The first real crisis of the Peace Talks

After two years of negotiations, the peace talks have suffered its first crisis due to the abduction of General Alzate Mora by the FARC on November 16. As a result, President Juan Manuel Santos, suspended the peace talks immediately, qualifying the act as “unacceptable” and conditioning the continuance of the peace talks to the return of General Alzate and others by the FARC.

President Juan Manuel Santos and the Militar Cupola
of the Armed Forces of Colombia

On Sunday, November 30, after General Alzate and the others kidnapped with him where freed, the FARC, taking advantage of the situation demanded for Santos to agree to a bilateral ceasefire. Two days later the General resigned admitting he had broken his security protocol and by that putting the peace process at risk. 

 

General Alzate and FARC Commander
Pastor Alpe the day he was freed.

Santos has repeatedly refused to consider a ceasefire without a peace agreement, on grounds that the rebels would use it to regroup, lengthening the war.[1] For now the crisis has been declared over and the peace talks will resume on December 10, 2014, but still the discomfort of the Military Forces and public opinion persist, even more now that the General had to resign. This has been an issue the opposition has been making a fuss about for the past two days.

The current crisis, and it’s quick resolution, are an opportunity for President Santos to reinforce key messages to the Armed Forces and public opinion in order to counteract the opposition and gain more support to the peace process.

---

[1] AFP

Finally the Colombian Peace Process in an official ENGLISH version

In the quest to amplify the messages about the ongoing Peace Process in Colombia, the Office of the High Commissioner of Peace has recently launched this new brochure which intention is to give an opportunity for those who have the English language as it's first or second language, to learn about the current peace talks that are being held in the Havana, Cuba. 

The “Learn about the peace process in Colombia” official brochure will show you in a simple and easy way what I tried to explain in my second blog! Hope this helps you all to understand this complicated process a little bit more!

Amazing People Contributing to Colombia’s Peace: César López

The story of César López will be the first of my stories basically because he’s my friend and I really admire his absolute dedication to the cause. He’s a 40-year old musician who is one of the most intense activists seeking ways on how to eradicate the violence that has plagued our country Colombia for more than 50 years.

His contribution to peace in our Country is huge. He has dedicated the last 10 years of his life on delivering music through his “Escopetarras”, which are decommissioned AK-47s converted into guitars. But this is not all, he also created the 24-0 initiative (Twenty four hours with zero violent deaths) which is held in October every year in Colombia, and it’s expanding all over Latin America now.

Here are some videos with his story:

The crucial role of media in Colombia’s peace negotiations

The nearly two-year-old peace talks between the Colombian Government, and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia - FARC -, have been subject of continuous criticism by the media, the opposition, and basically everyone else, because of the confusions caused by the lack of communications on the topic. Why?

At the beginning of the negotiations, the delegations from the Government and FARC agreed to maintain absolute confidentiality on the conversations and agreements concerted in the table in order to safeguard the continuity of the process. The secrecy of the negotiations generated multiple speculations about it. Therefore, media outlets, willingly or not, distorted the information about the peace process.

In addition, opposition figures, including former President Alvaro Uribe Vélez, constantly alleged that the talks were too secretive, and his questionings about the process, among other criticism, divided opinion in Colombia.  

Former President and now
Senator of Colombia, Álvaro Uribe

Many have been the efforts of the Colombian Government to solve the communication problems of the peace talks during this past two years in order to neutralize the polarization of the Country. Recently, President Juan Manuel Santos announced the disclosure of the first three points of the agenda in order to give transparency to the process. As mentioned earlier, “details of the agreements had previously been kept under wraps to protect the negotiations”, said President Santos.

Taking in account that this is the closest that Colombians have ever been to a real possibility of achieving the so desired peace, the role of the media is more crucial than ever, by providing accurate information about the process and teaching their audiences about such complicated topic.

Other efforts, such as that done by the Gabriel García Márquez Foundation for Good Journalism - FNPI -, in support to the Office of the Peace Commissioner have also been important. The FNPI, aware of the uttermost importance of the media in the process, has been implementing a program for journalists that cover the peace process offering insights, guidelines and tools for a better understanding of the dynamics of the peace talks in Cuba. Currently, more than 450 journalists have been taught how to analyze and communicate properly the available information about this issue.

Sergio Jaramillo, High Commissioner for Peace and
Jaime Abello, FNPI Director

Because of the complexities of the peace process and the current polarized political scenario created by those who support Santos and those who support Uribe, it’s of uttermost importance that journalist concentrate on delivering to the public the most accurate facts possible and analysi