Colombia’s road to peace marred by multiple obstacles

Cartagena, Colombia — The contrast couldn’t be more dramatic: As Colombia’s president and the head of its largest guerrilla movement were putting their signatures on a historic peace deal, a 6-year-old boy was killed when he chased a soccer ball into a field and stepped on a land mine left behind during the half-century conflict.

Even as this nation celebrates the end of hostilities with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, the harsh reality that fueled the long conflict is settling in. From the security challenges posed by surging coca crops and dangerous criminal gangs to the difficult task of removing land mines and reintegrating guerrillas blamed for numerous atrocities, the work ahead is daunting.

The first test is getting sufficient political support to implement the lofty accords, signed Monday in this Caribbean resort city despite widespread distrust of the guerrillas. Polls show that a referendum on the deal is expected to pass Sunday. But the margin of victory is still in play and nobody expects the sort of strong turnout that would put the war-torn country firmly on the path to reconciliation.

Most of Colombia’s challenges are in its vast, long-neglected countryside, where the guerrilla group long held sway and criminal activity remains rampant. The challenge is made all the more difficult by stiff opposition to the peace deal from the country’s powerful former president, Alvaro Uribe, architect of the U.S.-backed military offensive that forced the rebels to the negotiating table, and a collapse in oil prices that has drained government coffers.

“The smooth part is going to end pretty abruptly,” said Adam Isacson, a longtime observer of Colombia and analyst at the Washington Office on Latin America. “When you hit the second half of 2017 and you really do kind of fall off the edge of the Earth, it’s going to get very confusing.”

The land mine tragedy took place Monday in a plantain field in the town of Algeciras in southern Colombia, one of 700 settlements where land mines have been detected, most planted by the rebels and blamed for more than 11,000 deaths since 1990.

“The smooth part is going to end pretty abruptly. When you hit the second half of 2017 and you really do kind of fall off the edge of the Earth, it’s going to get very confusing.” ADAM ISACSON, ANALYST AND LONGTIME OBSERVER OF COLOMBIA