Colombia: Peace Process Gets Another Reprieve

Peace talks with both the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC) and the Ejercito de Liberacion Nacional (ELN) were considered all but over, and with them Colombian President Andres Pastrana's chance to keep his promise to make fundamental progress toward peace before his four-year term expires Aug. 7, 2002. Now talks with both groups could resume, again raising hopes in Colombia that the decades-long violence might end.

In describing the faltering peace process, analysts had been using phases like "mortally wounded." Interior Minister Armando Estrada said on Nov. 11 that negotiations were "hanging by a thread and could break completely at any moment."

But, after intense international efforts to salvage the process, government peace commissioner Camilo Gomez said on Nov. 24 that a "highly favorable climate exists that soon the obstacles that have kept the peace process with the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC) at a standstill since October will be overcome." Gomez made his remarks as he left for Havana where the government signed a new agreement with the Ejercito de Liberacion Nacional (ELN).

FARC calls for national meeting

On Feb. 9, the FARC and the government signed the Los Pozos Accord, which created a committee of prominent citizens (Comision de Notables) to find ways to reduce the conflict and control the ultraright paramilitary groups. The demilitarized zone in southern Colombia was extended until …

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Publication information: Article title: Colombia: Peace Process Gets Another Reprieve. Contributors: Not available. Magazine title: NotiSur - South American Political and Economic Affairs. Publication date: November 30, 2001. Page number: Not available. © 2009 Latin American Data Base/Latin American Institute. COPYRIGHT 2001 Gale Group.

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