Cogito Ergo Non Serviam

Colombia, FARC Agree Peace Treaty

The civil war in Colombia, which has began in 1964, seems to be at an end. After 220,000 dead, more than that disappeared and displaced, the government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia [FARC] have agreed on the text of a treaty in Havana ending the conflict. The ceasefire agreed in June will become permanent. The full text will be available online shortly, and the people of Colombia will vote on it in a referendum on October 2. There will be opposition to the deal, but it looks like it will pass. Fifty-two years is just too damned long for a country to be at odds with itself.

President Juan Manuel Santos was re-elected in 2014 promising a peace deal, and he has delivered. He said on TV, "Today I can say -- from the bottom of my heart -- that I have fulfilled the mandate that you gave me. Colombians: the decision is in your hands. Never before have our citizens had within their reach the key to their future."

FARC was equally pleased. "We have won the most beautiful of all battles" lead FARC negotiator Ivan Marquez. "The war with arms is over, now begins the debate of ideas."

While the agreement ends the war with FARC, the government's negotiations with the smaller National Liberation Army have faltered. This journal believes, however, that with FARC putting down its arms and entering into civil discourse, the NLA will have much of its oxygen cut off. Its supporters will pressure it to come to terms as they see FARC making advances.

One of the key elements of the deal is non-voting representation for FARC in the national legislature until 2018, and after that, it will have to win votes like a regular political party. Its 7,000 members will have to win the debate of ideas that Comrade Marquez mentioned.

Leading the opposition to the agreement will be former President of Colombia Alvaro Uribe. He has called for civil resistance. "Civil resistance is a constitutional form of opposition to this agreement of impunity with the FARC that creates new violence -- it is not sustainable because it is in clear violation of the International Criminal Court," the former president and current senator said.

He added "One of the issues we have to invoke against the plebiscite for citizens to vote no or abstain is that the agreement in Havana is open and disguised impunity. Open because the government accepted that drug trafficking is associated with a political offense, hence the world's largest cocaine cartel will not go to the jail, or be extradited."

FARC did, indeed, fund itself with drug money. The question is just how badly do those guys need to be punished? Would it be worth another year and 1,000 more innocent civilians dead to force them into a courtroom? Mr. Uribe clearly believes that FARC can be defeated on the battlefield and that anything short of outright surrender to the government is giving into terrorism. This journal would argue that after 50 years of combat, FARC still has its weapons and its men. The odds on beating them in the field are not good. For the good of all Colombians, one must let the rebels off the hook.

The problem for the rejectionists is that they have nothing positive to offer. The choice is between this deal, as bad as it may be, and no deal. Mr. Uribe speaks of renegotiation, but in truth, FARC would have no reason to continue the ceasefire once the people of Colombia have rejected the deal. Better a bad peace than a good war, or in this case, a bad war.

© Copyright 2016 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Ubuntu Linux.



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