Editorial: Time for Peace in Colombia
On Sunday October 2 will be Colombians who decide if negotiated by both parties is sufficient
El presidente de Colombia Juan Manuel Santos y el comandande de las FARC "Timochenko" en Cartagena. LUIS ACOSTA/AFP/Getty Images Crédito: LUIS ACOSTA/AFP | Getty Image
Colombia is going through a historic moment. On Monday, the final peace accord was signed between the government of President Juan Manuel Santos and the Farc guerrilla. This coming Sunday, October 2, the Colombian people will decide if the conditions negotiated by both sides are sufficient to put an end to 52 years of civil war.
This country has suffered enough during this decades-long fratricidal conflict: homicides, killings, kidnappings, disappearances, and all kinds of brutality. Colombia’s Centro Nacional de Memoria Histórica (National Center for Historical Memory) estimated that, between 1958 and 2012, an approximate 220,000 people died. The figure indicated that up to 6 million Colombians directly endured the effects of this extensive confrontation.
Much suffering, pain and rancor built up during that time. Eventually, if we want to reach long-lasting peace, those sentiments must be understood and overcome as well as we can, considering that loved ones were taken away violently. That is the great challenge Colombians face.
The agreement between Santos’ government and the Farc covers six points: rural reform, political participation, end of conflict, solutions to the illegal drug problem, transitional justice for victims, and implementation, verification and reparation. The guerrilla has approved the conditions. Now the Colombian people will have their say.
The Yes or No referendum currently dominates the attention of a divided society. On the one hand, people are tired of war. Those betting on the opportunity they are being given today are doing so in the hope that the peace they have longed for can be achieved. On the other, some believe that the government is granting too much – politically speaking – to the guerrilla and that the perpetrators of the crimes are not getting the punishment they deserve.
There is reason to distrust; disillusionment has been a part of this long war. However, the Farc’s tacit recognition that the armed struggle option is exhausted and the government’s desire for peace that drove us to this juncture are encouraging. It is now the time for Colombians to make a decision.
