A Historic Day for the Colombian Peace Process

Sunday, July 12th is without exaggeration a day of positive inflection in the dialogue and negotiation process which President Juan Manuel Santos advances with the FARC guerrillas since February 2012, when he began working in secret on the construction of an agenda and rules of the game (November of the same year) in the city of Havana, Cuba.

Both parties, the Colombian Government and the FARC have presented a set of judgments and definitions which provide fresh air to a process which was feeling overwhelmed by the collapse of public support and a growing pessimism on the possibilities of coming to a good end to this long confrontation of more than half a century, devastating Colombian society and leaving millions of victims and unresolved problems with historic roots in the enormous mess of rural inequity and exclusion combined with sustained violence as a mechanism of political action. Both points being central subjects to the process which the Government and the FARC work on to bring an end to the armed conflict and to begin to devise an agreement which brings us closer to a Colombia in peace.

The address by President Juan Manuel Santos has presented profound assessments: the current peace process has been advanced more than any other, one should fear war not peace, and the declaration that we are accelerating the work on the table to take the mutual steps to scale down hostilities and approach a bilateral cease fire, even before finishing the entire process.

The bilateral cease fire is an urgent matter, and to achieve it both parties, the Colombian Government and the FARC, have drawn a line of behavior which is realistic and viable. The plan entails accelerating the work in Havana and scaling down in Colombia. If both parties apply this “mantra” in this final phase of the dialogues and negotiations, we will witness positive results which will allow taking on the remaining topics and firming up the negotiation.

There still remains to be a global agreement regarding the victims. It is very likely we will have good news in the coming weeks of an agreement on reparation to the victims and then will come the very difficult point of justice which encompasses how all the implicated actors of grave crimes and war crimes — FARC, state, businessman and politicians — will assume their responsibilities and pay the corresponding sanctions.

An agreement mush be reached between the right to justice and the right to peace, that which society wants and needs.

If a global agreement is reached on the subject of victims, including the delicate and pertinent topic of justice, we will quickly progress towards settling on the bilateral cease fire.

Both parties, the Government and the FARC, have made an important decision to include the UN and UNASUR to the sub-commission of the military and guerrillas which will analyze how to come to a cease fire and end to hostilities. This important piece of news reflects the seriousness with which the Government and the FARC have taken on the very complex topic. They have already defined that the monitoring and verification of the fulfillment and processing of this bilateral cease fire to a conflict stretching across extended geographies, and among other illegal actors, will be able have the support of these very important institutions with experience in these matters.

Since absolute happiness does not exist, it is lamentable that President Juan Manuel Santos did not use a single line of his speech to exhort and raise the need for a public process with the ELN.

We hope to receive good news of this table, which continues to be missing so that Colombia can claim to be on the path to a global peace — which can not exist if there is no agreement with the ELN.

We are on the right path, the President said it today with complete clarity, one should fear war, but never peace.

Written by: Luis Eduardo Celis (@luchoceliscnai), Fundación Paz y Reconciliación. Translated by: Michael Soto (@misoca)