The Nat Edit: Heartbreak? “New” call to arms shows Colombia’s peace was always falling through the cracks
FARC’s second in command Ivan Marquez shook the country on Thursday with his announcement a faction of the guerrilla was returning to arms and eager to form new alliances with ELN and other rebel organizations.
The target? No good-behaved soldiers or police authorities but the “excluding and corrupt oligarchy” in control of the State.
The reason? The feeling of State’s “treason” to the Havana peace accords and the killing of social leaders and former guerrilla fighters.
Colombian President Ivan Duque’s response to the announcement fuel the fire even more stating FARC dissidents as criminals and narco terrorists receiving support from Nicolas Maduro’s Government.
To say the implementation of the peace process in Colombia has been “hard” would be an understatement.
Moreover if the six-point accord’s focus is to mend visible wounds but not the structural violence causing them in the first place.
FARC entered the Havana talks with wide open eyes to the romantic proposal Juan Manuel Santos’ government sold. They were not naive, concessions needed to be made and international pressure helped increase their assurance things will be different this time.
However, the love affair was not an idyllic one from the start. The on-off relationship went through years of compromising both parties their perceptions on:
What a state should do?
What is a terrorist group?
Why violence was favored?
Why peace should be pursued?
Why “love”, “smiles” and “shaking hands” were preferred over any other type of expression to achieve: political, economic and social goals?
That we are wondering “why, oh, why” is proof there is a strong naiveness of the context, the roles of actors and the one-formula solution.
Peace takes time to build, yes, but to give it a chance “love” cannot be sold as something purely “physical”, connection needs to be meaningful beyond words.
Justice, ideals and politics should be revised just as the origins of violence employed by ALL actors involved.
The love affair may have ended.
Let’s see how the break up unfolds.
Natalia Bonilla 
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