Colombian expats set to vote on historic deal
More than 1,000 of Calgary’s 9,000 nationals registered to vote Sunday
Colombian expatriates in Calgary are excited to vote on a deal that could cement an end to five decades of conflict in their homeland, says a diplomat from that country.
Among them will be refugees who fled Colombia because of the war and drug violence that’s claimed well over 200,000 lives, said Andres Talero Gutierrez, consul-general for Alberta and Saskatchewan.
“People of my generation have not lived a single day without a wartorn country,” said Talero.
The agreement, reached last month and signed Monday between the Colombian government and left-wing Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebels, ends an insurgency that began 52 years ago.
Some of those voting Sunday on whether to accept the deal came to Canada uprooted by the threat posed by both sides in the very war they’ll be asked to help end once and for all, said Talero.
“Refugees had to flee from FARC violence and military violence, so you have opposite ends of the spectrum,” he said.
“But they are all finding common ground here as victims ... they want to turn the page.”
Some people are hoping peace will bring answers to the fate of loved ones who were killed or disappeared during the brutal conflict that also involved war over cocaine turf and rightist paramilitaries, said Talero.
“They want to know where their bodies are, they want closure,” said the Bogota native. A stumbling block in accepting the peace pact is a concern held by some that war criminals will receive an immunity they don’t deserve.
Talero said he’s hopeful there’ll be some kind of restitution for wrongs committed and predicts most voters both in Canada and Colombia will overwhelmingly accept the deal that would bring the FARC solely into the political sphere.
“Ninety per cent of Colombian people despise the FARC so by no means is voting ‘yes’ a vote for the FARC,” he said.
Of the 9,000 Colombian-Calgarians, only 1,067 are registered to vote on the peace pact because there was so little time to sign them up since the agreement was reached in August, said Talero.
The Colombian consulate is providing a ballot box where those unregistered can deliver their own non-binding verdict, he added.
Interest in the fate of Colombia’s new-found peace and the vote among the local community has been immense, said Talero.
“Even if those are not entitled to a vote, they want their voices heard so they can come and cast a symbolic vote,” he said.
“We have been receiving so many phone calls.”
Even if the expected outcome of ratification occurs, one much smaller, 2,000-strong leftist guerrilla group National Liberation Army (ELN) isn’t part of the deal and remains in the field.
But on Wednesday, the ELN said they’re ready to begin negotiations with the government.
Talero said an end to the guerrilla war might mean the return of some of Alberta’s Colombian expats who’d like to purchase land and retire in their homeland.
“But I don’t think it would be a big wave,” he said.
Ballots in Calgary will be cast Sunday at the Colombian Consulate, 803 15 Ave. S.W. from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.