Just over three years ago, the most historic and punctual peace process that ever existed between the FARC-EP guerrillas and the National Government began in Havana, which in previous events, both parties, have failed to reach to a total victory against the opponent.
It is not easy to say that a conflict that has lasted for more than half a century and more than a thousand direct victims is going to end overnight and that we are all going to be totally happy with the result, what could be detailed is that yes Although this nation's war has made it clear that victory is not reached by arms, and on the contrary, sectors of the population end up excluding themselves, it is necessary to have an effective peace process and that in its final conclusion it is not decreed neither victories nor defeats, because the only thing the war leaves behind are victims and much, much pain.
But the differences between an effective peace process - such as the one intended - and a simple waste of time and historical force are truth, justice and reparation. Without these precepts, peace cannot be achieved, nor can awareness of a perpetual truce in the conflict that is doing so much damage to this country.
And, although it may be difficult to accept it, achieving peace has more complexity than continuing in a situation of violence and military chaos.
This peace process is as important as the others, because it still pursues an end, peace, but there are several characteristics that differentiate it from the previous ones. In the first place, the creation of a Land Restitution Law, by which the executive seeks full reparation for the victims, returning the properties stolen by the insurgency.
Second, the negotiation in a foreign country, which, although it has supported the armed insurgency, provides partial guarantees for neutrality, such as the safeguarding of the guerrillas from being in a territory outside of national jurisdiction, and more importantly outside of the North American jurisdiction, that although it could request his extradition at any time for the crimes of drug trafficking, money laundering, among others, which depending on the State would be an eternity for the leadership of the criminal organization.
On the other hand, the creation of institutions such as the Historical Conflict Commission and the Advisory Commission for the Post-Conflict of the Presidency, which includes most sectors of Colombian society, is so transcendental to give more confidence to the negotiations and legitimacy so that in the future the Havana accords are approved.
Lastly, the inclusion of victims, high-ranking military personnel, and businessmen, offers the vision of a consensus among the national population so that there really is peace.
This does not mean that the process is perfect, because it lacks structural and very important things, which could make the dialogue fail.
The effectiveness of the Victims Law
You cannot make a clean slate of an error as serious as paramilitarism. The Victims Law has a good intention in sight but the consequences are so damaging that they are being observed from now on. The true purpose of the Victims Law will be detailed below, which if used well could be a tool for national reconstruction, but if it is politicized, as is happening in part, it is just one more pretext.
We begin by understanding that the Victims Law is a regulation issued by the Congress of the Republic, at the initiative of the Presidency, which, in principle, seeks to restore real property titles to people who were stripped of them by violence against them. insurgent groups such as paramilitaries, leftist guerrillas and new criminal gangs, traces of demobilized paramilitaries and guerrillas and drug traffickers. In short, the law creates a National Land Restitution Unit and Judges who decree the ownership of the property to its former owners, who willingly wish to return to the place where their parents, children, etc. were born and were born.
But if we look closely, the people, victims of the conflict, are being returned to the same areas where these armed groups operate, and one might think that then the problem is to carry out productive social development projects so that these affected communities because of the violence and who are now trying to recover, have more guarantee.
Unfortunately the truth is other.
Starting because beyond this repair system, there are sectors in most of the areas where the process is being carried out, owners of these properties, who are formally the owners through public deeds, but who actually used the paramilitaries and groups of left to become legitimate owners. And it is a fact that many of those owners are in the highest cusp of power, such as Mr. Pretelt, president of the Constitutional Court, or of people who are currently in positions such as mayors, governors, congressmen and judges. of the Republic.
So, the system may sound very good, but its effectiveness results in uncovering that rotten pot that is in the state corporations.
More terrifying is the fact that this law, curiously, is closely linked to the Barren Law and other regulations that if analyzed will result in a new wave of displacement, but this time, although it sounds contradictory, a legal displacement.
The foregoing is based on the fact that the owners are also large multinationals, companies that have built an economic emporium and that although they do not recognize it, they also had links with paramilitaries and extreme left groups. This is the case of Sicim, a multinational that until this year had paid the ELN millions of pesos, to continue with the progress of its own commercial interest. Another case cited by the national press and that has been forgotten is that of the multinational Perenco, which supported and benefited from paramilitaries, especially alias "Don Mario", the head of a criminal group. Of course, there are cases of more companies that have not been reported or are reported but the files are lost.
So, if one is curious and looks further, it turns out that the restitution process is parallel to the fact that there are still these companies and people with great power who were the intellectual authors of the displacement and they are still there, without anyone doing anything other than keep silence.
But where does the wasteland law and those rules that were discussed before come in? It is here, the wasteland law, promoted by the current government seeks to expand the UAF (family agricultural units), so that a single person has the right to acquire more land than allowed. But once the law is made, the trap is made, some companies create sub-companies or independent companies, which in the pure truth are owned by large industries but on paper they are autonomous, and they are made to more land and more land. The case of the "ingenio" Riopaila, for example.
This described penetrates so much into the Land Restitution Law, because people who return to conflict zones are now going to have to sell their properties very cheaply to these magnificent companies that have already found a way to build their complex of real estate. Guessing where the people who leave there are going, it turns out that they end up in large cities, like Bogotá, but no longer as displaced by violence, but with a little extra money, however they continue to be a burden to the system, because they are he fears that the 1940s with the banana plantations will be repeated or the capital cities will be overflowed even more.
As a first conclusion, the restitution law does not fully guarantee that the population victim of the conflict will not return to the cities if the proposal to hand over those same properties returned to their owners, to the large multinationals, who will continue for nothing continues. displacing people, but this time legally and without so much violence, that is, cheaper.
The fear of a double table
Negotiating in a foreign country provides a guarantee for the parties, because they feel more secure. Nothing like not thinking of a surprise military operation to be captured, and having the peace of mind of having full conditions to negotiate. But the truth is that the military leadership of the General Staff, the miniscule sector of independent researchers and some who do not strongly agree with this process, have openly declared that there is a double table. This does not mean that there are two tables in Havana, as is known throughout the world, one deals with important issues and the others seek solutions to other issues. When you talk about a double table, you talk about two countries, two negotiating groups, two agreements, two conditions, but the difference is that one is public and the other private, as they do not want to recognize it.
Why a private table? Is what they talk about so important that they can't speak in public? It is paradoxical, but the top FARC chief has not come out as Tirofijo did before, which puts him at some distance from the process.
But furthermore, it turns out that in Venezuela - and there are already records from several reliable sources, such as General (R) Javier Rey - parallel conversations are taking place that include very thorny issues, but that the State refuses to recognize, simply because it does not It is convenient to accept that the guerrillas will have a certain military and economic advantage, because money, intelligence information and, above all, their ties cost much more than a peace process.
If a civilian, normal, peasant, was a leftist guerrilla, had joined the drug trade and had a lot of money, no matter how much Marxist-Leninist guerrilla he may be, he will not return the money or disseminate key information that is his lifeline in common life.
The inclusion of the Society?
The truth is that there is no inclusion in the broad sense of the word in the peace process, it is simply enough to look at the behavior of President Santos, by delegating only businessmen as negotiators and people from the elites and social castes, which in many cases are worst actors of the conflict, that is, only rich people go there to Havana and negotiate, negotiate their interests, place themselves at the same level of the State and everything to defend their properties and wealth that not in all cases, but it can be assured that a a great number obtained it at the cost of armed violence.
Where are the peasants? Where are the university students - thanks to them we have a constitution? Where are the representatives of the common and wild citizenship, of that ordinary citizen who does not even know who is in Congress, and not because of ignorance, but because of the lack of legitimacy of the legal institutions? Where are the teachers, would it be interesting to involve them in the decisions of the State? They do not see each other, simply because this process is a joke for those who cultivate, for those who teach, for those who earn a minimum, because the businessmen - who are also politicians, such as the defense minister, Luis Villegas, former president of the ANDI- they are the ones who are going to win, the ones who are going to leave behind a stone in their shoe.
Why are these people not included, the students, the peasants, teachers, the ordinary citizen? Simply because their lives are seen as the raw material of consumerism, those who will continue to consume from the system that will not change by agreement.
He will not see peace
If this agreement is so legitimate and the war is going to end, where are the arms manufacturers, saying: “we closed”? Chiclets Adams closed first, and laid off his workers.
Has the end of Plan Colombia been announced, for example, how much damage has it caused to the sovereignty of the nation? Or rather, has the executive decided to end military cooperation with other nations? The answer is obvious, before they increase the number of foreign troops in national territory.
Peace is not going to be achieved only with a signed paper, that is utopian, if so, Colombia would already have peace since 1991 with the Constitution. Even if peace is signed with the FARC in Havana, even if it is of very good intentions, there will be no effective peace.
It simply all comes down to the fact that war is a business that leaves a lot of money, a lot of profit for people of power, and that sadly, even if the guerrillas demobilize, the paramilitaries hand over their weapons, drugs are legalized, there will always be a new conflict, because peace education, that chair that must be given, not to explain the agreements, but to create peace from homes, schools, universities, is far from being given.
Watching the news for five minutes and seeing that this country has no other way out than that dictated by the power elites, is so absurd that it makes you want to cry and anger your spirit.
