tag:theconversation.com,2011:/africa/topics/alvaro-uribe-33838/articlesAlvaro Uribe – The Conversation2022-06-05T12:48:45Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1837952022-06-05T12:48:45Z2022-06-05T12:48:45ZThe left could be poised to take power in Colombia for the first time<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/466386/original/file-20220531-26-lijkg6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C152%2C4424%2C3406&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Presidential candidate Gustavo Petro, centre and his running mate Francia Marquez, at his right, stand before supporters with Marquez's wife and daughter on election night in Bogota, Colombia. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Gustavo Petro, a former guerrilla fighter, obtained 40.34 per cent of the vote in the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-61628589">first round of Colombian elections</a> on May 29.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/466390/original/file-20220531-24-9fnnra.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man in a yellow polo shirt and jeans pushes his ballot into a ballot box." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/466390/original/file-20220531-24-9fnnra.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/466390/original/file-20220531-24-9fnnra.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466390/original/file-20220531-24-9fnnra.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466390/original/file-20220531-24-9fnnra.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466390/original/file-20220531-24-9fnnra.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466390/original/file-20220531-24-9fnnra.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466390/original/file-20220531-24-9fnnra.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Rodolfo Hernandez casts his ballot during presidential elections in Bucaramanga, Colombia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Mauricio Pinzon)</span></span>
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<p>He will face Rodolfo Hernández, a businessman-turned-politician who won 28.17 per cent of the vote to finish in second place, in the final round on June 19.</p>
<p>These results are striking for three reasons. </p>
<p>First, if Petro prevails, it will be the first time a left-wing candidate has become president in <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/41413339">a country traditionally governed by right-wing, elitist parties</a>.</p>
<p>Second, both candidates ran on platforms critical of the political establishment.</p>
<p>Third, Uribismo, the dominant right-wing political movement formed around former president Álvaro Uribe, <a href="https://nacla.org/colombia-presidential-election-petro">will not have a candidate in the decisive round of elections</a> for the first time in 20 years.</p>
<h2>Rebel turned politician</h2>
<p>A former member of the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/1c8fdfae26a00385a42e6cf7f9e634e3">M-19 leftist guerrilla group</a>, Petro started his political career in 1991, just after the organization disarmed as part of a peace process. </p>
<p>In the past 30 years, <a href="https://www.americasquarterly.org/article/the-evolution-of-colombias-gustavo-petro/">he’s been a member of congress (from 2006 to 2010 and again from 2018 to 2022), mayor of Bogotá (from 2012 to 2015) and three-time presidential candidate</a> (in 2010, 2018 and 2022).</p>
<p>Born to a middle-class family in a small town in the Caribbean region of Colombia, he is different from the so-called <a href="https://24newsrecorder.com/world/163468%22%22">Andean elites</a> that have traditionally dominated the country. If elected, <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/5/29/colombias-presidential-race-heads-to-runoff">Petro promises</a>, among other things, to stop oil exploration, to provide free public higher education for all and to thoroughly revamp the pension system to increase coverage. </p>
<p>His proposals for radical change have made him popular with younger and lower-income voters, many of whom participated in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/18/world/americas/colombia-protests-what-to-know.html">massive protests in 2021</a> against the right-wing government of incumbent Iván Duque, who holds the <a href="https://westobserver.com/news/europe/the-colombia-that-ivan-duque-leaves-challenges-failures-and-achievements-2/">lowest approval ratings of any president</a> in the <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/5/26/duque-most-unpopular-colombian-president-poll">country’s recent history</a>.</p>
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<img alt="Protesters lie on the ground in a city square, with government buildings in the background." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/466408/original/file-20220531-18-4sb9qo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/466408/original/file-20220531-18-4sb9qo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466408/original/file-20220531-18-4sb9qo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466408/original/file-20220531-18-4sb9qo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466408/original/file-20220531-18-4sb9qo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466408/original/file-20220531-18-4sb9qo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466408/original/file-20220531-18-4sb9qo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Protesters lie on the ground in Bolivar square to protest the killing of civilians during Colombia’s internal conflict in Bogota, Colombia, in August 2021.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)</span></span>
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<p><a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2022/05/28/colombia-election-president-gustavo-petro-leftist-latin-america/">Petro’s detractors</a>, on the other hand, decry his past membership in a rebel organization and what they describe as his populist proposals. Critics argue that his tenure as mayor of Bogotá was mired in controversy and that he will try to <a href="https://thenationview.com/politics/28740.html">perpetuate that style of governance if president</a>.</p>
<p>Resistance to Petro’s success, however, should be understood within the historical context of the elitist right-wing dominance of Colombia and the exclusion of left-wing alternatives.</p>
<h2>Colombia’s fear of the left</h2>
<p>Colombia has been touted in the past as an example of democratic stability in South America. The <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Gustavo-Rojas-Pinilla">only military dictatorship the country suffered in its recent history (1953–57)</a> was short-lived and relatively benign compared to the more repressive regimes of other South American countries.</p>
<p>Unlike most of the continent’s countries, <a href="https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.7208/9780226158488-014/html">populist leaders haven’t obtained power</a>
in Colombia. Also, while the majority of the region <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/09502386.2010.527152">turned left</a> in the early 2000s, Colombians <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-10841425">elected Álvaro Uribe, a neoconservative leader</a> who <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-colombia-uribe-idUSN0644859020070606">prioritized the market and the militarization of security</a>.</p>
<p>This apparent political stability has not come without a price. Elitist parties — both liberal and conservative parties — <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/05/27/1101758096/colombia-presidential-election">monopolized power throughout the 20th century</a> and thwarted the rise of left-wing parties and dissident movements.</p>
<p>The front-runner for the presidential elections in the late 1940s, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jorge-Eliecer-Gaitan">populist leader Jorge Eliécer Gaitán</a>, was assassinated in 1948, giving way to a dark period known as “<a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Colombia/La-Violencia-dictatorship-and-democratic-restoration">La Violencia</a>” that resulted in the massacres of thousands of people. Later, the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0094582X11422209">systematic killing of left-wing leaders, politicians and activists</a> by right-wing paramilitaries and state agents kept power firmly in the hands of traditional elites. </p>
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<img alt="A man in a suit with glasses speaks." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/466404/original/file-20220531-24-pzmjlr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/466404/original/file-20220531-24-pzmjlr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466404/original/file-20220531-24-pzmjlr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466404/original/file-20220531-24-pzmjlr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466404/original/file-20220531-24-pzmjlr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466404/original/file-20220531-24-pzmjlr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466404/original/file-20220531-24-pzmjlr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Álvaro Uribe speaks during an interview in Bogota in 2009.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/William Fernando Martinez)</span></span>
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<p>During the eight years that Uribe was president, <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/americas/20210219-colombian-military-accused-of-6-400-extrajudicial-killings">6,402 people were the victims of extrajudicial killings</a> perpetrated by the army. </p>
<p>Uribe has been a <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/americas/20191219-focus-colombia-s-ex-president-alvaro-uribe-faces-supreme-court-charges-manipulating-witnesses">dominant figure</a> in the country for the last 20 years. </p>
<p>He was president from 2002 to 2010; his defence minister and former ally was voted president in 2010; his chosen candidate, Iván Duque, won his presidential bid in 2018; and Uribe successfully led the campaign <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/oct/02/colombia-referendum-rejects-peace-deal-with-farc">against the peace accord</a> with the country’s biggest guerrilla group — FARC — in the 2016 referendum. </p>
<p>The deal was ultimately implemented despite the negative result, and Uribe is now <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/07/world/americas/uribe-colombia-house-arrest.html">increasingly unpopular</a> among Colombians. <a href="https://www.wola.org/analysis/a-long-way-to-go-implementing-colombias-peace-accord-after-five-years/">Institutional reforms and the 2016 peace accord</a> have also invigorated the left. </p>
<p>After being portrayed for decades as the <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20220506-colombia-military-bristles-at-rise-of-leftist-presidential-hopeful">internal enemy</a>, the left is finally a serious contender for the office of president.</p>
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<img alt="Two men in white T-shirts raise their arms in celebration." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/466421/original/file-20220531-20-ab6miz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/466421/original/file-20220531-20-ab6miz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466421/original/file-20220531-20-ab6miz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466421/original/file-20220531-20-ab6miz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466421/original/file-20220531-20-ab6miz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466421/original/file-20220531-20-ab6miz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466421/original/file-20220531-20-ab6miz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">In this 2016 photo, supporters of the peace process with rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as FARC, celebrate as the Colombian president and a top rebel leader signed a revised peace pact in Bogota.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Ivan Valencia, File)</span></span>
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<h2>Future implications</h2>
<p>Petro will face important challenges. First, dispersed anti-left political forces will now likely coalesce around the right-wing outsider Hernández, mounting a serious bid for the presidency. </p>
<p>Second, Petro’s party, Pacto Histórico, <a href="https://www.electionguide.org/elections/id/3755/">doesn’t hold a majority in congress</a> and, if elected president, he will have to establish shaky alliances with unlikely partners. </p>
<p>And while his promises for radical change have inspired many, heightened expectations might quickly turn into disappointment or backlash, similar to left-wing leaders <a href="https://en.mercopress.com/2022/05/31/boric-s-negative-image-keeps-growing-among-chileans">Gabriel Boric in Chile</a> and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/04/07/peru-protests-castillo/">Pedro Castillo in Perú</a>. </p>
<p>Nonetheless, the consolidation of the left as a legitimate and viable electoral option in Colombia is important for the democracy of a country that has suffered decades of politically motivated conflict and <a href="https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SI.POV.GINI?locations=CO">high levels of socioeconomic inequality</a>. </p>
<p>These elections can be seen as a sign that the left-right divide in Colombia is moving from armed confrontation to democratic disagreement.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/183795/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Juan Manuel Morales currently does fieldwork with right-wing activists in Colombia for his dissertation. </span></em></p>The strong showing of left-wing presidential candidate Gustavo Petro in the Colombian elections suggests the country’s left-right divide is moving from armed confrontation to democratic disagreement.Juan Manuel Morales, PhD Candidate, Political Science, Université de MontréalLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/982732018-06-18T20:46:52Z2018-06-18T20:46:52ZColombia elects a conservative who promises to ‘correct’ its peace accord<p>In <a href="http://www.eltiempo.com/justicia/conflicto-y-narcotrafico/colombia-vivio-las-elecciones-mas-seguras-223160">the most peaceful election in its modern history</a>, Colombia has elected as its next president a conservative who <a href="https://theconversation.com/colombias-presidential-runoff-will-be-a-yet-another-referendum-on-peace-91603">has promised to “correct” the country’s tenuous 2016 peace deal</a>. </p>
<p>Iván Duque, of the Democratic Center party, won election on June 17 with <a href="https://presidente2018.registraduria.gov.co/resultados/2html/resultados.html">54 percent</a> of the votes amid <a href="https://registraduria.gov.co/?page=Elecciones_2018">record high turnout</a>. Duque opposes same-sex marriage, supports harsh penalties for drug use and wants to <a href="http://www.elcolombiano.com/elecciones-2018-colombia/mas-empresas-y-menos-impuestos-quiere-duque-EC8774336">reduce taxes on the wealthy</a>. </p>
<p>His left-wing rival, Gustavo Petro – a one-time Marxist guerrilla fighter and former Bogota mayor – received <a href="https://presidente2018.registraduria.gov.co/resultados/2html/resultados.html">42 percent of the vote</a>. </p>
<p>Approximately <a href="https://twitter.com/CatesbyHolmes/status/1008496479311417348">5 percent of Colombians cast blank ballots</a>, showing their dissatisfaction with the two candidates who advanced from the first round of Colombia’s presidential election in May.</p>
<p>The 41-year-old Duque, who has never before held elected office, begins his four-year term in August. His running mate, Martha Lucía Ramírez, will become Colombia’s <a href="http://www.dane.gov.co/reloj/">first female vice president</a>.</p>
<h2>What of peace?</h2>
<p>Duque’s <a href="http://www.latimes.com/world/la-fg-colombia-election-20180616-htmlstory.html">win was widely predicted</a> in this conservative South American country. </p>
<p>But his opponent did far better than expected, almost doubling his share of the votes between the first and second rounds of the election. He received 8 million votes, <a href="https://www.rcnradio.com/politica/petro-el-politico-de-izquierda-mas-votado-en-la-historia-de-colombia">more than any leftist presidential candidate</a> in Colombia’s history.</p>
<p>Beyond appealing to progressive Colombians, Petro also attracted moderates who feared Duque’s <a href="https://lasillavacia.com/podria-duque-modificar-el-acuerdo-de-paz-66216">opposition to a 2016 peace accord</a> between the Colombian government and the Armed Revolutionary Forces of Colombia, or FARC guerrillas. </p>
<p>As part of the deal, which ended 52 years of violence in Colombia, FARC combatants would <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2016/09/27/colombia-peace-deals-promise-and-flaws">avoid jail time for their wartime crimes</a> if they agreed to lay down their weapons and undergo training for their re-entry into civilian life. </p>
<p>FARC members were also allowed to participate in Colombia’s political process. The FARC relaunched as a <a href="https://theconversation.com/colombias-farc-rebels-have-rebranded-as-a-political-party-now-they-need-a-leader-82728">political party in August 2017</a>, and its former commander <a href="https://theconversation.com/colombian-guerrilla-leader-ends-controversial-presidential-bid-giving-peace-a-chance-93200">briefly ran for president</a> this year before withdrawing for health reasons.</p>
<p>Echoing the hawkish rhetoric of his mentor, the powerful Senator and former President Alvaro Uribe, Duque says the 2016 FARC accord was too lenient and should be “renegotiated.” The president-elect wants former combatants to be <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-colombia-election/colombian-peace-deal-critic-to-face-fiery-leftist-in-runoff-idUSKCN1IS03E">punished for their crimes</a>.</p>
<p>Duque was the only candidate in Colombia’s 2018 presidential election who did not support the <a href="https://kroc.nd.edu/assets/257593/informe_kroc.pdf">ambitious agreements ending war with the FARC</a>. Reneging on the deal risks restarting the <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/ending-colombias-hundred-year-war/">longest-running conflict in the Western Hemisphere</a>.</p>
<p>Colombia is currently in talks with a different armed group, the <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-35929399">National Liberation Army</a>. The group, which is now Colombia’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/will-colombias-most-stubborn-rebel-group-agree-to-peace-71835">largest guerrilla organization</a>, has kept a ceasefire in place and <a href="https://www.eluniverso.com/noticias/2018/05/30/nota/6783908/beltran-negociacion-seguira-duque">signaled its intention to stay at the negotiation table</a>. But the status of that peace process is now unclear. </p>
<h2>Tackling the drug trade</h2>
<p>Also on Duque’s chopping block is the peace accord’s plan for dealing with drug trafficking and the cultivation of coca leaf, the main ingredient in cocaine.</p>
<p>The drug trade remains a <a href="http://www.americasquarterly.org/content/how-santos-new-peace-deal-aggravated-colombias-drug-war">central challenge to Colombia’s peace process</a>. Revenue from illegal coca and cocaine fueled Colombia’s armed conflict <a href="https://books.google.co.za/books/about/Colonizaci%C3%B3n_coca_y_guerrilla.html?id=ELe8AAAAIAAJ&redir_esc=y">for the last three decades</a>. In April 2018, the U.S. accused FARC leader Jesús Santrich <a href="https://www.elespectador.com/noticias/judicial/la-acusacion-de-estados-unidos-contra-jesus-santrich-articulo-749309">of international drug trafficking</a>.</p>
<p>Suggesting that the FARC’s connections to the drug trade <a href="https://elpais.com/internacional/2018/01/17/colombia/1516162343_892303.html">inappropriately influenced the peace deal</a>, the president-elect has said he will reconsider its drug-related provisions. They include programs that help farmers <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-coca-leaf-not-coffee-may-always-be-colombias-favourite-cash-crop-74723">replace their illicit crop with legal products</a> like coffee or cacao. </p>
<p>Duque wants to resume aerial fumigation, a <a href="http://progressive.org/dispatches/back-to-spraying-poison-u-s-pressures-colombia-to-resume-aer/">U.S.-supported</a> counter-narcotics strategy to eradicate coca crops. It was ended in 2015, decades after evidence emerged that <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2015/05/15/406988063/colombia-will-end-coca-crop-dusting-citing-health-concerns">the glysophate spray was poisoning Colombian farmers</a> and killing legitimate agricultural products.</p>
<p>Advocates of Colombia’s peace deal and drug policy reformers say such punitive approaches merely <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2001/01/07/aerial-attack-killing-more-than-coca/df386c06-e9c7-4e85-85b2-80a514f1ae37/">hurt poor farmers</a> while <a href="https://www.razonpublica.com/index.php/econom-y-sociedad-temas-29/10554-el-narcotr%C3%A1fico-como-delito-pol%C3%ADtico-desatino-o-condici%C3%B3n-para-el-posconflicto.html">fueling the kind of rural anti-government sentiment</a> that bolsters support for armed factions. </p>
<h2>Birds of a feather?</h2>
<p>The president-elect may not follow through on all these campaign promises. </p>
<p>Colombia’s peace deal with the FARC was divisive. Just <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-colombia-voted-no-to-peace-with-farc-66416">over 50 percent of the population voted against it in an October 2016 referendum</a>, compelling President Juan Manuel Santos to pass his hard-won accord through congressional action instead. So running against the peace process was a good campaign strategy for an opposition candidate. </p>
<p>But Duque moved toward the center in the lead-up to the presidential run-off to win over moderate voters, and he has <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/06/conservative-ivan-duque-wins-colombia-presidential-election-180617215223568.html">promised</a> not to “tear the agreement to shreds.” </p>
<p>As president, he may prove better able than the current president to sell conservative constituents on some concessions that are necessary to keep Colombia’s peace.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/220821/original/file-20180529-80650-1xnj90v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/220821/original/file-20180529-80650-1xnj90v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/220821/original/file-20180529-80650-1xnj90v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/220821/original/file-20180529-80650-1xnj90v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/220821/original/file-20180529-80650-1xnj90v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/220821/original/file-20180529-80650-1xnj90v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/220821/original/file-20180529-80650-1xnj90v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Colombia ended its 52-year conflict with the FARC guerrillas in late 2016. The next president must decide whether to uphold the deal.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Ivan Valencia</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>His decision on the peace process and many other pressing issues in Colombia will likely depend on <a href="http://lasillavacia.com/duque-no-seria-el-titere-de-uribe-porque-ya-encarna-su-vision-66389">the role that the hard-line former President Uribe</a> plays in his administration. Uribe – now a senator and the leader of a deeply right-wing legislative bloc backed <a href="https://www.elespectador.com/elecciones-2018/noticias/politica/movimientos-evangelicos-en-primera-vuelta-quien-se-quedo-con-el-botin-articulo-789981">by evangelical Christian groups</a> – was an outsized presence in Duque’s campaign. </p>
<p><a href="https://elpais.com/internacional/2018/05/28/colombia/1527513115_112851.html">Polls show that many Petro voters</a> voted against Duque because they feared that <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/25/world/americas/colombia-uribe-drugs.html">the controversial Uribe</a> would run his presidency behind the scenes. </p>
<h2>The specter of corruption</h2>
<p>Duque’s campaign was also endorsed by <a href="http://lasillavacia.com/los-apoyos-cuestionados-y-aceptados-de-duque-65921">several politicians with alleged connections to violent Colombian paramilitary organizations</a>. That has fueled concern that the powerful illicit groups will <a href="https://www.elespectador.com/opinion/dos-discrepancias-y-un-voto-columna-794331">once again exert influence over Colombian politics</a> at the highest level.</p>
<p>Duque, however, says fighting corruption will be a centerpiece of his presidency. </p>
<p>“We will be the government that … confront[s] this cancer,” he said in <a href="https://www.elespectador.com/noticias/politica/no-voy-gobernar-con-odios-ivan-duque-video-794987">his acceptance speech</a>, adding that Colombia should be a “country of social justice and political equality.”</p>
<p>For the millions of Colombians who voted against him, the future of this war-torn nation feels uncertain. Duque must now decide whether to govern Colombia in peace.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/98273/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Fabio Andrés Díaz Pabón does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In the most peaceful election in their modern history, Colombians have elected as their next president a conservative who will renegotiate the country’s fragile 2016 accord with the FARC guerrillas.Fabio Andrés Díaz Pabón, Researcher on Conflict, Peace and Development, International Institute of Social StudiesLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/751732017-04-13T05:03:46Z2017-04-13T05:03:46ZColombians are fed up with corruption, and everyone seems to be under investigation<p>Civil unrest seems to be the order of the day – and the coming weeks – in Latin America. The sprawling <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/13/world/americas/peru-colombia-venezuela-brazil-odebrecht-scandal.html?_r=0">Odebrecht bribery scandal</a> that started in Brazil is now complicating life in many neighbouring nations. </p>
<p>In Colombia, <a href="http://www.elespectador.com/noticias/investigacion/tras-el-rastro-de-los-sobornos-de-odebrecht-colombia-articulo-671901">recent reports</a> reveal that the Brazilian construction company has been bribing the country’s public officials since 2010. With the 2018 presidential campaign heating up, the revelation is spurring dissatisfaction with President Juan Manuel Santos and imperilling the country’s fledgling peace process.</p>
<p>On April 1, up to 16,000 <a href="http://www.semana.com/nacion/articulo/marcha-contra-la-corrupcion-del-uribismo-avanza-en-todo-colombia/520512">Colombians took to the streets</a> to decry corruption and express ongoing dissatisfaction with the peace accords signed with the FARC guerrillas. It was, in many ways, a march against the Colombian political establishment. </p>
<p>Public debate around the marches was largely redirected by <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/04/hundreds-missing-deadly-mudslides-hit-colombia-170401145425068.html">mudslides in the city of Mocoa</a>, the capital of the Putumayo province. They killed more than 300 citizens, including dozens of children, on the night of March 31. </p>
<p>The tragedy gave Santos, who is now entering the last year of his administration, the opportunity to <a href="http://lasillavacia.com/historia/y-santos-se-metio-al-barro-60511">reassert his leadership</a>. And it briefly relieved the pressures that the Odebrecht corruption scandal was exerting on his government. </p>
<h2>Corruption takes centre stage</h2>
<p>Colombia is not a regional outlier. Mass protests in 2016 famously contributed to the <a href="http://internacional.elpais.com/internacional/2017/03/16/america/1489703822_819753.html">impeachment of Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff</a>. And continuing public ire has helped spur the courts there to send numerous <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/30/world/americas/eduardo-cunha-brazil-sentenced-prison.html">high-ranking government officials</a> to jail for corruption. <a href="http://www.t13.cl/noticia/mundo/huelgas-marchas-y-protestas-desafian-macri-argentina">Argentina</a> and <a href="http://www.prensa.com/mundo/Miles-chilenos-protestan-sistema-pensiones_0_4720027973.html">Chile</a> are also seeing citizens protest leaders from the political left, right and centre. </p>
<p>In many cases, public outcry is linked to the massive number of government officials found to be in the pocket of Odebrecht, whose bribery network reaches from Colombia and Peru to <a href="http://elcomercio.pe/mundo/latinoamerica/obedrecht-conoce-cuales-son-montos-y-paises-involucrados-noticia-1967487">Angola and Mozambique</a>. </p>
<p>But in Colombia, the company is only part of a more complicated story behind recent protests. </p>
<p>Public malfeasance has <a href="http://www.transparency.org/whatwedo/answer/colombia_overview_of_corruption_and_anti_corruption">long been common in the country</a>. The 1994 presidential campaign of Ernesto Samper, for example, was found to have been <a href="http://colombiareports.com/cali-cartel-gave-10m-to-sampers-presidential-campaign-cartel-executive/">funded by the Cali Cartel</a>, then one of Colombia’s most powerful trafficking organisations. </p>
<p>Even the main instigators of the April 1 march – former president Alvaro Uribe and former inspector general Alejandro Ordoñez – have themselves been found to be enmeshed in <a href="http://www.elespectador.com/opinion/uribe-y-ordonez-nuevos-simbolos-de-la-anticorrupcion-columna-685898">various corruption scandals</a>. But that well-reported fact has not stopped them from actively mobilising public opinion against corruption within the current government. </p>
<p>President Santos faces an unusual and contradictory political reality. Internationally, he is well regarded as a Nobel Peace Prize winner <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2016/12/10/americas/columbia-santos-nobel-prize/">lauded</a> for his efforts to end Colombia’s armed conflict. But, at home, he is highly unpopular, with <a href="http://lasillavacia.com/historia/las-diez-conclusiones-demoledoras-de-la-gallup-59964">disapproval ratings of 71%</a>. </p>
<p>This is due to an ironic twist of fate for the president. In signing the November 2016 peace accords with the FARC guerrillas, Santos took the formerly overwhelming question of armed conflict out of the spotlight and <a href="http://colombiareports.com/corruption-main-problem-colombia-gallup-poll/">allowed corruption to take centre stage in the public mind</a>. </p>
<h2>Smear campaigns</h2>
<p>Santos is a career politician, who served as minister of defence under his predecessor Alvaro Uribe, and is the grand nephew of a former president. </p>
<p>His detractors – led by Uribe, who is now among his most strident critics – are now using <a href="http://www.wradio.com.co/noticias/actualidad/gobierno-santos-es-inmoral-clientelista-y-corrupto-hijos-de-expresidentes-conservadores/20150408/nota/2707783.aspx">this experience to discredit him</a>, calling him “immoral” and “corrupt”. As evidence for their claims, they cite <a href="http://www.eltiempo.com/justicia/delitos/fiscalia-dice-que-odebrecht-financio-campanas-presidenciales-de-2014-64884">a formal investigation</a> by Colombia’s attorney general into whether the Odebrecht bribes played a role in Santos’ 2014 presidential campaign. </p>
<p>The anti-Santos right-wing coalition includes the scandal-beset Ordoñez, as well as former minister of defence Marta Lucía Ramírez, and former vice president German Vargas Lleras. All of them fiercely opposed and <a href="https://theconversation.com/santos-has-won-his-nobel-prize-but-peace-eludes-the-colombian-people-66666">nearly derailed</a> the FARC accords in 2016. And all intend to run for the presidency in 2018. </p>
<p>This group does not have enough support to wield veto power in Congress. But by uniformly resisting any action undertaken by Santos and using smear campaigns to influence voter opinion, it has been successfully undermining the credibility of the current administration over the past two years.</p>
<p>The April 1 march is another tactic. In leveraging corruption concerns, the opposition seeks to position itself ahead of <a href="http://brasil.elpais.com/brasil/2017/03/26/internacional/1490504718_048445.html">Santos’s party in next year’s presidential campaign</a>. </p>
<p>Among other declared candidates, members of Uribe’s faction will go up against Humberto de la Calle. He is a prominent figure from the Santos camp and was the government’s lead negotiator in the FARC peace process. They will also stand against Bogota’s leftist former mayor, Gustavo Petro, whom Ordoñez removed for <a href="https://www.procuraduria.gov.co/portal/COMUNICADO-DE_PRENSA__9_DE_DICIEMBRE_.news">administrative malfeasance</a>.</p>
<p>The favourability rating of most of these would-be presidents <a href="http://www.eltiempo.com/politica/partidos-politicos/favorabilidad-de-candidatos-presidenciales-segun-encuesta-gallup-63182">has been falling</a> recently, showing a general loss of legitimacy for Colombian political parties and their representatives. </p>
<h2>Institutions put to the test</h2>
<p>In this twisted fashion, Brazil’s Odebrecht corruption scandal, which is clearly no longer just confined to that country, brings to the fore the paradox of Latin America’s burgeoning citizen engagement. </p>
<p>It is vital for democracy that people voice discontent with corruption, and Latin Americans’ increasing intolerance for the bribery, embezzlement and deal-making that has long characterised institutions on the continent <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/06/corruption-in-latin-america/">is good</a>. </p>
<p>In many countries, the Odebrecht backlash has proven dramatic, increasing ire toward governments already under considerable pressure for unpopular measures, such as <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-brazil-politics-idUSKBN13O2SU">Brazil’s budget cuts</a> and <a href="http://internacional.elpais.com/internacional/2017/03/07/argentina/1488916682_220951.html">Argentina’s teacher strikes</a>.</p>
<p>In Colombia, it is putting institutions to the test and shaping presidential politics. Corruption can no longer be cloaked under the veil of national security interests and blamed on the existence of an armed group like the FARC. The absence of a war rhetoric within Colombia obliges the government to be more accountable to citizens. That too is healthy.</p>
<p>But when popular outrage is manipulated by political operators who seek to advance their interests, democracy suffers. As in Brazil (where the main driver of Dilma Rousseff’s impeachment, Eduardo Cunha, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/30/world/americas/eduardo-cunha-brazil-sentenced-prison.html">has now been jailed for corruption</a>), politicians in Colombia tainted by other scandals are using Odebrecht as a Trojan horse to position their own political agendas. </p>
<p>It is a risky tactic in a nation that is still relatively fragile. If Colombia’s institutions fail this challenge, the country could face a dramatic political transition, and a nation attempting to end war may find peace again endangered.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/75173/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Fabio Andrés Díaz Pabón does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>It is vital for people to demand transparency, but when popular outrage is manipulated for political purposes, democracy suffers.Fabio Andrés Díaz Pabón, Researcher on Conflict, Peace and Development, International Institute of Social StudiesLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/697492016-12-05T02:38:23Z2016-12-05T02:38:23ZWhy did a new Colombian peace agreement come so quickly after the referendum ‘no’ vote?<p>In October, when Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos won the Nobel Peace Prize, some people were confused. Why did Santos receive the prize days after Colombian voters narrowly defeated a historic peace agreement? </p>
<p>A closer look at Santos’ strategic actions offers clarity about both the prize and why a new agreement has so quickly emerged.</p>
<p>My perspective on this issue is informed by work that I have done in Colombia with President Santos, his staff and members of his government. These interactions showed me how dedication to improve public services and quality of life for vulnerable populations can produce better prospects for peace in Colombia and beyond.</p>
<h2>Taking a risk</h2>
<p>The story in Colombia begins with the fact that President Santos was not forced to seek a peace agreement. He chose to seek it. He pursued this peace against great odds and despite the risks it posed to his presidency.</p>
<p>Why would he do this? The answer is complicated, but includes recognition of the fact that a military end to Colombia’s conflict is not feasible. It has been tried many times, but has never succeeded. </p>
<p>The FARC (an acronym for Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) was formed in 1964 as an armed wing of the Communist Party. For 52 years, the government and the FARC took turns damaging one another. Sometimes, the FARC’s damage shocked the Colombian people. Sometimes, the government’s damage weakened the FARC. During this period, <a href="http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=53664">more than 200,000 Colombians were killed</a> and about 7 million were displaced. But no military endgame emerged. </p>
<p>To see why a military solution is infeasible, look at a map. Colombia is a large country. It offers many spaces for a weakened FARC to hide and to reconstitute itself – as it has many times in the past. Parts of Venezuela also provide refuge. </p>
<iframe src="https://www.google.com/maps/embed?pb=!1m18!1m12!1m3!1d16301192.173428372!2d-81.98466071254676!3d4.064549789497765!2m3!1f0!2f0!3f0!3m2!1i1024!2i768!4f13.1!3m3!1m2!1s0x8e15a43aae1594a3%3A0x9a0d9a04eff2a340!2sColombia!5e0!3m2!1sen!2sus!4v1480705435589" width="100%" height="450" frameborder="0" style="border:0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<p>Under previous Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, a close ally of U.S. President George W. Bush, the Colombian military gained ground over the FARC, but these actions were not sufficient to produce a peace agreement before Uribe’s term of office ended in 2010.</p>
<p>President Santos saw this. In 2012, he sent a team to Havana, a venue that was politically acceptable to the FARC’s leadership, to pursue a lasting peace. They have been working rigorously ever since.</p>
<h2>An unpopular rival</h2>
<p>Negotiating with the FARC was risky for President Santos. Within Colombia, the FARC is deeply unpopular. To many Colombians, the FARC are criminals, murderers, the devil in human form. The FARC’s popularity in Colombia is at about <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=KihWR9BNIFwC&pg=PA29&lpg=PA29&dq=poll+FARC+popularity+-peace&source=bl&ots=aqpo45V4IV&sig=7Xe-bKIWv2rLDyBM5hL1-rQFueA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi1kYbSkdbQAhWM7IMKHVsnDLIQ6AEILDAD#v=onepage&q=poll%20FARC%20popularity%20-peace&f=fals">5 percent</a>. From the perspective of many Colombians, the president was negotiating with the country’s most hated group. This background provides part of the explanation for why <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/oct/07/peace-deal-rejection-returns-alvaro-uribe-to-political-limelight">many Colombians opposed</a> the negotiations and the terms of the initial agreement. Opponents of the negotiations wanted more punishment, less financial support and fewer political guarantees. </p>
<p>Santos was aware of these perceptions. Despite the fact that the Colombian constitution grants him the authority to sign a peace agreement, <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424127887324635904578643850430347958">he proposed a referendum</a> as a means of broadening any peace proposal’s legitimacy. The referendum prompted an intense national debate about what “peace” in Colombia would really mean.</p>
<h2>Sources of violence</h2>
<p>Peace does not mean going from past levels of violence to zero. That’s not a realistic aim because some lower ranking FARC commanders and leaders of smaller armed groups have indicated that <a href="http://www.insightcrime.org/news-analysis/colombia-has-a-new-peace-deal-but-challenges-remain">they may not go along with the deal</a>. While a peace agreement will not eliminate violence, it can change circumstances that have produced high amounts of violence in the past. </p>
<p>For many decades, the idealistic and violent aspects of the FARC have been a beacon for many Colombians who live in harsh conditions. Because past governments provided limited infrastructure for education and health, there have been <a href="http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/142801468188650003/pdf/97878-CAS-P151459-R2015-0135-IFC-R2015-0201-MIGA-R2015-0053-Box391496B-OUO-9.pdf">few economic opportunities</a> for many people – and great inequality. The FARC used this situation to recruit thousands of desperate people – people who were looking for an alternative vision of Colombia that offered more opportunity and more equality. Since the 1960s, this approach encouraged thousands of Colombians to participate in FARC violence and bloodshed.</p>
<p>President Santos recognized this dynamic. Through his perseverance, and recognition of the role of human capital investments in building a lasting peace, he set the stage for a new Colombia. In the first six years of the Santos presidency, the foundations for this new vision of Colombia advanced significantly. The president has engaged in a <a href="http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2016/01/14/colombia-winning-the-war-on-poverty-and-inequality-despite-the-odds">comprehensive program</a> of building infrastructure, expanding access to health care, building thousands of new homes for the poor, and creating new schools and scholarships for some of the nation’s poorest regions. In this time, the percentage of Colombians living under poverty has been reduced from <a href="http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SI.POV.NAHC?end=2015&locations=CO&start=2010">38 percent to 28 percent</a>. This is a remarkable accomplishment by any historical standard. </p>
<p><a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/9789264265288-en">These successes</a> in many of Colombia’s most desperate regions have given Santos leverage in negotiations with the FARC and weakened the FARC’s ability to recruit. These successes also kept the FARC at the negotiating table after the October referendum failed. </p>
<p>On Dec. 1, Colombia’s Congress voted to approve the second version of the peace agreement. While some are unhappy that the new version was not brought to a referendum, congressional approval of the agreement is clearly allowed under Colombia’s constitution. As a result of these actions, the next step towards decreasing violence can now be taken.</p>
<p>President Santos’ perseverance and foresight puts Colombia on the precipice of a formal end to a 52-year conflict that has killed over 200,000 people and displaced millions more. Moreover, the way in which the Santos government reduced poverty, and increased health, education, and infrastructure not only improved his leverage in peace negotiations – but offers a template for progress that leaders of other troubled regions can follow. For these reasons, his efforts deserve attention and acclaim – and the Nobel Peace Prize.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/69749/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Arthur Lupia has worked in Colombia, with President Santos, members of his cabinet, members of his staff, and representatives of the negotiating team on matters of communication and accountability. That said, this article reflects his own analysis and interpretation of the post-referendum status of the peace process. It does not reflect the views of any other person or organization.</span></em></p>An academic who has worked with the Colombian government says the path to peace was opened by improving quality of life for vulnerable populations.Arthur Lupia, Research Professor, University of MichiganLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/695352016-12-01T07:29:01Z2016-12-01T07:29:01ZColombia has a new peace agreement, but will it stick?<p>When, after four years of negotiations between the Colombian government and FARC guerrillas, the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/27/world/americas/colombia-farc-peace-agreement.html?_r=0">September 26 peace agreement</a> was <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-colombia-voted-no-to-peace-with-farc-66416">rejected by plebiscite</a>, many feared that the <a href="https://theconversation.com/santos-has-won-his-nobel-prize-but-peace-eludes-the-colombian-people-66666">promise of peace was lost</a> for good. </p>
<p>But the government has eked out a <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/13/world/americas/colombia-peace-deal-farc-rebels.html">second, renegotiated accord</a> that was <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/30/world/americas/colombia-farc-accord-juan-manuel-santos.html?emc=edit_na_20161130&nlid=64524812&ref=cta&_r=1">passed by the Senate</a> in a marathon 13-hour session on November 29th.</p>
<p>Now the country appears poised to finally end its 52-year civil war – if political spoilers allow.</p>
<p>President Juan Manuel Santos’ September agreement with the FARC was derailed by a successful <a href="http://www.larepublica.co/el-no-ha-sido-la-campa%C3%B1a-m%C3%A1s-barata-y-m%C3%A1s-efectiva-de-la-historia_427891">disinformation campaign</a> that accused him of surrendering Colombia to the guerrillas and turning it into a communist country. </p>
<p>Led by right-wing former president Alvaro Uribe, the opposition felt that the peace process had marginalised their agenda, which envisioned peace as the victor’s triumph rather than a compromise between factions. Santos’ <a href="http://www.elespectador.com/noticias/politica/el-66-de-los-colombianos-desaprueba-gestion-de-juan-man-articulo-652524">low approval rating</a> compounded the issue, as did the dense 297-page document, which citizens struggled to understand and verify. </p>
<p>The government used the rejection and resulting renegotiation period to broaden public support for peace and address the <a href="https://theconversation.com/colombias-peace-plebiscite-the-case-for-yes-and-the-case-for-no-66325">concerns of those wary of the agreement</a>. This bodes well for Colombia’s new accord. So, too, does the fact that Uribe’s camp participated in the renegotiation, though the Uribistas nonetheless left the Senate during the approval vote. </p>
<p>The new agreement incorporates <a href="http://equipopazgobierno.presidencia.gov.co/Documents/cambios-precisiones-ajustes-nuevo-acuerdo-final-terminacion-conflicto-construccion-paz-estable-duradera.pdf">several changes</a> that signal key compromises from both the FARC and the government.</p>
<h2>What’s new: five key changes</h2>
<figure class="align-left ">
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<span class="caption">Evangelicals feared a hidden LGBT agenda.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/02/LGBT_flag_map_of_Colombia.svg/660px-LGBT_flag_map_of_Colombia.svg.png">Wikimedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
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<p>One of the most contentious issues that drove some Colombians, in particular Evangelical Christians, to vote no in October was the use of a <a href="https://colombiaplural.com/jesucristo-la-paz-ideologia-genero/">“gender perspective”</a>. Religious conservatives claimed that the accord incorporated a hidden pro-LGBTI agenda that would redefine sexual orientation and disenfranchise heterosexuals. </p>
<p>Because the term “gender” was seen as a disguised attack on religion, the new agreement uses more precise language to specify that women and minority victims of the conflict must receive special attention. It also includes an explicit commitment to freedom of religion in Colombia (a tenet <a href="http://confinder.richmond.edu/admin/docs/colombia_const2.pdf">enshrined in the Constitution</a>).</p>
<p>The new agreement addresses a set of critiques around responsibility, power and <a href="http://cnnespanol.cnn.com/2015/12/22/human-rights-watch-critica-acuerdo-de-justicia-del-gobierno-colombiano-y-las-farc/">impunity</a> in post-conflict Colombia – common challenges for countries implementing transitional justice, which must juggle justice with legitimacy, public support, reparations and peace-building. </p>
<p>In the accord, the length of the justice process set up to try war crimes is shortened, its implications on the Constitution are limited, and the FARC is obliged to help financially reimburse victims. Even Human Rights Watch, <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/did-human-rights-watch-sabotage-colombias-peace-agreement/">a controversial opponent of the first accord</a>, has <a href="https://www.hrw.org/es/news/2016/11/23/carta-al-presidente-santos-sobre-el-nuevo-acuerdo-de-paz-con-las-farc">welcomed these changes</a>. </p>
<p>Additionally, fears within the Army that the state was relinquishing its authority to FARC troops have dissipated as the government invested time in explaining the agreement and its implications for soldiers. </p>
<p>To alleviate concerns that a peace agreement with communists, as the FARC are, would erode the right of private ownership, the new agreement explicitly affirms the right to hold property and have land. </p>
<p>In an entirely new provision, FARC assets will help finance <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-colombia-peace-idUSKCN1213N0">reparations and restitution for victims of the armed conflict</a>. This is a significant achievement that emerged from the opposition to the initial agreement. </p>
<p>The illicit drug trade, which helped <a href="https://www.wola.org/analysis/peace-drug-policy-and-an-inclusive-society/">fuel the war in Colombia</a>, was another source of disagreement in the original accord. The Uribistas demanded greater transparency from the FARC vis-a-vis their role in coca cultivation and cocaine trafficking. Now, all parties <a href="http://colombiapeace.org/2016/11/15/key-changes-to-the-new-peace-accord/">must provide “exhaustive and detailed information” </a> on their relationship with drug production and sale. What this means in practice is not yet clear. </p>
<p>Finally, the initial accord was intended to be linked to the Colombian Constitution, almost like an amendment, guaranteeing that its commitments would be honoured. Because the opposition portrayed this strategy as under-the-radar constitutional reform, the new agreement will have much more limited constitutional implications.</p>
<h2>Peace on the presidential campaign</h2>
<p>Over the past month and a half, only one element of the FARC accord was not adapted, clarified or modified: <a href="https://www.mesadeconversaciones.com.co/sites/default/files/24-1480106030.11-1480106030.2016nuevoacuerdofinal-1480106030.pdf">allowing demilitarised FARC members to participate in politics</a>. This signals clearly that the objective of Colombia’s peace process is, and shall remain, to transform an armed group into a political movement that channels its claims through the democratic system rather than with violence.</p>
<p>The critical compromises, increased citizen engagement and Congressional ratification should all facilitate approval and implementation of the new accord. Indeed, the leader of the negotiation team, Humberto de la Calle, has referred to it as the “<a href="http://www.elespectador.com/noticias/paz/el-mejor-acuerdo-posible-humberto-de-calle-articulo-650980">best possible agreement</a>”. </p>
<p>As this comment recognises, in the end, opposition has helped strengthen the country’s peace accord. Most of the concerns they voiced were valid and legitimate; not all “No” voters were, as <a href="http://www.semana.com/nacion/articulo/criticos-del-proceso-paz-no-solo-uribe/264797-3">“Yes” voters insisted</a>, anti-peace. </p>
<p>Still, the Uribistas <a href="http://www.elpais.com.co/elpais/colombia/proceso-paz/noticias/uribe-cuestiona-gobierno-por-permitir-revisiones-nuevo-acuerdo">remain opposed</a> to the accord, for reasons that remain vague. Several prominent opponents, including former presidential candidate Óscar Iván Zuluaga and former attorney general Alejandro Ordoñez, have proposed a referendum to <a href="http://www.elespectador.com/noticias/politica/congresistas-del-centro-democratico-proponen-revocar-el-articulo-666958">dissolve Congress and reelect it from scratch</a>. This extreme action would effectively disable the government from approving or implementing any accord.</p>
<p>Such recalcitrance has the feel of politicking. With parliamentary and presidential elections to be held in 2017 and 2018 respectively, many accuse the Uribistas of hijacking peace <a href="http://www.semana.com/opinion/articulo/leon-valencia-nuevo-acuerdo-de-paz-con-las-farc/506685">to support future campaigns</a>. Indeed, both Zuluaga and Ordoñez are already seen as pre-candidates for the presidency. </p>
<p>And so, half a century since its civil war began and two months since the rejection of peace at plebiscite, Colombia keeps striving for a more peaceful future. In its human hopes, political setbacks and halting progress, it is a textbook example of a country transitioning from armed conflict, showing how peace can take root – or fail to – when a country fights against itself using the weapons <a href="http://www.un.org/sexualviolenceinconflict/countries/colombia/">both of war</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/from-brexit-to-colombias-no-vote-are-constitutional-democracies-in-crisis-66668">of democracy</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/69535/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Fabio Andrés Díaz Pabón does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The South American nation is poised to end its 52-year civil war after a halting peace process that has used the weapons of both war and democracy.Fabio Andrés Díaz Pabón, Researcher on Conflict, Peace and Development, International Institute of Social StudiesLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.