The disarmament of the FARC is virtually impossible to be finished before the May 31 deadline, partly because the sheer volume of arms surprised even the leadership of the demobilizing guerrilla group.
The United Nations, in charge over overseeing the guerrillas’ demobilization and disarmament, reported Friday it had received 1,000 of the 7,000 handguns and rifles that, according to the FARC, were in the hands of its guerrillas and militia members.
This is significantly less than previously agreed in a timetable, mainly because of delays on both the government’s and guerrillas’ side to effectively comply with the demobilization and disarmament agreement that was part of a 2016 peace deal.
The biggest surprise and challenge, however, is the absurd amount of FARC weapons and explosives caches hidden in Colombia’s remote jungles and mountains.
Colombia’s turtle race for the FARC’s hidden arms caches
Because the government failed to construct the promised demobilization and disarmament camps on time, the guerrillas said they were unable to timely convene their front leaders to make an inventory of its hidden caches.
Just weeks ago, the FARC informed the military and their UN supervisors they have to recover 949 caches, a logistical nightmare that is virtually impossible to end before the end of this month.
UN Mission Chief Jean Arnault weeks ago estimated the operation implied picking up “many dozens” of caches, not almost 1,000.
The sheer volume of its weaponry surprised even the guerrilla leadership, which said it didn’t know it had so many weapons until after it had received the inventories of each of its approximately 50 front commanders.
This was a surprise for us too. This information is kept within each front and nobody ever got to making an inventory. When we finished the list we reached the number of a 949 “caletas.” This is going to take a lot of time.
FARC leader Julian Gallo, a.k.a. “Carlos Antonio Lozada”
According to weekly Semana, the FARC surrendered the shockingly large list just weeks ago, leaving both authorities and the UN with a mission impossible to complete in time.
To further complicate the operation, the FARC may know where its caches are, but it doesn’t know exactly how many weapons and explosives are inside them, only that it is a lot, Gallo told Semana.
We haven’t determined the quantity. There are machine guns, rifles, hand guns, [decommissioned] parts, mortars. In just one cache there are multiple tons of explosives.
FARC leader Julian Gallo, a.k.a. “Carlos Antonio Lozada”
This means that military experts will first have to determine what kind of weapons each cache contains before being able to decide how to either detonate them or safely transport them from the jungle to the UN containers located at the unfinished FARC camps.
In spite the delays, both the FARC and the government have committed to finalizing the disarmament of FARC members before the end of this month.
However, clearing Colombia of almost 1,000 weapons and explosives caches hidden in the jungle is hardly likely to be carried out within 23 days.
The United Nations is considering extending it’s initial 180-day mandate in Colombia with three years.