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Colombia and FARC Resume Peace Talks
Colombia and FARC have resumed peace talks in Cuba, following the narrow defeat of the previous peace deal in a public referendum. The deal will have to be rewritten... and probably not in FARC's favor:
An amendment to the deal that does not include FARC transitioning to a political movement would be difficult for the leftist movement to stomach. Under the deal, FARC would have been given 10 congressional seats in government, which opponents say is unacceptable. The rebels, Colombia's armed forces and right-wing paramilitaries have all been implicated in crimes committed during the nearly five-decade war, which has claimed at least 220,000 lives and displaced some 8 million people. President Juan Manuel Santos, who won the Nobel Peace Prize earlier this month for his efforts, has extended a ceasefire until the end of the year and vowed to reach a new peace deal as soon as possible.
Colombian President Receives Nobel Peace Prize for Rejected Accord with FARC
The World Socialist Web Site reports
[October 7], Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his role in the four years of negotiations to reach a peace accord with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrillas. The announcement came five days after Colombians narrowly rejected the accord in a referendum marked by widespread abstention.
As the second Colombian to receive a Nobel prize--after the renowned novelist Gabriel Garcia Marquez received the prize for literature in 1982--Santos accepted it "in the name of all Colombians", He also announced on Sunday that the $930,000 reward will be "donated for the reparation of the victims" of the civil war.
This attempt to exploit the prize to promote national unity fell flat, however, in the face of the deep and bitter divisions revealed by the unexpected rejection of the accord in a referendum that saw only a 37 percent turnout and a margin of victory for the "no" camp of just 60,000 votes out of the 13 million ballots cast.
The selection of Santos for the Nobel Peace Prize only underscores the dubious character of this distinction, which has been bestowed on the likes of Barack Obama in the midst of military escalation in Afghanistan and drone assassinations, [as well as] figures ranging from the US war criminal Henry Kissinger to the right-wing Israeli leader and former terrorist Menachem Begin.
As is often the case, the selection of Santos for the prize was driven by definite political and economic interests. The bourgeoisie internationally has a serious stake in the Colombian accord, which it hopes will end the armed conflict, opening up the country to far more intensive penetration by transnational capital. At the same time, it would serve to turn the FARC, the last major guerrilla movement, into a new bourgeois party tasked with containing and diverting the struggles of the Colombian working class.
[...] The 2016 Nobel Peace Prize celebrates this political figure and a "peace accord" that grants virtual impunity for war crimes carried out by the government, the paramilitaries, and the FARC.
Previous: FARC Peace Deal Rejected by Colombians
(Score: 2) by RamiK on Monday October 24 2016, @04:42PM
The 10 congressional seats (out of 102 total) were a compromise. In the 37% turn-out vote, half were definitely pro-FARC while the other half had a few FARC extremists that don't want to sign a peace treaty without going into early elections.
The coalition party wanted to de-revolutionize PARC by giving them just enough power to look bad to voters but not enough to do anything.
Now, the cease-fire will drag-on to the end-of-term in which those 10 seats will be taken off the table leaving a treaty that looks worse for FARC, but in reality, leaves them with more credibility (and seats) in the next term.
In fact, all it would take is a few leaks implicating the government in war-crimes too for FARC to suddenly look reasonable.
compiling...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 24 2016, @06:31PM
de-revolutionize PARC
Xerox: better copiers, plz!
PARC: This is a computer that one person uses, we call it a personal computer. When you type on it, what you see is what you get. This way of working, we call a graphical user interface. The printer is like a copier, but with a laser. We connect these together with what we call a local area network.
Xerox: better copiers, plz!
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday October 24 2016, @08:59PM
In the 37% turn-out vote, half were definitely pro-FARC while the other half had a few FARC extremists that don't want to sign a peace treaty without going into early elections.
Pro-peace is not pro-FARC.
(Score: 2) by RamiK on Monday October 24 2016, @10:19PM
I'm not buying people are passionate enough about peace to leave bed, hand over the other cheek and vote to give congressional seats and live next to people they consider enemies and terrorists.
compiling...
(Score: 3, Interesting) by PartTimeZombie on Monday October 24 2016, @10:42PM
I'm not buying people are passionate enough about peace to leave bed, hand over the other cheek...
The main opposition to peace in Colombia is the right, the ruling party, and its former president, Álvaro Uribe who has been leading the calls to reject the peace plan.
He has serious ties to right wing paramilitary groups who are also accused of human rights abuses.
This is his Wikipedia page. [wikipedia.org] Note the strong ties to the US, including support for the "War on Terror".
In a Latin American context this usually means CIA money somewhere, which he will not want to come out so better (for him) to continue fighting.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 25 2016, @07:46PM
Considering "we hate the US" has often been expressed by people blowing themselves up, I guess a pro-peace vote to express the same sentiment is plausible.