The long-awaited news came: the Government of Colombia and the FARC guerrillas have signed bilateral and definitive cease-fire. We are now at the points of the final peace treaty which, hopefully, will be signed in July when the points of the agreement between the parties will be complete.

The UN general secretary, Ban Ki Moon, and the presidents of Chile and Venezuela, facilitators of the negotiations, together with the Norwegian Foreign Minister and Cuban President Raul Castro, whose countries were the guarantors, were in Havana for the signing of the ceasefire.

You will wonder why they have not signed a final peace. The FARC have focused on the need to ensure the safety of its members once delivered the weapons, a process that will be reviewed and monitored by the UN. The guerrillas will be concentrated in certain areas by the parties, waiting the establishment of the rest of the practical aspects of their demobilization.

In the 80s and 90s, an organization which also rebelled against the state, the Patriotic Union, was exterminated once laid down their arms. The FARC wants to avoid being victims of violence by armed groups that have taken the place of the right-wing paramilitaries, their bitter enemies, and that gave life to so-called Bacrim (new criminal gangs). These groups are particularly active in some warmer regions, taking advantage of the absence of the state, and they are making massacre between members of civil society organizations and political parties, as well as engage in drug trafficking and kidnapping. Not surprisingly, the signing of the ceasefire requires some points specifically dedicated to the fight against organized crime.

The presence of the presidents of friendly countries and figures as Ban Ki Moon, however, gives prominence to the event, which put an end to a sad and painful chapter of civil war, which lasted more than 50 years and has caused 220,000 deaths, 4000 missing and 6 million refugees inside and outside the country.

Persistence and patience won. Negotiations lasted six years, first reserved and then public (this phase took place for almost four years in Cuba) to arrive at a definition of the aspects linked to the conflict. A process that perhaps would need a higher education, from the government, especially to win the internal skepticism that doubted an important public sector opinion that would be possible to achieve peace.

So we turned the page. But not everything is done. In addition to the dangerous Bacrim, we are still at the beginning to come to an agreement with the other guerrillas active in the country, the National Liberation Army. Starts also the political battle for the affirmation of the vote in favor of peace in the referendum that will legitimize the agreement between the government and FARC. But it seems there is hope for a positive outcome, in front of a long-awaited result. And at the meantime the Colombians will have to fight for a country with less inequality, which offers to a large number of citizens opportunities to develop. Colombia has enormous possibilities of growth (it is estimated that peace will add 2% to the national GDP, which this year will grow at around 3-3.5%), but it is also one of the most unequal in the region, with a strong concentration of ownership of agricultural land and a severe absence of the State in areas far from population centers.

These are immediate challenges. But, meanwhile, the story has opened a new chapter under the sign of peace.

25-06-2016 di Alberto Barlocci

fonte: Città Nuova