Peace Process in Colombia and oncoming ellections

[La Guaneña]

Bogotá Mayor Gustavo Petro, ordered to step down last month by Colombia's Prosecutor General Alejandro Ordóñez, won a reprieve Jan. 14, when Magistrate José Armenta of the Supreme Tribunal of Cundinamarca department ruled that the order should not be carried out until it has been established that it complied with the law. Petro, who is allowed to remain in office while the case is on appeal, responded to the ruling by saying "justice had won." But Ordóñez did not say that he would honor the court's ruling, and Petro told supporters in the Plaza de Bolívar just one week later that he believed he will be ordered to step down by the end of January. He suggested he would acquiesce, saying: "This is the final week; this story is over." (Caracol Radio, Jan. 23; BBC News, Jan. 15; El Tiempo, Jan. 14)

On Jan. 18, four days after his decision, Judge Armenta requested urgent protective measures from the authorities, saying he had received threats in reprisal for his ruling. He said that his wife Cecilia Calderón had also been threatened. Calderón was identified in the press as a director of the Bogotá Aqueduct, Drainage and Sewer Company (EAB)—the same public entity that Petro last year awarded the city's first centralized sanitation contract to, sparking the crisis. Ordóñez charged that a bidding process including private firms had been improperly by-passed, and ordered Petro to step down. The order also barred him from holding public office for 15 years. Petro, a populist and former rebel leader with the M-19 guerrilla group, said the order was politically motivated, and rallied his supporters to occupy Plaza de Bolívar. (Prensa Latina, Jan. 18; El Tiempo, Jan. 17)

Bogotá's Metropolitan Police are meanwhile investigating claims of a politically motivated attack by police agents on a member of Colombia’s leftist Unión Patriotica political party. UP leaders said police raided the local party headquarters in Bogotá's Teusaquillo district Jan. 20, and attacked one of the workers there, brutally beating him while calling him "communist." Founded 30 years ago by demobilized followers of the FARC guerillas, th UP has historically been a target of state-sponsored political violence. Longtime party leader Aida Avella, who announced the attack at a press conference, is the UP's first presidential candidate in 16 years. (Colombia Reports, Jan. 23)

http://ww4report.com/node/12954

So, the Peace Process has reached a deal on two of its parts, the Land Reform and the Political Participation. The Constituent Assembly part is probably going to be one of the deal breakers or the deal sealers.

Aída Avella is back in Colombia and has been launched by the re-forged Unión Patriotica after the 1986 massacre with great support from the PaCoCol, MP and other legal or clandestine political forces.

I wonder if this time there will be enough political power to have considerable gains in the peace process, and if there is actually any chance to dispute a constituent.

[Prometeo liberado]

Another fallacy that the left has fallen for. It's not a Peace Process so much as it is appeasement. The urban workers and peasants will see no gains here.

p.s. By Peace Progress they mean "peace" for the ruling class and the ongoing "process" of capitalist violence against the rest.

[La Guaneña]

Another fallacy that the left has fallen for. It's not a Peace Process so much as it is appeasement. The urban workers and peasants will see no gains here.

p.s. By Peace Progress they mean "peace" for the ruling class and the ongoing "process" of capitalist violence against the rest.

We must remember that the negotiations involve many points, and that it is an all or nothing deal: either there is agreement on all points or the war carries on. There has been an agreement on a major land reform, the kind of land reform that the FARC was created fighting for, pushed and carried out by popular forces.

And the FARC-EP has made it pretty clear that it's goal is to fight for the possibility to have an open, mass struggle in Colombia, since that is the only way to effectively involve the urban working class in it. Cano makes it pretty clear in a lot of statements that they fight for democratic opening, for "Peace With Social Justice" (I don't even like that slogan anymore after hearing it so many times).

Also, to be honest, I don't know how far the guerrilla can go anymore, Colombia is the third biggest friend of the USA, after Israel and Egypt, and the last year has seen a huge offensive with those fucking smart bombs (500 lbs of pure democracy), that ended up killing major leaders, such as Cano and Mono.

Allthough the guerrilla seems to be on its heels, I don't know how longer the government wants to fight these people, it's been 40 years ffs. I do have hope for big concessions coming from them, including the very-commented possibility of a Constituent.

I just hope this doesn't turn into 1986 again