Peace Breaks out in Colombia After Five Decades of Violence

Chants of “Si se puedo” (“Yes we could”) echoed through the halls of the Colon Theater on November 23, as Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos and rebel leader Timochenko, signed a peace agreement aimed at ending the longest-running conflict in the Western Hemisphere. Timochenko is the current head of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, better known as FARC, a Marxist military group that was formed to resist the US backed Colombian government during the Cold War. According to a report by the Human Rights Watch, 20-30% of the FARC’s recruits are minors, most of whom were forcibly enlisted in the guerilla organization. The military operations carried out by the FARC have led them to be categorized as a terrorist organization by both the United States and the European Union. In total, the fifty-two year conflict between the FARC and the Colombian government has displaced millions of civilians and has claimed the lives of more than 260,000 people.

This agreement was a second attempt at peace after a similar plan had been narrowly rejected in a referendum held earlier this fall. Instead of seeking approval through referendum, the new deal, which is slightly more punitive than the original document, was sent to the Colombian Congress for ratification. Despite the opposition of the Democratic Center Party, the new agreement passed on November 30 thanks to the majority held by a coalition led by President Santos, the chief architect behind the deal. For his role in negotiating a peace, Santos was awarded the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize. In an op-ed published in The Wall Street Journal, he wrote, “From the outset, the peace process has been for, of, and by Colombians. This is what gives a democracy timeless strength, even if it can seem inefficient to outsiders.”

After the ratification of the accords, President Santos declared, “Tomorrow, a new era begins, an era of peace with this adversary we have had for 52 years.” However, the world has been blindsided throughout history by treaties initially believed to mark the beginning of peace that, in reality, only set the table for future destruction. Will this historic agreement allow Colombia to begin healing the wounds of war or will it be a broken promise that leads to a broken peace? The world can only wait and see.