Welcome to LAWG’s Colombia News Brief, a compilation of the last week’s top articles and reports on issues of peace, justice, human rights, and more in Colombia.
NOTE: The Colombia News Brief will be on hiatus during the holiday season. We will resume the weekly briefs in mid-to-late January.
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The Politics of Peace
• Colombia’s Congress Approves Peace Accord With FARC
Nicholas Casey, The New York Times, 30 November 2016
“Colombia’s Congress approved a revised peace accord with the country’s largest rebel group on Wednesday night, a vote that was most likely the final hurdle in ratifying the troubled agreement whose earlier version had been rejected in a referendum this fall.”
• Colombia’s peace deal has taken effect, but the country remains divided
The Economist, 10 December 2016
“Mr Santos hoped to close the book for good on Colombia’s 52 years of strife. Mercifully, the fighting chapter now seems to be over. The denouement, however, may still prove long and contentious.”
• La Corte Constitucional da luz verde al fast-track sin mayores condiciones
Juan Esteban Lewin, La Silla Vacía, 13 de diciembre de 2016
“[La corte] decidió que es constitucional que las leyes y reformas constitucionales necesarias para implementar el acuerdo con las Farc se tramiten por una vía rápida en el Congreso, conocida como fast-track, y las facultades extraordinarias para que el Presidente saque decretos con fuerza de ley para lo mismo. Pero también dijo que el Congreso debe volver a refrendar, verificando que el proceso de refrendación haya cumplido unos requisitos que es fácil decir que sí cumplió.”
• Colombian court gives big boost to peace deal with FARC rebels
Nick Miroff, The Washington Post, 13 December 2016
“Colombia’s peace deal with leftist rebels cleared a critical hurdle Tuesday as the country’s highest court ruled in favor of the government’s “fast-track” plan to quickly implement the agreement… [T]he streamlined approach reduces the number of legislative sessions and allows for up-or-down votes on the key elements of the accord. It effectively prevents lawmakers from making changes to the deal signed by the government and the rebels Nov. 24.”
• Cinco puntos clave de la sentencia del Fast Track
Semana, 14 de diciembre de 2016
“(1) La Corte dijo que el fast track es especial, excepcional y transitorio para lograr un fin imperioso como la paz… (2) La refrendación popular exige que la participación ciudadana sea directa… (3) El Congreso de la República debe constatar si hubo o no refrendación popular… (4) La Corte Constitucional volverá a evaluar si se presentó una refrendación popular… (5) La Corte dijo que el fast track no suprime los controles que preservan el equilibrio de poderes.”
• Colombia, en modo ‘fast track’
Semana, 15 de diciembre de 2016
“Este jueves, Colombia pareció amanecer en un nuevo estado de excepción, hasta ahora no contemplado en la Constitución. Se podría denominar ‘Estado Fast Track’ y sus primeras consecuencias están repercutiendo en el Congreso de la República, donde, en las últimas horas, se han presenciado situaciones jamás vistas, todas ellas a una velocidad vertiginosa. Tanto que lo que sucede en el capitolio en la mañana, al medio día es periódico de ayer.”
• ¿Cómo entender la ley de amnistía?
El Espectador, 14 de diciembre de 2016
“Darle vida legal a lo pactado con la guerrilla en La Habana es un reto que requerirá de la voluntad de senadores y representantes, y de su responsabilidad a la hora de informar qué es y qué no es cierto de lo que se ha dicho en torno a la ley de amnistía radicada en el Congreso.”
• Amnistía no será para quienes cometieron crímenes de guerra: Gobierno
El Tiempo, 15 de diciembre de 2016
“El ministro del Interior, Juan Fernando Cristo, explicó este jueves que el proyecto de ley de amnistía que se tramitará en el Congreso ‘en ningún caso’ cobijará a quienes estén señalados por delitos atroces. De acuerdo con el funcionario, este beneficio se aplicará solamente para quienes están ‘investigados o condenados solo por el delito de rebelión y los conexos tradicionales’.”
• Colombia’s opposition renews call for ‘civil resistance’ against peace process
Stephen Gill, Colombia Reports, 23 November 2016
“Jose Obdulio Gaviria, a cousin of slain drug lord Pablo Escobar and now a senator for Uribe’s Democratic Center party, said his party will ‘ignore’ the new agreement if it is not endorsed by a referendum, and explained that actions of ‘civil resistance’ will be made by that political sector which will include mobilizations, ‘denunciations in the media and ‘disobedience’ in areas where possible.’”
• Uribe maintains opposition to Colombia peace despite papal mediation
Stephen Gill, Colombia Reports, 16 Decedmber 2016
“The Pope hoped to mediate between the former allies and now bitter rivals in a bid to advance the implementation of the peace accord with the FARC rebels which Uribe continues to oppose. ‘You can not impose everything, your Holiness,’ Uribe said he had told the Pope claiming that the government needs to ‘loosen up’ the implementation of the deal.”
• Securing the Peace in Colombia
José R. Cárdenas, Foreign Affairs, 16 December 2016
“But for all of Santos’s tenacity and adroitness in responding to the October defeat, serious questions remain about the longer-term prospects for peace in Colombia. Burdened as the process is by the lack of political consensus, an untrustworthy partner, and a politically weak, lame-duck president, it may be that getting to this point will turn out to have been the easiest part of the entire effort.”
• Colombia Needs Help to Make Peace Last
Bernard Aronson, The New York Times, 13 December 2016
“…As in the past, the United States should help Colombia reach that goal with continuing bipartisan support. Passage of President Obama’s request for $450 million in fiscal 2017 for an economic assistance program called Paz (Peace) Colombia would send the hemisphere, where support for Colombia’s peace process is universal, an encouraging signal about American staying power.”
• US congressmen urge action to stop killing of Colombia community leaders
Jack Norman, Colombia Reports, 15 December 2016
“In a letter to Kerry, Representative Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) and three dozen other Democratic Congressmen urged the Secretary of State to send Ambassador Kevin Whitaker to the most affected areas in Colombia, among other actions, including providing ‘protection so that [social leaders} may continue exercising their invaluable leadership and work.'”
• Republicans threaten to block US aid for Colombia peace process
Jack Norman, Colombia Reports, 11 December 2016
“In a letter to the president dated Thursday, Republican Senators Marco Rubio (Florida) and Lindsey Graham (South Carolina) wrote that they believe the Colombian government asked Obama to release “Simon Trinidad,” who is serving a 60-year sentence at a maximum security prison for conspiracy… ‘We ask you to reaffirm that the US will not offer or agree to the transfer or release of Simon Trinidad to Colombia or anywhere else,’ the senators wrote Obama. ‘If such a transfer were to take place, US funding for the implementation of the peace accord between the government of Colombia and the FARC will be put in jeopardy.’”
• Fondo fiduciario, nuevo apoyo de la Unión Europea a la paz de Colombia
Juana García Duque y Juan David Martínez, El Tiempo, 12 de diciembre de 2016
“Dentro del debate de la financiación para el posconflicto, hay grandes expectativas sobre los recursos internacionales. Aunque los recursos serán limitados, los cooperantes ya iniciaron la creación de fondos para apoyar el posconflicto, como el de la Unión Europea (UE) constituido este lunes en Bruselas. La presencia de los mismos plantea retos al Gobierno colombiano, dada la pluralidad de estos y la forma como se trasladarán a las zonas más necesitadas.”
• Santos receives Nobel prize as “tribute to the Colombian people”
Andy East, The City Paper, 10 December 2016
“‘I receive this award in name of the 8 million victims, which is the number of victims accumulated during 50 years of war,” Santos said at the ceremony. “Just six years ago, Colombians wouldn’t have dared to imagine the end of a war that we have suffered for half a century… Peace seemed like an impossible dream since very few remember what it was like to live in a country in peace.’”
• Colombia’s Santos Accepts Nobel, Urges Shift in Drug War
Karl Ritter, ABC News, 10 December 2016
“The president also used the Nobel podium to reiterate his call to ‘rethink’ the war on drugs, ‘where Colombia has been the country that has paid the highest cost in deaths and sacrifices.’ Santos has argued that the decades-old U.S.-promoted war on drugs has produced enormous violence and environmental damage in nations that supply cocaine, and needs to be supplanted by a global focus on easing laws prohibiting consumption of illegal narcotics.”
• Colombia’s President Hopes Nobel Prize Momentum Pushes Peace Deal to Finish Line
Kejal Vyas, The Wall Street Journal, 10 December 2016
“Mr. Santos said the award has given him momentum to end the Western Hemisphere’s last major conflict, an effort he called ‘a ray of hope’ for other war-torn countries in the world. ‘I must confess to you that this news came as if it were a gift from heaven,’ he said. ‘At a time when our ship felt adrift, the Nobel Prize was the tailwind that helped us to reach our destination.’”
• Ecos de un discurso en el Nobel de Paz
Jairo Gómez, Semana, 13 de diciembre de 2016
“No se trata de quitarle importancia al acuerdo con las FARC, se trata de poner los pies sobre la tierra y pisar en firme, no sobre arena movediza. Es conveniente que la comunidad internacional sepa que la actual situación del país es delicada y que no estamos en el pórtico de la paz con el Ejército de Liberación Nacional; que el auge del paramilitarismo hoy no es una exageración de organizaciones sociales, defensores de Derechos Humanos y partidos de izquierda que ven a diario cómo sus dirigentes son asesinados.”
• How Santos tarnished his peace prize
Daniel Wilkinson, Financial Times, 15 December 2016
“Many principled people have justified Santos’s willingness to sacrifice victims’ access to justice as a necessary price to pay to secure a peace deal with the Farc. But the final and arguably most egregious sacrifice was neither sought, nor approved, by Farc negotiators. It was, rather, a stunning capitulation to military commanders seeking impunity for atrocities committed by their troops—and taking advantage of the peace process to obtain it.”
The FARC and the Peace Process
• Colombia’s D-Day: FARC’s 180-day demobilization and disarmament process begins
Adriaan Alsema, Colombia Reports, 1 December 2016
“Following congressional approval of a peace deal with Marxist FARC rebels , the 180-day demobilization and disarmament process of Colombia’s oldest and largest guerrilla group begins Thursday.”
The ELN
Human Rights and Land Rights Issues
*The Colombia News Brief is a selection of relevant news articles, all of which do not necessarily reflect the viewpoint of the Latin America Working Group.
