A beach in La Guajira in northern Colombia.
Photo from Flickr

In reports that were released today, it has been revealed that two Spanish tourists were kidnapped in northern Colombia on Friday. Spain’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs made the announcement today of the kidnapping of Ángel Sánchez Fernández, 49, and Concepción Marlaska Sedano, 43, in the northeast department of La Guajira.

Spanish news agency Efe announced today that they had received information from police sources in Colombia, who alleged that the kidnappers revealed themselves to be part of the FARC and had already demanded a ransom from the families. However, the Spanish Embassy in Bogotá has said they cannot confirm or deny the information provided by police sources.

The police source, however, questioned the possible role of the FARC – who are currently in peace talks with the government – in the kidnappings. They noted that the practice of demanding ransom the day following a kidnapping is uncommon for the revolutionary guerrilla organisation, leading to the suggestion that the kidnapping could have been committed at the hands of a different group.

The pair, whose identities have not been officially confirmed, were travelling along the Caribbean coast of Colombia, although the police source spoke of the possibility of them having been transferred across the nearby border into Venezuela.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Madrid said that while protocols prevent them from releasing any further information at this time, the Spanish government had been in “constant contact with national authorities in Colombia and the families of the kidnap victims” since reports of the incident surfaced.

Around 3,000 women from Colombia and diverse countries around the world are taking part in the first National and International Women for Dignity and Peace Event in the city of Florencia in the South of the country.

Congress of Women for Dignity and Peace, Colombia

The event aims to help give weight and conviction to the demands of women everywhere, to highlight the discrimination they continue to suffer, and, specifically, to integrate women more fully into Colombia’s socio-political life.

According to many participants, gender discrimination goes a long way towards explaining the difficulties women have faced in participating in poltical, social, and economic activity in the country.

The event, which began on Saturday and will run until tomorrow, further seeks to construct a new political identity that is mindful of diversity, and which is based on education, formation, and equal opportunity for all.

Notable female speakers invited to the event include: human rights activist Piedad Córdoba, the congresswoman Gloria Inés Ramírez, leaders such as the politician Gloria Cuartas and the poet, playwright, and actress Patricia Ariza amongst others.

More generally, the event also serves as a reminder of the government’s promise to respect and defend the dignity of each of its citizens, as well as the need to finally bring about peace and social justice.

Vladimir Carillo, teleSUR’s Colombia correspondent, said that the conclusions generated over the coming days would later be released in an official document.

Benefitting from the inclusion of the all important female perspective which will set the tone of the paper, it will also be taken to the table in Havanna, Cuba, where the government is currently engaged in peace negotiations with the FARC.

The Colombian student leader, Carolina Tejada, of the National Human Rights Secretariat of the Colombian Association of University Students, explained that the event’s participants have their own unique ideas and suggestions as to how to arrive at peace, as well as possible alternatives to the Colombia’s current armed conflict.

F.A.R.C. (Photo: SMORENO2007 on Flickr)

The clashes started on Saturday in the municipality of Leive close to the Ecuadorian border. Colombian army officials stated that they also seized weapons. This the fourth blow the rebel group suffered this year, having lost 58 members, which either have been captured, killed or displaced.

Mayor General Leonardo Barrero Gordillo of the Colombian armed forces said that the 23rd division of the guerrilla group “holds key responsibilities in the narcotraffic activities of the FARC”.

These clashes come amidst the continuing peace-talks, which started in Cuba in November 2012 with the assistance of Norway, Chile and Venezuela aiming to end half a century of bloodshed. After a month-long break, the talks resumed on 23rd April 2013 with both sides pushing for a conclusion.

In a joint communique last Friday, both parties announced that they have been making ‘important advances’ regarding the key issue of agrarian reforms. The guerrillas proposed to give 20 million hectares of land to the poor and want to restrict the amount of property big landowners can own. The government, in turn, stated that it will not expropriate any land whilst acknowledging lack of territory for the rural poor as a main issue.

The war started in 1964 when the FARC was founded as a communist rebel group with the aim of fighting Colombia’s long history of social inequality and concentrated land ownership. This lead to a bloody armed conflict drawing in other leftist rebel groups, right-wing paramilitaries and drug cartels, resulting in around 600,000 deaths and 15,000 disappearances to date.

Hundreds of leaders from social organisations and members of diverse sectors of Colombian civil society are discussing political participation in a national forum in Bogota. Although talks are to focus on general participation amongst Colombian citizens, the most critical topics at hand are the peace negotiations between the government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the development of political space for guerrillas after talks conclude.

The political participation forum is dealing with the FARC question in anticipation that total peace will be unattainable without the accompaniment of multilateral cooperation for the integration of the guerrilla forces and a real political framework for the transition into amicable relations.

Protest against the FARC (wikipedia commons)

Fabrizio Hochschild, UN resident coordinator in Colombia, said: “Although in Cuba the government and the FARC are sitting down together, it is a duty for all Colombians to participate in the creation of a lasting peace.”

To this aim, international panellists from El Salvador, Uruguay, South Africa, and the Philippines will speak about their own experiences with transitions to political peace at the Bogota convention. Colombian forum participants hope to gain insight into political transitions like their own so that they might be able to develop strategies for incorporation of government opposition into politics.

From the site of the ongoing peace talks in Havana, Cuba, both government officials and FARC representatives have recognised the importance of the Bogota forum, especially as it regards discussions of future political participation of guerrillas in the political sphere.

Both groups sent formal greetings to forum participants today, in which government negotiator and ex-Vice President Humberto de la Calle said: “Without arms, the state provides guarantees with which the formerly outlawed group can incorporate itself into the democracy … in the commitment to provide such guarantees, it is useful for the state to amplify the base of participation and to establish statutes that guarantee the rights of the opposition.”

The national forum, organised by the UN and Colombia’s National University, has drawn in about 1,400 participants. The meeting opened yesterday, 28th April, and is to go until tomorrow.

Colombian peace negotiator Humberto de La Calle (photo courtesy of OAS)

The former vice president Humberto De la Calle and head of the delegation representing the Colombian government, confirmed that both parties have resumed negotiations with the intention of reaching an agreement in the next few months. He said that they will work for peace in the shortest possible time and that rapid results will be seen.

“We arrived today in Havana in order to make decisions. We want results,” he said.

The peace talks, which began in October 2012 in Oslo, Norway, are expected to conclude by August this year, according to the Colombian Congress.

The talks will address the FARC’s violent political acts and will work towards reaching an agreement to end the half-century long war. They will also resolve the fight against drug trafficking, land ownership, and distributing compensation to war victims.

Story courtesy of Agencia Púlsar, the AMARC-ALC news agency.

Former leader Jorge Eliecer Gaitan (photo courtesy of Wikipedia)

Hundreds of thousands of Colombians will take to the streets today in a historic march for peace in the capital city of Bogotá. The march is the first of its kind in the country and will see the coming together of different political parties and social groups, with the common goal of demanding an end to Colombia’s armed conflict.

The marches and demonstrations began this morning at the historic Plaza Bolivar and will continue through the city’s main streets in support of the peace dialogues currently being conducted by the country’s government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

For the first time, thousands of Colombians from different political and social backgrounds, including students, indigenous groups, and politicians have come together to call for an end to the armed conflict that dates back more than half a century.

Today’s marches coincide with the country’s National Day of Remembrance and Victim Solidarity, and the 65th anniversary of former leader Jorge Eliecer Gaitan’s death. The marches were initially organised by leftist groups and have since been supported by both the government and the FARC.

Hundreds of thousands of Colombians have travelled from regions such as Magdalena, Arauca, Valle del Cauca, and Antioquia to the capital to participate, and the Catholic Church, as well as the mayor of Bogotá, have both expressed their support and commitment to the movement.

The marches, which will be replicated in other Colombian cities, have been supported by President Juan Manuel Santos who said last Saturday: “On 9th April we should all go out and express ourselves in favour of peace.” He said of the marches that, “Peace can not be divided, the search is imperative, and it is time to believe that our country is not condemned to another half century of violence; we seek unity, not division, and consensus, not confrontation.”

Former President of Brazil, Lula da Silva expressed his support via internet message: “We will be more now if we achieve peace…the victory of peace in Colombia will be the victory of the entire continent.”

However, the marches have not come without criticism, and have been accused of “paying homage to the guerrillas” from right-wing group Puro Centro Democrático, the former leader of which has publicly called for the continuation of the conflict that has caused tens of thousands of deaths.

Juan Manuel Santos by Center for American Progress, on Flickr

Juan Manuel Santos, Colombia’s president, is optimistic about the peace dialogue that has been going since November between the government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). He manifested his confidence in reaching an agreement before the end of the year while holding a meeting with his ministers.

“This is a peace process that concerns the whole world (…) it’s not just about Colombia (…) we have been receiving support for this peace process (…) from Europe, Asia, China, and Russia” said Santos.

“We are thus optimistic and we will reach a peace agreement in this country,” he added after his ministers’ meeting in Bogota on 19th March.

The negotiations between the Colombian government and the FARC started on the 19th November 2012.

According to the president, the government is receiving support from many political parties, which demonstrates that the peace process is on the right path.

Iván Márquez, the head of the delegation of the guerrillas, suggested earlier the possibility of reaching agreements with the government on the agricultural issue – which was the first subject discussed in the meeting.

Santos also commented on the health reforms, the infrastructure, and the statutory law for military courts, which will be the priorities of the new legislative mandate that was initiated on Tuesday 19th March.

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos announced yesterday that he will initiate “an agenda of transformation” in the 16 months he has left in office.

This announcement comes as Santos continues peace negotiations with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). Congress announced last week that a resolution will be made with the armed revolutionary group by August.

“Our vision is of a just, modern, and safe Colombia,” Santos said, according to El Tiempo.

He added that disarming FARC is not enough and that the system must change in order to avoid similar situations in the future.

“Some people continue to be stuck in the past, selling us a vision of a Colombia condemned to another 50 years of violence, paralysed by fear and without the capacity to imagine anything more than what it has always been,” he said. “However we, the large majority, believe in our future.”

Officials and Santos finalised this new “comprehensive government strategy” in a meeting Monday.

Beginning today, union directors and business owners will begin meeting to design and begin this project that Santos called “an emergency plan for growth and productivity.”

Beyond lowering rates of violence in the country, the president announced goals of a more “modern Colombia,” including plans to build 317 kilometres of highways this year.

Santos added that he is “committed… to making it so that Colombia can say ‘we have peace’ before leaving the government.”

Senador Roy Barreras by RedPaTo2, on Flickr

The Colombian Congress announced yesterday that the government should conclude peace negotiations with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) by August.

Roy Barreras, president of the Colombian Senate, requested that the government of Juan Manuel Santos and FARC representatives sign a final peace accord in August of this year at the latest. He called for this advancement in the peace talks in a press conference yesterday during which he cited a statement detailing the request. Five congressional members had signed the statement on Monday in Havana, where they had been meeting with FARC negotiators.

The Congress urged the government and insurgent group to accelerate the progressing negotiations as a means to avoid any interference that might be caused by the upcoming elections in the first few months of 2014. Barreras explained, “This commission calls the attention of the government and the FARC about the fact that despite the good intentions of both parties, it is imperative to take into account the timing (of the talks) for the legislature and for the electoral process.”

Barreras also asserted in the press conference that the Congress will not ratify any agreement between now and the deadline five months away, “unless we are signing the treaty to fully end the internal armed conflict.”

Next year, Colombia will hold congressional elections in March, followed by the presidential election in May. Thus, if the August deadline is reached, Congress can ratify the accord before the country becomes immersed in electoral campaigns.

Barreras made the announcement upon his return from a trip to Havana, where the peace talks are being held. In yesterday’s statement, the head of the Senate confirmed that concrete advances have been made in the discussions, including the drafting of documents clarifying land issues. He added that the groups are now prepared to advance into discussions about a guarantee of political participation for the guerrilla force, another major point of the negotiations.

The leader of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC)’s negotiating team, Iván Márquez, underscored the group’s willingness to agree to a bilateral ceasefire with government forces while historic peace talks between the two continue.

At the start of the fifth round of peace talks in Havana, Cuba, Márquez praised the proposal for a ceasefire written by Colombian politician and former cabinet minister Álvaro Leyva in a column for the El Nuevo Siglo newspaper.

Leyva called for a bilateral truce with international verification and oversight.

F.A.R.C. (Photo: SMORENO2007 on Flickr)

“For us a ceasefire requires a huge effort,” said Márquez, “but we know it is an important step to demonstrate a will for peace on both sides.”

FARC declared a unilateral ceasefire for two months after peace talks began in November last year, but did not extend the measure after the government refused to reciprocate. Even as peace talks continued, there has been an upsurge in violence since that ceasefire ended on 20th January, with seven Colombian soldiers killed in the latest incident.

The government has so far refused to accept a ceasefire agreement, over concerns that it would allow the guerilla group to re-arm and consolidate its position.