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More than 95% demobilized from the FARC remain in the peace agreement

2022-01-13T00:52:15.043Z


The chief of verification of the UN in Colombia, Carlos Ruiz Massieu, spoke with CNN about the five years of the peace agreement and highlighted some of the advances and challenges facing peace in Colombia. 


Image of the Antonio Nariño Territorial Training Space in Icononzo, Tolima, where ex-combatants of the FARC guerrillas make their return to civilian life after the signing of the peace accords.

(Credit: RAUL ARBOLEDA / AFP / Getty Images).

(CNN Spanish) -

After more than five years of the signing of the peace agreement between the Colombian government and the now demobilized FARC guerrilla, 95% of the ex-guerrillas who demobilized continue to embrace the peace process, he told CNN Carlos Ruiz Massieu, special representative of the Secretary General of the United Nations and chief of verification of the UN in Colombia.

"The good news is that of the 13,000 or more than 13,000 fighters who laid down their weapons, more than 95 percent continue in the process," Ruiz Massieu said in an interview with CNN.

According to figures from the Government of Colombia from November 2021, 12,925 people are accredited in the reincorporation process.

The representative of the UN to verify the peace accords pointed out that although there have been important advances in these five years after the signing of the peace accords, there are still many challenges to make peace consolidate in Colombia, especially in security issues.

"It is important that security measures be advanced in those territories, that the lives of ex-guerrillas be protected, that the lives of the community's social leaders be protected and that progress continues," Ruiz Massieu told CNN.

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Colombia entered an electoral year in 2022 to renew Congress and elect a new president. These are second elections after the signing of the agreements. Ruiz Massieu said that the UN trusts that the State will take the necessary measures to guarantee a peaceful electoral process and that it creates conditions of security, especially with the demobilized guerrillas who participate in this electoral process.

"Specific measures must be taken to protect the Communes Party, which is the heir to the ex-guerrilla of the FARC, so that they can campaign, they can do politics and also because it is one also by virtue of the agreement, that there are 16 new seats for those places where the conflict was strongest, so that they have representation in Congress and in precisely those places, since security is an issue, "said the UN representative.

Violence continues despite peace accords with FARC

Despite the signing of the peace accords and the progress noted by Ruiz Massieu - such as the laying down of arms by former combatants, the fact that the former guerrilla has become a political party, and the institutions of justice "have been consolidated. "According to him, the country also faces serious security challenges.

According to Indepaz, an organization that monitors security in Colombia and has monitored the peace process, from the signing of the agreements in 2016 to November 2021, 1,270 social leaders have been assassinated, as well as 299 signatories of the agreements and 179 massacres. were registered between January 2020 and November 2021.

In the first days of 2022, a massacre was recorded in the country that left 23 dead in the department of Arauca, in eastern Colombia, after clashes between irregular armed groups.

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The clashes in Arauca would have started in Venezuela 1:40

However, the Indepaz report published in November 2021 indicates a resounding decrease in homicides from 81,190 deaths in the context of the conflict in 2002 to less than 700 after 2019. Likewise, the organization registered a "decrease of more than 95 % of indicators of forced disappearance, summary executions and false positives, kidnapping and torture ".

Ruiz Massieu said that, despite the efforts that have been made in terms of peace, there are still many challenges, such as the violence of illegal armed groups that continue to stalk the communities.

"One of the expectations of the peace agreement was precisely with the demobilization of the former FARC guerrilla, that the State would enter in a very solid way, both in the public force and in civilian institutions, social services to those territories," said the representative from the ONU.

"It has happened, but it has not happened at the level that allows security, services, development to reach those regions as expected. And then this has unfortunately been taken advantage of by the armed groups that still exist and that still to some extent they have put the communities in these areas in very vulnerable situations, "he added.

Finally, the UN representative said that he hopes that in Colombia "the conditions will open" for a peace agreement with the ELN guerrilla, with whom the government of President Iván Duque ended the dialogues that the previous government had begun.

"Hopefully conditions are given so that the doors are opened for dialogues, for negotiations with groups like the ELN, for example, to have a complete peace of everything in all of Colombia," the official said.

UNO Colombia FARC peace process

Source: cnnespanol

All news articles on 2022-01-13

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