Peace Mail August 27 – September 02, 2019
Weekly Update on the implementation of the Peace Accord. The final peace accord contains a three-pronged approach to ensuring fulfillment of commitments included in the text: the Commission for Monitoring, Promotion, and Verification of the Implementation of the Peace Accord (CSIVI), the National Reincorporation Council (CNR) and the GOC-FARC-UN tripartite Monitoring and Verification Mechanism (MM&V).
Download Peace Mail / August 27 – September 02 2019
Colombian dissident rebel leader issued new call to arms three years after peace deal. Former commanders Ivan Marquez and Jesus Santrich appeared surrounded by armed fighters in a 32-minute YouTube video to launch renewed hostilities here against the government, saying the 2016 peace accords have been betrayed. The announcement was condemned by the government, the United Nations and the FARC political party, whose leadership said the majority of ex-rebels remain committed to peace despite “difficulties and dangers. Some 13,000 FARC members, including 7,000 combatants, demobilized under the accord, many joining reintegration efforts or returning home to their families.The government will seek arrest warrants for the people in the video, high peace commissioner Miguel Ceballos said. The military capacity of the group is limited and its members are likely in neighboring Venezuela, Ceballos said1.
Colombia’s President Ivan Duque said the peace process will continue and vowed to fiercely persecute FARC commanders who announced their rearmament...”Let there be no confusion. Our government will continue its peace with legality policy. We maintain our commitment with those [FARC members] who genuinely are making progress in their reintegration progress the way we have and has already produced tangible results” Duque additionally said that he had talked to both the FARC and the war crimes tribunal to immediately expel the approximately 20 FARC members who appear in the video from the peace process. The Special Jurisdiction of Peace had already announced it had begun the procedure to expel the former FARC members2.
The announcement of former FARC leader “Ivan Marquez” failed to spark a visible desertion from former guerrillas taking part in Colombia’s peace process. From reintegration sites throughout Colombia, FARC members took to social media to affirm that they remain “steadfast with peace,” often “demanding state compliance of the agreements.” FARC members taking part in the reintegration program showed little interest in rearming, according to Semana3, which talked to former guerrillas at a number of reintegration sites. To secure the government remains committed to the former FARC guerrillas’ reintegration process and after reported pressure from the international community, post-conflict adviser Emilio Archila embarked on a tour to personally confirm demobilized rebels the government will comply4.
Karina Garcia, a Liberal Party candidate in the municipality of Suarez in Cauca department, was killed along with five other people in an attack likely perpetrated by dissidents from the demobilized FARC guerrilla group. The killing was the first of a candidate for October local and regional elections and came days after some former members of the rebel group said they were rearming. The area contains important drug production and trafficking routes, and dissidents - who reject the 2016 peace accord between the government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) - are known to operate there5.
Nine dissidents formerly of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), including a commander, were killed in a bombing raid in southern Colombia, the first since former leaders of the group announced a new offensive last week. The bombing took place in the municipality of San Vicente del Caguan (Caqueta). Dissident forces are estimated to number more than 2,200. Many are thought to be based in Venezuela, where President Nicolas Maduro has said former rebels commanders were welcome6.
US President Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka arrived in Colombia for an informal introduction to the political agenda of President Ivan Duque. Ivanka was welcomed by Vice-President Marta Lucia Ramirez on Monday 02, who will be hosting most of the two-day agenda of the US president’s daughter in Colombia. The two will initially visit an event over economic empowerment of women in Bogota after which the US president’s daughter will visit the General Santander Police Academy to honor the cadets who were killed in a terrorist attack in January. Ramirez will take Trump to the Venezuelan border to learn about the migrants crisis that’s been unfolding for years and has increased tensions between the two neighboring countries7.