In this article I will focus on a rough look, on "ASÍ VA LA PAZ", taking this name of the Comptroller General of the Republic of Colombia, in an event held on November 20, 2024, within the framework of the 8th anniversary of the signing of the Peace Agreement between the Government of Colombia and the FARC-EP.

Photo 1. Lucía Vásquez Celis with leader at the event "ASÍ VA LA PAZ"

REMEMBERING THE VICISSITUDES OF THE PEACE AGREEMENT

While a large sector of the population celebrated the Peace Agreement with tears, another broad sector rejected it and expressed their interest in "tearing it to shreds." This disagreement between sectors of Colombia reached a climax in the plebiscite held on October 2, 2023 in which citizens expressed their approval or rejection of the agreement.

Unexpectedly, the plebiscite, which in my case was a "cure of fright", was a victory for the "No" vote with 50.2% of the votes, against 49.7% for the "Yes", which forced the government to "renegotiate" the agreement taking into account the objections of the opponents and created uncertainty about the legal application of the agreement. After a period of negotiation with the promoters of the "No", the government and the FARC-EP agreed on a new text for the peace agreement which was signed on November 24, 2023 at the Colón Theater in Bogotá. The new agreement was ratified by Colombia's Senate and House of Representatives on November 29 and 30. (Plebiscite on the 2016 Colombian peace agreement - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

CONTENTS OF THE FINAL AGREEMENT FOR THE TERMINATION OF THE CONFLICT.

The Final Agreement for the Construction of a Stable and Lasting Peace consists of six (6) points:

Point 1. Towards a New Colombian Countryside: Comprehensive Rural Reform

Point 2. Political Participation: Democratic Opening to Build Peace

Point 3. End of the Conflict

Point 4. Solution to the Problem of Illicit Drugs

Point 5. Agreement on Victims of the Conflict

Point 6. Implementation, Verification and Endorsement

MALICIOUS ACTS DESPITE THE PEACE AGREEMENT

Photo 2. Tribute to the memory of the social leaders and ex-combatants killed since the signing of the Peace Agreement in February 2024. © Colprensa - Mariano Vimos

The signatories and social leaders continue to be at risk. From the signing of the Agreement until August 2024, 1,164 homicides of leaders have been registered, 114 in 2024. From 2017 to March 2024, there have been 435 homicides of returnees. 

In the "room of the butterflies", one of the spaces of the “Casa de la Paz” or “Casa de la Trocha”, a cultural undertaking of signatories of the Agreement, 435 butterflies are suspended as if ready to fly so as not to leave, each of which bears the name of one of the murdered signatories, their names will not be forgotten say their comrades.

According to data from the Ombudsman's Office, between 2022 and 2023, the forced recruitment of children and adolescents by illegal groups increased by 552% and massacres, extortion, and confinements have increased. Mass displacement events increased by 6.9%, but the number of people affected by them decreased by 6.1%, showing that the number of people per displacement is lower, partly as a strategy of armed groups. As for confinement, events increased by 62.8% and people affected by them by 6.2%. Between January and July 2024, 57 events have occurred, with 96,977 people affected; that is, with just seven months in a row, the effects of 2023 are already exceeded by 46.3%.

In the PDET municipalities, that is, with the Development Program with a Territorial Approach established in the context of the implementation of the Agreement, the problems of insecurity have increased with the increase in kidnappings, extortion, and murders of peace signatories. Although the national homicide rate is 14 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2024, PDET municipalities register significantly higher rates, reaching 22.7 in the same period. Meanwhile, extortion, which reached a record 11,078 cases in 2023, illustrates how territorial control by illegal armed actors continues to be a latent threat to communities. In addition, forced displacement and confinements continue to affect thousands of people, exacerbating humanitarian crises in regions such as Chocó and Antioquia. (Fundación Ideas para la Paz 2024)

President Gustavo Petro, at the public event commemorating the eight years of the peace agreement with the FARC, reiterated that the agreement is binding for the three branches of power and that it is therefore urgent to work together in the implementation of it and added that "the political process did not allow the application of the agreement with sufficient force,  the realization of the peace process in reality and that is why there are issues that are far from being fulfilled";  "We have a global figure of 300 thousand hectares delivered to peasants, of 3 million that were agreed (...). Compared to the previous government, the difference is 300,000 to 4,000.

Despite how elusive Peace seemed, as a woman, an elderly person and a citizen of Colombia, I still maintain as a certainty that tragedy, violence and death cannot forever be the fate of our history. Life, respect and reciprocity between people and nature will be a possible future that, although it takes time, can be woven from differences because in addition to dreaming we declare ourselves builders of acts of Peace and Life.

In the next article I will address the item of achievements and challenges in the implementation of the Peace Agreement and from the perspective of peace as a fundamental right and reason for life.