Farc’s farewell to arms
Colombia’s FARC rebel group has voted unanimously to approve a peace deal with the government, declaring an end to a five-decade war as it prepares to transition into a new political party.
After four years of negotiations in Havana, the government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia reached a final peace accord last month that will end a war that has left a quarter of a million people dead.
‘‘Peace is the most beautiful of victories,’’ rebel leader Rodrigo Londono, who uses the nom de guerre Timochenko, told a crowd of hundreds of FARC fighters at the close of a congress on the southern Yari Plains yesterday.
‘‘We yearn that no Colombians will ever again have to take up arms to make their voices heard and their demands felt, as has been required of us,’’ Timochenko said to cheers and applause, as thunder rumbled through the sky overhead.
As part of the agreement, the FARC will continue to push for social change as a political party, receiving 10 unelected seats in congress until 2026.
FARC’s leaders have been coy on policy details but are expected to morph the group into a party rooted in Marxist ideals.
Another congress to officially found the party would be held no later than May 2017, FARC commander Ivan Marquez said.
Two hundred delegates from FARC units around the country gathered at the Yari site, five hours by rutted road from the nearest provincial town, to review the accord and discuss reorganising the group in peacetime.
‘‘The rebel delegates of the congress have given unanimous backing to the final accord,’’ Marquez said.
The peace accord is due to be signed on Tuesday by President Juan Manuel Santos and Timochenko. Colombians will vote on the deal in an October 2 plebiscite, the final go-ahead for the rebels to demobilise. Polls indicate that the accord should easily pass.
The congress, the first ever open to the media, marked the group’s final meeting as a guerrilla army and ended with a concert featuring non-FARC performers.
Previous congresses, to decide battle strategy, were sometimes held via the internet due to military offensives that prevented FARC leaders from meeting.
Although both the leadership and rank-and-file fighters say they will prioritise political activism as civilians, the group has so far not provided examples of specific policies.
‘‘Our initial platform is the implementation of the Havana accords,’’ Pastor Alape, a member of the FARC’s secretariat, said. ‘‘Our political proposals will have to come from the suggestions of our base.
‘‘We started our political efforts clandestinely and now we aspire, legally, to open our initiatives, together with all sectors of society, to concretely cultivate the political space we are given.’’
The five-point peace accord covers agricultural reform, an end to the illegal drug trade, reparations for victims of the war, FARC political participation, and demobilisation.
Policies were being drafted and would be revealed in due time, FARC commander Bertulfo Alvarez said.
One mid-level rebel fighter said the group wanted to decentralise Colombia’s government, including halving the size of Congress, in a bid to combat corruption and ensure communities had control over the distribution of royalties from oil and mining projects.
The FARC may find an electoral foothold among poor farmers and committed leftists, but many Colombians are worried that exfighters will join criminal gangs.