Colombia’s new leader plans changes to FARC peace deal
BOGOTA: Colombia’s new President Ivan Duque took office Tuesday, with no shortage of tough issues to tackle, from heightened tensions with neighbouring Venezuela to the lingering difficulties of peacebuilding with the nation’s rebel groups.
The right-wing Duque, who is just 42 years old, succeeds Juan Manuel Santos – and could work to undo the deal his predecessor reached with leftist FARC guerrillas to end a half- century of conflict.
Wearing a sash in the country’s national colours, Duque took the oath of office in Bolivar Square in historic Bogota in the presence of several regional leaders including Mexico’s Enrique Pena Nieto and Ecuador’s Lenin Moreno.
In his inaugural address, he said he would take steps to fix ‘structural flaws’ in the deal with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia ( FARC), without offering concrete details.
“We will deploy corrective measures to ensure that the victims get the truth, proportional justice, reparations — and no repetitions” of the past, said Duque, a lawyer by training and a former senator.
Duque said he would also take a tougher tack in talks with the country’s last active rebel group, the Marxist ELN, to ensure that a ‘credible process’ is put in place so that that the group ceases all criminal activity within a set time limit.
Colombia’s political left, defeated in June elections, protested as Duque took office, demanding justice for the more than 330 rights activists murdered since the December 2016 peace accord with the FARC.
Observers agree that Duque’s success will depend in large part on his connection to popular former president Alvaro Uribe ( 2002-2010), who handpicked the political novice to help the right — which opposed the FARC deal — regain power.
“His mentor’s situation and relations with Venezuela are the keys” to Duque’s presidency, political scientist Diana Avellaneda from Javeriana University told AFP.
Relations with Caracas took a dive over the weekend when Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro claimed to have been the victim of an ‘assassination’ attempt — and put the blame on Santos, ‘ ultra right- wing’ domestic opponents and the US.
Bogota called the accusation ‘absurd.’
Duque looks set to stand up to Colombia’s neighbor to the east, demanding ‘ free elections’ following a May poll that saw Maduro re- elected, which was boycotted by Venezuela’s opposition.
He hinted at a tough line against Maduro, saying Colombia “will reject any sort of dictatorship on the continent.”
The neighbours share a 2,200kilometre long border that is hard to police.
Bogota has accused Caracas of harboring Marxist rebels, while hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans have crossed the border to escape food and medicine shortages, failing public services and hyperinflation in their homeland.
If Duque “starts answering everything Maduro says ... he will add fuel to the propaganda and political fire to keep ratcheting up the tension,” said international relations expert Jairo Velasquez.
The analyst added that the new Colombian leader could become Venezuela’s “enemy, real or imagined.”
At home, Duque’s firebrand rhetoric has increased tension and rocked already fragile relations with rebels, both former and current.
He has long criticised the FARC deal as being too lenient in allowing former rebels accused of atrocities to serve as lawmakers. — AFP