Colombia’s five-year-long peace talks with leftist guerrillas may have tested the country’s faith, but the ongoing peace process will be “even more complex, more difficult and longer,” according to the president.
In a press conference on Friday, President Juan Manuel Santos admitted that the peace process has been plagued by “delays and errors.”
Nevertheless, Santos vowed to be “working with passion and relentlessly” to make Colombia a more peaceful society after more than half a century of armed conflict.
Despite the challenges and difficulties, despite the obstacles, we are building the foundations of a better, peaceful country. Colombia advances.
President Juan Manuel Santos
The government has been under fire from society and international observers about the state’s “deficiency” in honoring commitments made with guerrilla group FARC.
What used to be Colombia’s largest Marxist guerrilla group disarmed earlier this year while peace negotiations with the last-standing guerrilla group, the ELN, kicked off in February.
The FARC process has produced results in spite of irregularities, Santos said.
Peace does not happen from one day to the next, peace is built and needs the effort of all Colombians.
President Juan Manuel Santos
Reported progress in FARC peace process
- More than 50 of 170 municipalities located in traditional war zones have received more than $7 million in public investment.
- More than 20,000 plots of lands have been given to poor families in an attempt to facilitate displaced farmers’ return and the reduction of extreme poverty in the countryside.
- More than 700,000 of the 6.4 million registered victims have received compensation.
- 175 of 673 affected municipalities have been declared free of landmines.
- 20,000 of 100,000 families that live off coca have received the first payment that would allow their participation in a crop substitution scheme.
The peace process, which can count on deep-rooted skepticism among Colombians, demobilized more than 14,000 reported FARC guerrillas. Some 3,000 of these demobilization requests are still being verified.
At the same time, the government has vowed to increase presence in areas that traditionally have been either neglected or abandoned by the state.
While the process has ended the country’s oldest armed conflict, it has yet to eliminate violence in areas that have long existed outside the law and are home to multiple illegal armed groups.