Columns & Blogs

Peace with the FARC advances decisively, but does not generate enthusiasm or defeat the skepticism of large urban sectors

The FARC's transition from war to life without arms is ever closer. A few days ago, the FARC's walk to the rural zones ended, and with it, the concentration of almost 7,000 people seeking to leave the war.

Either humans lost their reason or there is a serious problem with our concept of reason. I understand those who are convinced of the first thing: millions of humans - self-defining rationals - are reluctant to believe in the benefits of vaccines, believe in the most implausible lies through social media, are destroying the planet where they live, and choosing egotists populist against their own interests.

The crisis in Guajira is the expression of all the failures of Colombian politics.

The growing polarization of peace is further eroding debate and democratic coexistence, due to stigmatizations against those who defend certain positions, as has happened to me in the debate on the so-called "command"responsibility."

Through the fast-track in Congress, the implementation of the peace agreement is leaving out ethnic peoples. Long before there was a table in Havana, the peace labs were the territories of the Nasa in Cauca, the Wiwa's Sierra or the black communities of the Pacific, who refused to take arms or left in the middle of guerrilla and paramilitary violence and state stigmatization.

In Bogotá, there are two images of La Guajira. For some, its is a touristic paradise. For the majority of people, it is synonymous with institutional crisis.

The drugs section of the peace agreement mentions strategies for the substitution of illicit crops, strengthening the fight against illegal finances and drug trafficking groups, paying attention to consumption and the promotion of an international debate on drug policy. However, it fell short in providing a comprehensive solution for communities associated with coca leaf cultivation.

For no one is a secret that health activists have had to face tactical, illegal and corrupt agencies from the industries they fight. However, no one will suspect that food activists would also have to face these tactics. The infiltration of communications and censorship have become recurrent forms to stop their work in Latin America

The government seems to seek to convert the so-called fast track ("fast track"), into a kind of fat track (a "thick track"). At least that is the impression that leaves this idea of using it to approve constitutional reforms, such as mandatory voting or closed election lists, which may be good, but do not have a clear link with the Peace Agreement.