By Adam Isacson, Washington Office on Latin America This update is cross-posted with the Washington Office on Latin America blog. The first bit of news to emerge after our last Colombia Peace Process Update (March 27) gave cause for concern. The seventh round of talks...
War and Conflict
Army Actions Increase Risk for FOR and Peace Community
By John Lindsay-Poland We are concerned that Colombian Army actions in San José de Apartadó put peace community residents and FOR observers in acute danger, and are in violation of the recent Colombian Constitutional Court ruling regarding the security of peace...
Expansion of Colombian Military Criminal Jurisdiction
Impunity Guaranteed By Alejandro Gonzalez December was marked by an increase of military presence in the San José de Apartadó Peace Community and surrounding veredas (settlements). Helicopters flew constantly, while troops walked by and positioned themselves in...
Proposals for an End to the War
By John Lindsay-Poland By Alfredo Molano Jimeno Originally published in El Espectador, December 6, 2012 A holistic agrarian reform, deconcentration of property ownership, policies for food and land sovereignty, strengthening of peasant and indigenous economies,...
Opening Paths Toward Peace
By Maureen Maya, Journalist and Social Researcher Published in Semanario Virtual #330, November 23-29, 2012 On Monday, November 19, as delegates of the Colombian government and FARC guerrillas were getting ready to begin negotiations in the Conventions Palace in...
Even Those Who Chose Peace Suffer in this War Zone
Letter from Colombian Peace Community By Gina Spigarelli On some days in La Unión, the war is a faint pulse in the background — a far-off helicopter heard but not seen, or a military troop walking by on their way to a distant destination. On those days, to an...
Life and the War Go On
By Gina Spigarelli, FOR Colombia Team Member I have been back in the Peace Community of San José de Apartadó for a couple of weeks now, but in some ways it seems like I never left. The stresses of life in the city were effortlessly exchanged for those in the jungle:...
Peace Talks in Colombia and the Challenges Ahead
By Charlotte Melly, FOR Colombia Team Member Elements of the Colombian peace process that begins October 8 in Oslo indisputably distinguish these negotiations from prior attempts to put an end to Colombia’s five decade-long conflict. The insistence on learning from...