the demobilization plan* that still exists at this stage of the process against FARC units.

We also denounce drone overflights and provocations through shots in the air around the Transitional Zone.

It is not true -as it appears in the official communiqué of the Armed Forces- that the militaries entered into the Zone by mistake. There is strong evidence that shows that they came with a clear mission.

We call on the facilitators, the Monitoring and Verification Mechanism as well as the people in general to surround the process and prevent this kind of events from continuing.

We regret what has happened and are committed to the goal of achieving a stable and lasting peace.

Directive Command of the Jaime Pardo Leal Transitional Zone



*The referred demobilization plan is a program that was established when the FARC and State were still both at war in which there are incentives to guerrillas to leave the FARC. Currently, this program is still being enforced despite the Peace Agreement and the reincorporation process of all FARC combatants.

http://farc-epeace.org/communiques/farc-ep/item/2426-attacks-against-peace-continue.html

The provocations will continue, escalate, until the desired action is achieved, then the hammer will fall.

Our return and purposes in Colombia
Written by Gabriel Ángel

FARC-EP member and writter, Gabriel Angel, narrates his return to Colombia from Havana.

The trip to Cartagena, Colombia had no complications. The Sarpa flight picked us up at Jose Marti airport in Havana, where we were accompanied by officials from the Foreign Ministry of Cuba, who were as kind and helpful as ever. It was our last farewell, this time we would start our trip without thinking about coming back.

We were attended by the same flight attendant of our trip in late March when we went to the conclave [where FARC-EP leadership, Government officials and representatives from all political parties met in Cartagena to trace a route for the implementation of the Peace Agreement]. When we said goodbye, she asked me if I would write another chronicle so that she could look it up on the internet. The transparency of her dark blue eyes would be enough to transform a rock into a poet. I condescendingly smiled, leaving her standing at the door of the plane. The white and purple clothes she wore made her look even more beautiful.

In Tibú [a municipality in northeastern Colombia] we were told that the helicopter trip to Caño Indio where the Negro Eliécer Transitional Zone is at would last twenty minutes, but it actually took ten. From the heights, one can see numerous palm plantations. We descended on to a small mount. It was two and a half years since I had last been walking on a mountain, the heat stroke was frontal in spite of arriving from Havana.

The drivers of the vehicles have been forced to become experts to overcome the huge amounts of mud in the access path to the Transitional Zone. We are told by their supervisors that the downpour of the previous night managed to frighten many away. More visitors were expected to arrive to commemorate the 53rd anniversary of the FARC, but people know what it means to get there when rain has fallen for several hours.

We walked the last few meters to the entrance. An honoring formation of unarmed guerrillas wearing white T-shirts welcomed us with overwhelmed enthusiasm. Timo [the commander-in-chief of the FARC-EP] led our march while many men and women left their posts to happily approach us to shake hands. Numerous civilians looked at us with joy as well; some smiled in such a way that we could not help but to hug them.

It was three in the afternoon. The events on the occasion of the 53 years of our foundation were under way since the morning. The voice of the presenter was heard through the loudspeaker. Slogans for peace and agreements. There had been a march in defense of the agreements from inside the camps to its reception area. A gigantic flag of Colombia several meters wide was escorted by unarmed combatants dressed in white.

The whole day was full of cultural events, dances of various kinds, songs, mimics, presentations alluding to the commemoration, greetings from peasant communities, and musical performances of the purest folklore. Some wore their clothes and boots smeared with mud. They had come from distant places, and the state of the road extended their journeys beyond any calculation.

That day we didn’t join the celebration. We arrived tired from the trip and also had to settle in to the assigned place, a wooden house covered in zinc, with cement floor, in the most authentic peasant style. A couple of peacocks live near the house and the male undertook his characteristic song at the slightest motive. We went back to sleeping under tents, with no air conditioning or fans. The temperature is very high until when the classic storm of the Catatumbo bursts with its prolonged downpour, strong winds, lightning and thunders.

On Sunday 28 I toured all the facilities. The backlog of the construction is astounding. Only the general classroom is finished. The rest is still in an early stage of construction or without even even starting. It will take months of work, even if the materials arrive on time. Guerrillas live in the individual tents that they have built since their arrival in February. They have had to reinforce their tents with creativity. The strong winds often wreak havoc, but their morale is high.

Now I can greet and have lengthy talks with known combatants, with old loves arouse great affection and nostalgia. I also greet and exchange with many of the civilians who visited the Zone. Many are relatives of guerrillas, their mothers and fathers, brothers, nephews. Others represent various local or regional organizations. Many young people from Cúcuta [city in northeastern Colombia that borders with Venezuela], other regional municipalities and even from Venezuela. Everyone is happy.

The day is devoted to sports competitions. Everyone has the right to participate. The Sports Secretary of the municipality of Tibú is linked to this part of the program and awards diplomas to those who win. There are micro-football and volleyball tournaments, for men, women and mixed. Teams of guerrillas compete with those of different villages in the region. There are also chess and domino games. A nice integration.

To the side of the micro-football court, is the wooden floor and zinc roof. There is a sound crew and a guerrilla announcer who encourages the players and the public. On the stage everyone who wants to participate goes up: children singing, guerrillas singing peace songs, music of different rhythms playing from the speaker.

By 10:15 a greeting by Timoleón Jiménez is announced. People wait expectantly. A peasant leader with whom I converse tells me of his illusions with peace, of the pedagogical work necessary to get all the communities to endorse the agreements. Another one tells me about his illusions with the special circumscriptions for peace*; they must win the seat in congress to obtain their deserved political representation. They tell me about their work with the communities to get it. He shares with me his concerns regarding the other surviving armed groups.

Alexis, a guerrilla I met years ago, introduces me to a brother of his who came with his mother and others to visit him. He explains that they are not blood brothers, because he was abandoned as a child and raised by that family. They all fled the Catatumbo region when paramilitary groups raided the area in the late nineties. Except for him, who joined the FARC. His brother looks very excited. He explains how much they love him and their joy for reuniting.

A peasant woman of more than seventy years takes the stage singing rancheras regarding the suffering of the mothers. She is then succeeded by her son, Gabriel, a guerrilla from Catatumbo, who now sings in homage to her. I approach her to congratulate her and she tells me that she had fourteen children, several of them, with their daughters-in-law or sons-in-law and their children are with her on this visit. Peace is very beautiful, she says. A four-year-old boy shouts slogans to Bolivar's sword. They applaud him.

Timo's greeting starts amidst applause and cheers in the audience. He is immediately assaulted by a circle of admirers, some for his autograph and others with their cell phones begging him to please allow them to take a picture by his side.

We must organize a space and devote a long time to that. The journalists of the alternative press rush for an interview. Some are satisfied with a greeting or some words of mine, the old man does not have time for all this.

They tell us that the talks between the FARC delegates and the government in Bogotá are intense and difficult. There had been concern about delays in the implementation of the agreements before, due to the unfortunate ruling of the Constitutional Court, things seem to be even more complicated now.

It may be true, but there is a fact, the pedagogy for peace grows and the communities feel as their own this struggle for reconciliation. Hope and possibilities are great.

There is no other way but to persist and go forward. Also on the side of the football field, there is a kind of altar surrounded with red flowers, in the center of which stand three hand painted portraits by guerrilla artists. Manuel Marulanda occupies the center, with Raul Reyes to his left and Iván Ríos to his right. It's the history of the FARC, which marks 53 years of struggle for peace.

Now peace is closer than ever and we will not allow it to be snatched from us. This is what all those people who visit us in solidarity enthusiastically declare. Something like this happened in all Transitional Zones and Points. Also in Bogota and other cities. In Havana there was an OSPAAAL [Organization of Solidarity with the People of Asia, Africa and Latin America] forum with the same purpose. Timo sent them his written speech. He had to be in Colombia.

We are here, Colombia, nothing and nobody will be able to prevent it.

Caño Indio, May 29, 2017.



*The Peace Agreement signed between the FARC-EP and the Colombian Government contemplates 16 “Special Circumscriptions for Peace” which are 16 additional seats in Congress to be occupied by representatives from the regions that have been most affected by the conflict. It must be noted that these representatives must be from the communities and must not have any affiliation with any political party or movement including the FARC-EP.

http://farc-epeace.org/blogs/gabriel-angel/item/2425-our-return-and-purposes-in-colombia.html

Will is important, but so is the correlation of forces and material conditions. If the government is chronically violating the agreement and is giving indication of worse chicanery ain't no ruby slippers gonna change that. What is going on here? I cannot believe it naivety, these people have been through too much.

Will is important, but so is the correlation of forces and material conditions. If the government is chronically violating the agreement and is giving indication of worse chicanery ain't no ruby slippers gonna change that. What is going on here? I cannot believe it naivety, these people have been through too much.

It looks to me - and I am in no better position to "know" what the hell is going on - that this is a surrender with amnesty deal. The government can and will say whatever it wants, but with no workable requirement for compliance. The government will do whatever it wants to do at any time. I cannot see where any of the optimism comes from on the FARC side. They have no power and no external power will take their part in an issue with the Colombian government. It looks to me to be a "lose-lose" deal, except that they get to stop the endless deadly fighting that has consumed generations of Red peasants.

How far down does this shithole go?

It looks to me - and I am in no better position to "know" what the hell is going on - that this is a surrender with amnesty deal. The government can and will say whatever it wants, but with no workable requirement for compliance. The government will do whatever it wants to do at any time. I cannot see where any of the optimism comes from on the FARC side. They have no power and no external power will take their part in an issue with the Colombian government. It looks to me to be a "lose-lose" deal, except that they get to stop the endless deadly fighting that has consumed generations of Red peasants.

How far down does this shithole go?

Yeah, a little face saving, but not much. By couching it as they have it probably prevents recalcitrant fighters from fading into the jungle...which I fear might be a better choice for personal survival. They are at the mercy of the merciless. This sort of happy talk a fig-leaf for their abject condition and perhaps dangerous to FARC personnel. I think these provocations are just that, and when some frustrated fighters break ranks and respond or lacking that a 'false flag' is manufactured, then the relocation zones become killing fields.

Personally I'd relocate to the Venezuelan border....but I'm a dingbat

Edit: It has just come to my attention that Columbia has 7.2M internally displaced people. Undoubtedly this figures large.

Colombian workers announce national strike since Tuesday

http://www.telesurtv.net/__export/1496436923295/sites/telesur/img/multimedia/2017/06/02/clm.jpg_1718483347.jpg
In Bogota, the march will be made starting from three exit points and all will arrive at the Plaza de Bolivar where there will be a great concentration. | Photo: CUT Colombia
Published 2 June 2017

The workers' headquarters called for the national state unemployment for the next 6 and 7 of June, dates in which mobilizations and concentrations will be realized in the main capitals of the country.

The representative of the National Executive Committee of the Central Unitaria (CUT), Francisco Maltes, announced on Friday a national statewide strike on the impossibility of reaching an agreement with the Colombian government to prevent the cessation of activities of the teachers and the Ministry of Labor.

"This third national state strike is made before the intransigence of the National Government to comply with the agreements of the years 2013 and 2015, to make this year a fair wage increase and cancel the bonuses that have all the public workers in the country," he said. Union leader

The state unemployment strike strengthens the teaching profession and will be accompanied by the employees of the judicial branch, the Inpec, the workers of the Ministry of Labor and the comptroller's offices, among others, stressed the trade unionist.

Finally, the union leader explained that at the negotiating table on Friday state workers lowered their wage claim from 9 percent to 8.75 percent, in search of an agreement.

>> Teachers and Colombian government without agreements to 22 days of unemployment

http://www.telesurtv.net/news/Trabajadores-colombianos-anuncian-paro-nacional-desde-el-martes-20170602-0037.html

National strikes, 7.2M internally displaced people, complicated, I guess...

National strikes, 7.2M internally displaced people, complicated, I guess...

Lay down with Yankees and this is what you getup with...

Colombia’s leftist Union Patriotica party tries to stage a comeback

Sitting in the living room of a friend’s home, with bodyguards hovering outside and a bust of Lenin standing in the corner, Aída Avella knows she’s testing a concept: Can an openly leftist politician safely run for office in this polarized country?

The answer to that question could be the difference between war and peace, as Colombia tries to end a half-century conflict with Latin America’s largest guerrilla group.

Avella is the president of the ill-fated Union Patriotica party, and she’s running to recapture the Bogotá City Council seat she had to abandon in 1996 after assailants attacked her caravan with a rocket launcher and automatic weapons.

She survived the ambush and spent the next 17 years in exile in Europe, but more than a thousand Union Patriotica members (more than 3,500 by the party’s own count) were assassinated in the 1980s and 1990s.

http://farc-epeace.org/images/UPweb.jpg

“This party has been so abused, we’ve been so stigmatized, we’ve had so many people disappear,” Avella said. “But now we see a very distant light at the end of a very long tunnel.”

After more than a decade since it ceased to exist, the party is trying to make a comeback in regional races in October. Union Patriotica members will be contesting spots as governors, mayors and city council members.

Inauspicious beginnings

The UP, as the party is known, was founded in 1985 after President Belisario Bentacur signed a cease-fire agreement with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, FARC, guerrillas.

The party drew followers from across the left, but its primary purpose was to give the guerrillas a vehicle — a way to lay down their arms and participate in politics. Initially, it seemed to work. In 1986, the UP won more than 200 local council positions and a handful of congressional and senate seats.

In the run-up to that race, and in the succeeding years, however, UP members were indiscriminately murdered, including presidential candidate Jaime Pardo in 1987. Most of the killings were carried out by right-wing paramilitary groups.

http://farc-epeace.org/images/UP2.JPG

The UP massacre was a national and personal tragedy, Avella said.

“When they kill people that belong to your political party, they’re killing your family and friends,” she said, fighting back tears.

The party was essentially terrorized out of existence. Those who weren’t killed went into hiding or sought asylum abroad. Eventually, the UP became so small that it lost its legal standing. Its demise helped convince the FARC that change through politics was a mirage, and the guerrillas resumed their attacks.

More than a decade later, the FARC are back at the negotiating table in Havana. And they’re being asked, once again, to lay down their arms and put their faith in politics.

That’s why the UP’s resurgence — and how it fares in these elections — is so vital.

Locked Door?

Wearing a black pantsuit and wire-rimmed spectacles, Avella, who is in her 60s, looks more like an executive than the standard-bearer of Colombia’s left. She said she’s just as surprised as the next person to be back in the limelight; she had been resigned to a life in exile.

When President Alvaro Uribe, a tough-talking hawk, won reelection in 2006, she said she “closed the door” on ever returning. When his equally bellicose minister of defense, Juan Manuel Santos, won in 2010, “I put a lock on that door,” she said.

But Santos surprised the nation two years later when he announced that he’d been holding secret peace talks with the guerrillas. Then, he helped push the administration to restore the UP’s legal status, recognizing that it had been extinguished through violence.

“That’s when I knew things were changing,” Avella said. “I knew I had to come back and do something for peace.”

She arrived home (leaving her now-grown children and grandchildren in Europe) in November 2013. Asked how long she was out of the country, she doesn’t hesitate.

“Seventeen years, six months and four days,” she says.

Last year, she made a largely symbolic run for the presidency. But she doesn’t see the city council position as a step down.

“It’s necessary to have local power to build peace,” she said. She imagines a network of UP politicians in city halls across the country helping push a progressive agenda into the national spotlight.

Among the party’s goals are the defense of water rights, revamping the healthcare system and providing universal pensions for senior citizens. But more important, she said, the party is out to prove that elections can be won “without boxes full of cash and buying votes.”

“We have to rescue this country from the people who have taken it over, not just banks and industry but politics, also,” she said.

First, however, the party has to make it safely through the election cycle.

Dangers Remain

Their mayoral candidate in the Pacific Coast city of Guapi is facing arrest for “rebellion” — charges usually brought against those considered guerrilla sympathizers. Other candidates have had their lives threatened or have faced harassment, she said.

At least two UP candidates — running for gubernatorial posts in Cesar and Norte de Santander — have been given police protection. But others who need it aren’t being safeguarded, she said.

“We don’t feel completely secure in politics,” she said. “We’re still being threatened. We’re still being singled out.”

http://farc-epeace.org/images/aidaavella.jpg

Even more worrisome, Avella claims there are indications that once dormant paramilitary gangs — the same groups that killed so many of her friends — may be regrouping.

Just this week, a bus coming back from a UP rally in rural Colombia was stopped by armed men who identified themselves as right-wing paramilitaries, she said. Although no one was hurt, the men took photographs and videos of the passengers.

“They have new, strange names,” she said of the groups that, in theory, began disbanding in 2003, “but it’s the same forces.”

It’s not mere paranoia. The United Nations reported this week that 69 human rights, civil society and political leaders have been killed this year — up dramatically from the 35 murdered last year.

“In the context of October’s regional elections, we are very worried that these figures will continue to climb,” said Fabrizio Hochschild, the U.N.’s representative in Colombia. “And there are groups that are incredibly vulnerable.” Among those are leftist political leaders, he said.

Avella could have stayed in Europe. She had found meaningful work at the United Nations and has been helping push the UP’s “political genocide” case through the Inter-American Human Rights Court.

When she made the long trip home, she said she knew there were no guarantees.

“We know the risks we’re taking,” she said. “But it’s worth taking those risks if our grandchildren and great-grandchildren can live in a country that’s in peace.”

http://farc-epeace.org/newsflash/item/2435-colombias-leftist-union-patriotica-party-tries-to-stage-a-comeback.html

Colombia's FARC Accuses Govt of Weak Commitment to Peace, Threatens to Delay Disarmament
Published 5 June 2017 (5 hours 36 minutes ago)

The head of the FARC, Timochenko, said the government has repeatedly been in non-compliance with the peace agreement.
Colombia's largest left-wing guerrilla army is in the process of laying down its weapons once and for all, but continues to hit roadblocks as the FARC's top leader has slammed the government for repeatedly failing to comply with the peace agreement signed with the former rebels, and warned it could lead to delays in the process of disarmament.

The government of President Juan Manuel Santos become the target of criticsm over the detention in recent days of a demobilizing FARC rebel working on the implmentation of the peace deal.

FARC head Rodrigo Londoño, known by his alias Timoleon Jimenez or Timochenko, said the group will request an international oversight commission in light of the detention.

"In the face of the government's repeated failure to comply with the peace agreement, the FARC requested international oversight," wrote Timochenko on Twitter, suggesting the group would seek additional monitoring mechanisms for the peace agreement, signed in November 2016, that already has the support of the United Nations.

Timochenko also said that the FARC will consider delaying the disarmament deadline for the former troops, a process that is scheduled to be completed by June 20, after the government detained one of their members, alias Yimmi Rios, in Bogota.


"With the argument that Yimmi Rios was captured, any member of the FARC who is involved in implementation tasks can be stopped," said Timochenko.

According to the FARC leader, Rios was allowed to do "implementation-related tasks" as part of the peace deal following an agreement reached with the High Commissioner for Peace.

President Santos said the detentoin had been a misunderstanding with respect to Rios' identity and that the problem will be resolved soon.

The government and the FARC already agreed to extend the disarmament deadline from May 30 to June 20 due to other reasons, including delays in construction for the 26 transition zones where the 7,000 rebels have stay during the preliminary implementation of the peace process in order to prepare to reintegrate into civilian life.

"There will be an additional 20 days for disarmament and 60 for reincorporation. It is nothing to finish well 53 years of confrontation and violence," said Santos, stressing the peace agreement is still historic despite delays. Mauricio Lizcano, president of the Senate, said this request was "unacceptable."

http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Colombias-FARC-Accuses-Govt-of-Weak-Commitment-to-Peace-Threatens-to-Delay-Disarmament-20170605-0008.html

Indigenous peoples will have eight representatives in the Constituent Assembly of Venezuela

http://www.telesurtv.net/__export/1496789550321/sites/telesur/img/multimedia/2017/06/06/img_26691413396834.jpg_1718483347.jpg
The ANC will consist of a total of 545 constituents: 364 will be in territorial scope and 181 by sectors. | Photo: AVN

Published 6 June 2017

The representatives of the indigenous peoples will be elected through 3,473 assemblies, which will be held in different communities of the country.
You might be letting down 72% of your customers

The indigenous peoples of Venezuela will have eight representatives to the National Constituent Assembly (ANC), a process that seeks to strengthen the Constitution and the rights of citizens.

A total of 3,473 assemblies will be held in the different native communities of the country that will be made according to their uses, cultures, traditions and customs.

The meetings, considered as the highest instance of deliberation and decision for the exercise of popular power in indigenous peoples and communities, began this Monday, June 5 and will end on the 30th of this same month.

In each of the assemblies an act will be drawn up, using the format published on the National Electoral Council (CNE) page, and the date and time of the meeting must be detailed, as well as the name of the indigenous ethnicity, Municipality and state of location.

Aspirants to #Constituyente formalize applications in Venezuela https://t.co/Mgo2SCuyGz pic.twitter.com/KVpg8gedFA

The minutes must also specify the number of attendees, who must choose the spokesperson for the corresponding community assembly and thus proceed to the election of the people who will run as candidates to join the ANC.

The name, identity card and telephone number of the person that appears to be postulated shall be reflected in the said minutes, which shall likewise be endorsed with the signature of those present at the meeting.

The number of indigenous representatives postulated as candidates for the ANC will vary depending on the region to which they belong, one for the Southern Region (Amazonas and Apure), up to four for the Western Region (Merida, Trujillo and Zulia) and up to three for the Eastern Region (Anzoátegui, Bolívar, Delta Amacuro, Monagas and Sucre).

The ANC will consist of a total of 545 constituents: 364 will be in territorial scope and 181 by sectors, divided into peasants and fishermen, communes and communal councils, students, pensioners, entrepreneurs, indigenous peoples and people with disabilities.

http://www.telesurtv.net/news/Pueblos-indigenas-tendran-ocho-representantes-en-Constituyente-de-Venezuela-20170606-0056.html

Google Translator

Victory for the Black Struggle in Buenaventura, Colombia
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 06/13/2017 - 18:32

https://blackagendareport.com/sites/default/files/styles/image-400x300/public/BAP_BuenaventuraStrike.jpeg?itok=U1OS_oOw

Afro-Colombians
A Report from the Black Alliance for Peace
The three-week strike in Buenaventura was a collective human rights struggle which challenged neoliberalism head on. “The strike involved 117 social organizations, from cargo boat operators, to taxi drivers, to business people, evangelical churches, women’s groups, young people’s and student groups and national and local organizations dedicated to the defense of the ethno-territorial rights of Afro-descendant and indigenous communities.”

Victory for the Black Struggle in Buenaventura, Colombia
A Report from the Black Alliance for Peace
“A history of government abandonment, structural racism and lack of investment in infrastructure and basic services has left Buenaventura’s population of just over 400,000 facing widespread violations of basic human rights.”

After many hours of dialogues and negotiations an agreement was reached in the early hours of Tuesday 6th June, bringing an end to a 22-day strike in Buenaventura, Colombia. The strike, in the mainly Afro-descendant and Indigenous city on Colombia’s Pacific Coast was an inspirational reminder of how collective, local level and “people-centered” human rights (Baraka, 2013)[i] processes can challenge economic powers and neoliberal politics.

The strike commenced on the 16th May, calling on the national government to declare an economic, social and ecological emergency in the city in accordance with article 215 of the 1991 Constitution, and commit resources to address urgent human rights issues. A history of government abandonment, structural racism and lack of investment in infrastructure and basic services has left Buenaventura’s population of just over 400,000 facing widespread violations of basic human rights. Over 60% of the population lives in poverty and 9.1% in extreme poverty. Only three-fourths of the population enjoy running water which arrives for a mere few hours of day at most and the sewage system covers just 60% of the city. The infant mortality rate is 27.6 per 1000, and in 2015 the city’s public hospital was closed leaving the population with access only to primary health care. Less than a quarter of the population have access to secondary education and unemployment rates are at 62% with the vast majority of workers surviving from informal work.[ii]

Thus, for 21 days and nights as many as 200,000 members of the community of Buenaventura gathered, marched and protested to demand the government fulfill their basic human rights. But there was another, underlying, much more structural issue being addressed here. The civic strike called into question the very neoliberal economic model that has left the city with some of the lowest socio-economic indicators in the country.

Challenging Neoliberalism Through Grass Roots, Collective Protest

Buenaventura is home to Colombia’s most important international port, through which 70% of the country’s imports and exports pass, generating billions in revenue each year. However since the port was privatized under neoliberal adjustments in 1994, the city has seen a steep rise in unemployment and a lack of investment as the majority of profits go straight into the hands of private owners, most of whom are from outside the city. Ongoing mega-development projects to expand the port, building new terminals, allowing for increased capacity and more container ships to dock, have caused environmental damage to the ecosystem of the surrounding mangrove forest, destruction of traditional livelihoods and the forced displacement of fishing communities who have lived on the sea front for generations. These same development projects are sighted as the root cause of the intense violence faced in many of the poorest barrios closest to the port over the last decade. Violence in which countless people, community leaders, unionists, young people and women have been threatened, tortured, raped or murdered, spreading terror through the communities which many activists assert are a strategy to provoke displacement and clear the territory for development.

“Since the port was privatized under neoliberal adjustments in 1994, the city has seen a steep rise in unemployment and a lack of investment.”

Thus, the strike chants to fulfill human rights to education, health care and decent employment were accompanied by critiques of the economic model which allows foreign and national business people to profit from Buenaventura’s port and resources at the cost of the dignity and the very lives of its population. As members of the Civic Strike Committee called for dialogues with the government, the community upheld the strike by holding cultural events at strategic meeting points along the main roads leading in and out of the port. The meeting points functioned as road blocks, preventing cargo trucks from entering and leaving the port, creating instant concern from private investors and thus forcing the government to pay attention to the strike. After the first day of the strike the Chamber of Commerce reported losses of COP $10,000 million (USD $3.5 million)[iii] and by the 31st May that figure had risen to COP $11,000 million (USD $3,767,170).[iv]

If there could be any doubt that this strike was a challenge to the neoliberal order, the response of the state made it clear. From the third day of the strikes the government sent the ESMAD (Mobile Anti-Disturbances Squadron) to violently repress the strikers, attacking meeting points with tear gas to clear the way for the cargo trucks to reach the port. This soon became a routine. Night after night the ESMAD and SIJIN (undercover police) would arrive to attack the strikers and once crowds had dispersed a caravan of cargo trucks would file into or out of the city flanked by numerous police and military.

Not only did forces attack protestors in the streets, but tear gas was also fired into homes in some of the most vulnerable communities, and there were reports of an attack on a health center in the barrio of Independencia on the 31 May. A commission, made up of local, national and international human rights organizations was set up to monitor the human rights situation during the strikes. It reported that excessive use of force by public security forces, including the ESMAD and the SIJIN had left more than 300 people injured, at least 10 from fire arms. By the end of the strike over 200 children had been severely affected by tear gas and tragically at least two pregnant women had lost their babies. The city’s main clinic, heaving with casualties from the nightly attacks, was completely militarized and there were reports that injured victims were being threatened and intimidated so as not to make official complaints about the actions of the public security forces.

“Excessive use of force by public security forces left more than 300 people injured, at least 10 from fire arms.”

The human rights commission condemned the war-like tactics used by the state against a community exercising its right to peaceful protest. In a press conference on the June 1st, Human Rights defender and member of Proceso de Comunidades Negras (PCN), Danelly Estupiñan asserted “we reject the Colombian State’s military response to an issue that could have been resolved by political means, it’s as if social protest were a crime.”[v]

The scenario was a chilling example of Enrique Dussel’s (2000) model of the “myth of modernity” in which he describes the so-called “just colonial wars” waged against colonised peoples when they dare oppose or present themselves as an obstacle to modernity.[vi] Or perhaps Maldonado-Torres’ depiction of the “coloniality of being” in which, drawing from Fanon, he shows how racism functions to naturalize the non-ethics of war, creating a situation in which during supposedly peaceful times, war-like actions are carried out against colonized peoples, those wretched of the earth, in defense of the colonial project of modernity.[vii] Indeed, at a time when peace agreements between the government and the FARC are just being implemented in Colombia, the military actions of Nobel Peace Laureate President Santos against his own citizens caused outrage. His denials of the excessive use of force[viii] in the face of evidence contained in countless videos caused further indignation.

The corporate media also played its part in upholding the discourse and agenda of the neoliberal establishment. While channels such as RCN and Caracol, Colombia’s main TV news stations dedicated endless segments to ongoing opposition protests in neighboring Venezuela, they barely reported on the strikes in Buenaventura during the first few days. While opposition in Venezuela were described as peaceful protestors, resisting state oppression, and fighting for their rights, strikers in Buenaventura were “vandals” and “looters.” While the Venezuelan state was critiqued for its use of force, there was little mention of the violent repression exercised by the Colombian ESMAD, police and military in Buenaventura. Only after the people themselves released countless video evidence of attacks by the security forces did the media begin to report on the reality. Yet for some media outlets the focus remained fixed on the loss of profits the strike was causing for the port and the country. As has often been asserted by politicians and media alike, Afro-descendant and indigenous strikers were presented as an obstacle to development and progress.

“Colombia’s main TV news stations dedicated endless segments to ongoing opposition protests in neighboring Venezuela, they barely reported on the strikes in Buenaventura during the first few days.”

Yet, in the face of such opposition, violence and repression, the people of Buenaventura stood firm and remained committed to the strike throughout the 22 days. Defying state imposed curfews and bans on marching, they took to the streets and demanded their rights. This is not the first time such an historic and unique public protest has taken place in the city. In June 2016, in the context of the National Agrarian Summit strikes, a fleet of over 100 fishing boats took the waters surrounding the port for an entire day blocking the entrance of cargo ships into the port terminal amid chants and calls for human rights, territorial rights and justice.

Indeed, this historic action was just the latest in a long history of activism by Afro-descendant and indigenous communities. As with previous actions, this was a participatory and people-centered human rights process, which from the beginning sought to involve the community in the mobilization and decision-making processes. Dialogues between the Civic Strike Committee and the Government delegation were transmitted live on local television and streamed on the internet, the public was invited to meetings and a general assembly was held to discuss the dialogues. The strike involved 117 social organizations, from cargo boat operators, to taxi drivers, the association of business people, to the association of evangelical churches, women’s groups, young people’s and student groups and national and local organizations dedicated to the defense of the ethno-territorial rights of Afro-descendant and indigenous communities.

A Special Heritage Fund for Buenaventura

Early on in the dialogues the government asserted it would not declare a state of emergency as demanded by the strikers. Instead it called on the Civic Strike Committee to come up with alternative proposals in relation to the main issues presented in the original demand. After many days and nights of negations the government accepted an alternative demand to create an exclusive fund to invest in Buenaventura. The agreement, which was signed on the morning of Tuesday 6th May by representatives of the government, the civic committee and guarantors including the representative of the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Colombia, included commitments to:

* Create an integrated ten-year development plan for Buenaventura, financed by a special autonomous fund with resources considered as the “heritage” of the people in Buenaventura and which includes certain institutional reforms and effective community participation;

* Adopt programs and projects to ensure the full enjoyment of social, economic and cultural rights for the people of Buenaventura including rights to health, water and sanitation for the entire city, access to quality and culturally relevant education, rejuvenation of ancestral livelihood practices and adequate housing in rural and urban areas;

* The heritage fund will initially be funded by 50% of the taxes from the businesses and companies that profit from activities related to the port, plus US $76 million dollars that the government will raise from credits with international banks;

* These initial funds will address immediate needs in the city including the construction of a hospital complex, the first phase of a master plan for urban sanitation and rural aqueducts, and an intensive care unit, among others.

* The development plan and projects will be presented to congress in an urgent legal bill on 20th July 2017[ix].

Importantly one of the conditions of the proposal was that the funds would be administered by a board of directors in which not only the government, but also the leaders of the strike will participate, with international monitoring from bodies such as the United Nations. The government also agreed to carry out proper investigations and penalization for the abuses and human rights violations committed by state forces, guaranties for those who has been criminalized and assurance of security and protection for the many leaders that guided the 22 days of peaceful, organized and successful struggle.

Buenaventura Will Accept No More Empty Promises

For the Afro-descendant communities of Buenaventura, and around the country, this is not the first time that agreements for resource allocation and guarantees of rights have been made with the national government. Since their ancestors fought for their emancipation from slavery, activists can point to a long history of broken promises. One of the most important achievements in the history of Afro-descendant struggle in Colombia was the adoption of Law 70 in 1993 which guarantees collective territorial rights for black communities. Yet while many thousands of hectors of lands have been given collective titles, communities still face ongoing battles against transnational corporations and the state to protect the environment and natural resources of their territories.

In the framework of Colombia’s “Victims Law” of 2011, Decree law 4635 of 2011 created processes for collective reparations for Afro-descendant communities affected by the armed conflict, but so far only one claim for collective reparations has been completed and it has not yet been implemented. Even in the recent peace process indigenous and Afrodescendant communities had to fight to be recognized and included as collective victims of the armed conflict. They submitted a 20 page document safeguarding ethnic and territorial rights in the post-conflict era, but this “ethnic chapter” was reduced to just 3½ pages that were only included in the now more than 300 page peace agreement, in the last minutes of negotiations and due to huge pressure from activists.

The very strike held this month in Buenaventura was a follow-up after agreements had not been implemented from a previous strike in February 2014. The 2014 strike resulted in the creation of a fund Todos Somos Pazcífico (A play on the phrases “we are all peaceful” and “we are all from the Pacific”) which allocated US $400 million for infrastructure projects in four cities across the region, but has faced serious delays and political obstacles.

“So far only one claim for collective reparations has been completed and it has not yet been implemented.”

The attitude of the government ministers and delegations throughout the dialogues demonstrated a lack of political will to meet the demands of the strikers, and the use of force clearly showed that their loyalties lie, not with the people, but with private profit. Thus, while the signing of the agreement was a cause for celebration, as people were able to return to work, to move freely through the city, to sleep at night without fear of tear gas attacks, Buenaventura entered this post-strike era with its eyes wide open. When signing the agreement, in front of thousands of spectators watching online and on local television, the Civic Strike Committee members were clear about this. The strike had not ended, it was merely suspended on the condition that the government meets its commitments. If the agreement is not honored by August 2017, the community of Buenaventura will take to the streets again.

But whatever happens with the implementation of the agreement, one thing is for sure. Twenty-two days of collective action and community education through direct participation in the strike has created a new level of consciousness and resistance among the population of Buenaventura. The achievements of the strike may well be material, but they are also symbolic and ideological. The main chant of the strike “el pueblo no se rinde carajo” (the people won’t give up), first emerged during the “Mobilization of Black Women in Defense of Territory and Life,” members of PCN who in November 2014, marched to Bogota to demand the removal of mining equipment from their river in Northern Cauca. To hear hundreds of thousands of people of all ages and backgrounds in Buenaventura and across the country chant these same words was incredibly powerful and shows the reach and significance of the strike.

The protests in Buenaventura reminded the country and the world of the urgent situation in the city. The fact that people, described by the city’s Mayor after the first day of the strike as rebuscadores (people who live day to day, surviving on informal work) were able to hold out for 22 days is both historic and heroic. Buenaventura showed the world that it would fight for its dignity and would no longer allow the state to violate its rights. It showed the world that its people had had enough. As Strike Committee member Victor Vidal declared before signing the agreement “we have achieved agreements that will leave some important actions for Buenaventura in terms of management, projects and resources. But this is not their main significance, their main significance is that the people of Buenaventura have shown the world what we are, we are great, important and capable people.”

“The strike had not ended, it was merely suspended on the condition that the government meets its commitments.”

Solidarity and political pressure both from national and international colleagues and friends of the Afro-descendant movement in Colombia was also fundamental in this strike. While mainstream media largely ignored the situation, social media was abuzz with articles, videos, testimonies and tweets that were shared internationally. Colleagues and friends of movement from the Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) and the Afro-Colombian Solidarity Network (ACSN), The Group of Academics in Defense of the Afro-Colombian Pacific (GAIDEPAC), the Institute of the Black World (IBW 21), the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) and many others mobilized support, writing petitions, releasing statements and calling on congress people to put pressure on the Colombian State. Letters of solidarity and calls to the Colombian president from unions and activist groups were sent from the US and the UK and protests were held outside embassies.

Afro-descendant activists all over Colombia held marches, rallies and protests in support of the strike. Brothers and sisters in the Chocó Department who also held a an 18 day civic strike and who celebrated the signing of an agreement on the 27th May continued to show solidarity and support for the ongoing strike in Buenaventura. In Cali a group of black women, many who had taken part in the march to Bogota in 2014 entered the offices of the regional Ombudsman and declared permanent assembly until the office would give an adequate response to the human rights violations in Buenaventura.

This was indeed a collective process and a struggle that will not only affect the people of Buenaventura but the Afro-descendant and indigenous movements throughout the country. There is no doubt that this historic strike will be a source of inspiration and important learning for social movements struggling against the harsh impacts of neoliberal policies around the world, demonstrating how grass roots collective action and community-based education can achieve change in the face of powerful oppression. As the strikers of Buenaventura chanted as they marched through the streets of their territory, “pueblo unido, jamás será vencido” “A united people will never be defeated!”

This report was prepared by Esther Ojulari, Human rights consultant and researcher, Member Black Alliance for Peace (BAP), a People(s)-Centered Human Rights Project Against War, Repression and Imperialism. Contact BAP at Blackallianceforpeace.com


NOTES:


[i] Baraka, A. (2013). “People-centered” human rights as a framework for social transformation. Retrieved from http://www.ajamubaraka.com/peoplecentered-human-rights-as-a-framework-for-social-transformation/

[ii] Figures reported by the Afro-Colombian Congressional Bench in “Latentes problemas en el pacífico colombiano” (24 Mayo, 2017) available at: http://www.reporterosasociados.com.co/2017/05/latentes-problemas-en-el-pacifico-colombiano/

[iii] https://90minutos.co/paro-civico-buenaventura-perdidas-millonarias-17-05-2017/

[iv] http://caracol.com.co/radio/2017/05/31/economia/1496182171_026535.html

[v] https://colombiaplural.com/la-respuesta-militar-del-gobierno-buenaventura-300-heridos-10-arma-fuego/

[vi] Dussel, E. (2000). Europa, modernidad y eurocentrismo. In E. Lander (Ed.), La colonialidad del saber: eurocentrismo y ciencias sociales. Perspectivas Latinoamericanas. Buenos Aires: CLACSO, Consejo Latinoamericano de Ciencias Sociales.

[vii] Maldonado-Torres, N (2007) 'On the Coloniality of Being', Cultural Studies, 21:2, 240 - 270

[viii] http://caracol.com.co/m/radio/2017/06/06/politica/1496784157_890962.html

[ix] Singed agreement available at: http://www.mininterior.gov.co/sites/default/files/noticias/2017-06-06_08-48.pdf

https://blackagendareport.com/victory_buenaventura_colombia_strike

FARC-EP rejects attack on Andino Shopping Mall

This past Saturday 17th of June, a bomb was set in the Andino shopping mall in Bogotá, Colombia, leaving 3 dead and 9 injured. The following is the Communiqué of the FARC-EP regarding this tragic event.

Declaration:

The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia - People's Army (FARC-EP) deeply lament and reject the attack at the Andino Shopping Mall in the city of Bogotá, which killed and wounded innocent people.

We firmly condemn this event and demand the Colombian State to develop a thorough investigation to achieve prompt and full justice to this painful tragedy that brings grief on our people. We send our voice of support to the families of the victims, and to the whole country not to give up in the construction of peace.

The practical effect of this premeditated action can only benefit those who are interested in hampering the search for peace and reconciliation between the Colombian people who have already suffered too much and who wish not to repeat these sad episodes of our history.

To Colombia and the world we say that the FARC-EP will persist in the construction of a country in peace. To the enemies of peace we tell them that we will not give up in the search for a Colombia in which all of those who hope to have reconciled country can all coexist in peace and with social justice. Long live peace and reconciliation among Colombians.

Secretariat of the Central High Command of the FARC EP

http://farc-epeace.org/communiques/farc-ep/item/2461-farc-ep-rejects-attack-on-andino-shopping-mall.html

I feel like a witness to a suicide.

I feel like a witness to a suicide.

No shit...