Colombia's FARC rebel group says it will become political party on Sept. 1

The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrilla group said Monday that it planned to reorganize as a political party effective Sept. 1.

Source: EFE

Colombian gov't blames FARC for delays in building disarmament camps

The delays in completing the 26 disarmament camps for the FARC are due to several "commanders not allowing progress to be made," Colombian High Commissioner for Peace Sergio Jaramillo said Monday.

Source: EFE

In boost for faltering process, Colombia's Santos wins Nobel Peace Prize

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos won the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for his efforts to end a 52-year-old war with Marxist rebels, a surprise choice and a show of support after Colombians rejected a peace accord last Sunday.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee said Santos had brought one of the longest civil wars in modern history significantly closer to a peaceful solution, but there was still a danger the peace process could collapse.

The award excluded FARC guerrilla leader Rodrigo Londono, better known by his nom de guerre Timochenko, who signed the peace accord with Santos in Cartagena on Sept. 26.

Santos has promised to revive the plan even though Colombians narrowly rejected it in a referendum on Sunday. Many voters believed it was too lenient on the FARC guerrillas.

"There is a real danger that the peace process will come to a halt and that civil war will flare up again. This makes it even more important that the parties, headed by President Santos and FARC guerrilla leader Rodrigo Londoño, continue to respect the ceasefire," the Norwegian Nobel Committee said.

"The fact that a majority of the voters said "No" to the peace accord does not necessarily mean that the peace process is dead," it said.

More than 220,000 people have died on the battlefield or in massacres during the struggle between leftist guerrillas, right-wing paramilitaries and government troops.

Millions have been displaced and many beg on the streets of the capital, while economic potential has been held up in the mostly rural nation.

The committee quoted Santos as saying the award would help further the peace process.

"He was overwhelmed. He was very grateful. He said it was of

invaluable importance to further the peace process in Colombia,"

committee secretary Olav Njoelstad told Norwegian state broadcaster NRK after having spoken to him by phone.

Colombia's ambassador to Norway, Alvaro Sandoval Bernal, said it was a message of hope for his country.

"It reiterates that there is hope for the peace process in Colombia."

Asked why Londono was left out, committee leader Kaci Kullmann Five said Santos had been central to the process.

"President Santos has been taking the very first and historic initiative. There have been other tries, but this time he went all-in as leader of the government with a strong will to reach a result. That's why we have put the emphasis on president."

She declined to elaborate on Londono's role. The rebel leader's initial reaction indicated no disappointment that he had been left out.

"The only prize to which we aspire is that of peace with social justice for a Colombia without paramilitarism, without retaliation nor lies," he wrote on his Twitter account.

POSSIBLE ANGER

Santos is the first Latin American to receive the peace prize since indigenous rights campaigner Rigoberta Menchu of Guatemala won in 1992, and is the second Colombian laureate after writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez, who won the literature prize in 1982.

The scion of one of Colombia's most prosperous families, Santos was not thought likely to spearhead a peace process with FARC (the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia).

But though he had served as defence minister under hardline ex-president Alvaro Uribe, when the FARC were weakened by a U.S.-backed offensive, Santos used his two terms in office to open negotiations with rebel leadership at four-year-long talks.

His family once owned leading Colombian newspaper El Tiempo, where Santos worked as an editor before turning to politics. He also trained as an economist at the London School of Economics.

He was finance minister in the 1990s, helping to steer the Andean nation through one of its worst fiscal crises.

The peace talks made bitter enemies of Santos and Uribe, who accused his former protege of betraying FARC victims, and who founded a new right-wing political party and won a Senate seat, in an effort to undermine Santos' peace efforts.

The news may anger those Colombians who see Santos' bid for peace with the FARC as selling out the nation as he negotiated terms that they see as an embarrassment.

But the fact that his rebel foe did not receive the prize alongside him may be a relief to Santos, given the political tension following referendum. On the other hand, it may give Santos the moral upper hand in talks with Uribe.

A joint win may have set back sensitive talks with the opposition as Santos tries to negotiate new terms with the "No" camp and possibly convince the FARC to accept changes to the original accord.

The "No" vote was a disaster for Santos, who had hoped to turn his focus quickly to other matters including possible talks with the smaller ELN rebel group, tax reform and other economic measures to compensate for a drop in oil income.

The government had hoped peace would lead to a boom in investment by commodities investors, in gold mines, oil and agriculture in Latin America's fourth-largest economy

ACHIEVEMENT AFTER SETBACK

Some Nobel watchers had taken Colombia off their lists of favourites after the referendum "No".

"The peace accord was indeed a major achievement and, although the referendum was a setback, hopefully this award will help peacebuilders maintain the momentum needed to keep the process moving forward,' Stockholm International Peace Research Institute Director Dan Smith said in a statement.

The United Nations human rights office, which does not usually comment on Nobel Peace Prizes, said the award was a recognition of how important the conflict in Colombia was.

"I think the High Commissioner would hope this gives a big boost to the peace process which has been going through a bit of a roller coaster in the past few weeks," U.N. human rights spokesman Rupert Colville said in Geneva.

The one-sided prize echoes previous awards, such as to South Korean President Kim Dae-jung in 2000 for his work for reconciliation with North Korea. West German Chancellor Willy Brandt won in 1971 for his policies of reaching out to the communist East.

But often the awards go to both sides in peace negotiations, such as to Israelis and Palestinians in 1994 or to Egypt’s Anwar Sadat and Israel’s Menachem Begin in 1978.

The Nobel Peace Prize, worth 8 million Swedish crowns ($930,000), will be presented in Oslo on Dec. 10.

Source: Reuters

Santos and FARC coming to terms with new reality after No wins in referendum

Bogota, Oct 2 (efe_epa) The president of Colombia late Sunday recognized the victory of the "No" side in the referendum on the peace agreement signed with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and said this result would open a new political reality which could be an opportunity for the country.

Juan Manuel Santos, who had promoted the "yes" campaign, ordered government negotiators to return to Havana on Monday to consult with the FARC leaders.

Colombian FARC top leader, Timoleon Jimenez, known as "Timochenko" said in Havana that the insurgent group maintained "its desire for peace" and repeated that they will "use only words as a weapon to build toward the future."

"The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia deeply regrets that the destructive power of those who sow hatred and rancor have influenced the opinion of the Colombian population," Timochenko said in a first statement after the surprise victory for the No camp in the referendum.

"To the Colombian people who dream of peace, count on us, peace will triumph," concluded Timochenko.

At the end of counting, the insurgent group asked reporters in Havana to leave the room so that they can talk before issuing an official statement.

The FARC guerrillas plan to hold a meeting to "calmly analyze all the details" of the outcome.

The Colombian president stressed that the "definitive bilateral ceasefire and cessation of hostilities" between the Colombian government and FARC rebels, which took effect on August 29, "is still in force, and will remain in force."

"I won't give up," said Santos and promised to continue "the search for peace until the last moment" of his mandate, because that's the way to leave a better country for Colombia's children.

According to the official result, with almost 100 percent of the vote counted, 49.77 percent or 6.374.491 voted for while 50.22 percent of voters or 6,430,909 voters voted against the deal.

Source: EFE

FARC moving slowly, but in unified way, toward approval of peace pact

After an intense first day on the weekend, the FARC on Sunday continued their 10th Guerrilla Conference where they are slowly, but apparently in a united way, debating the peace pact reached with the Colombian government and moving toward its ratification.

Before the start of the second day of debate, the head of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, negotiating team at the peace talks with the government, Luciano Marin Arango, alias "Ivan Marquez," gave a brief statement to the press that shed some light on what is occurring at the assembly.

Source: EFE

Acordo definitivo de paz entre as Farc e o governo colombiano entra em vigor

O chefe máximo das Forças Armadas Revolucionárias da Colômbia (Farc), Rodrigo Londoño, o Timochenko, afirmou em Havana, capital cubana, que vai cumprir rigorosamente o acordo definitivo de paz firmado com o governo colombiano, após quase quatro anos de negociações. O acordo, que encerrará um conflito armado de mais de cinco décadas, entrou em vigor à 0h de hoje (29).

"Como comandante do Estado-Maior das Farc, ordeno a todos os comandados, às nossas unidades, aos nossos combatentes o cessar-fogo e as hostilidades, de maneira definitiva, contra o Estado colombiano, a partir da meia -noite de hoje [28])", disse nesse domingo o Timochenko.

"Acabou a guerra, convivamos como irmãos e irmãs", acrescentou o chefe guerrilheiro na mensagem que leu no salão El Laguito, do Hotel Nacional de Cuba, em Havana, que foi sede das negociações para o acordo, iniciadas em 19 de novembre de 2012.

O governo, que formalizou em decreto sua adesão ao cessar-fogo, informou que o acordo será formalmente assinado entre os dias 20 e 26 de setembro em local a ser definido - Bogotá, Havana ou a sede da Organização das Nações Unidas (ONU) em Nova York. O acordo deverá ser referendado pela população em um pleebiscito que deverá ocorrer em 2 de outubro.

Fonte: Agência Brasil

Equador prende e entrega à Colômbia líder das Farc

Queixas.com.br
As autoridades do Equador detiveram e entregaram ao Serviço de Migração da Colômbia o possível líder logístico e financeiro da Frente 48 das Farc, Pablo Emilio Auseno Burgos, conhecido como 'Pate Bamba', informou nesta quarta-feira o órgão em comunicado.

Burgos seria o responsável por conseguir material bélico e logístico para o bloco sul das Forças Armadas Revolucionárias da Colômbia (Farc), além de ser a ligação do grupo com diferentes cartéis de drogas e armas no exterior, segundo investigações do exército.

A operação de detenção aconteceu no município de Sucumbíos, no norte do Equador, e uma vez capturado, Burgos foi entregue no Posto de Controle Migratório Terrestre de San Miguel em Putumayo, no sul da Colômbia.

A ação foi articulada pelo exército e Migração da Colômbia e as autoridades equatorianas.

Fonte: Exame