(Image: Norwegian Refugee Council)
War and peace

Duque allegedly planning to cut crucial funds for Colombia’s peace process and war victims

by Stephen Gill

Prominent members of Colombia’s opposition have questioned whether Colombia’s president Ivan Duque is deliberately diverting funds away from the country’s peace process.

House Representatives Juanita Goebertus of the Green Alliance and Norma Hurtado of the U Party highlighted the omission of specific pacts relating to the implementation of peace in article 4 of the National Development Plan 2018-2022, presented by Duque to the House of Representatives last week.

The missing details refer to “peace building: culture of legality, coexistence, stabilization and victims,” “equality of opportunities for indigenous and minority groups” and “women’s equality.”

Goebertus took to Twitter to denounce the omission of the pledges made as part of the 2016 peace deal with the FARC.

“Alert! The multi-year investment plan article of the  does not include the multi-year plan for peace investments as a specific component and with additional resources as established by the Constitution,” the Green Alliance representative alerted last week.

Goebertus explained that “the constitutional obligation that exists since legislative act 01 of 2016, in Article 3, to establish a specific section, such as a multi-year plan of investments for peace, which, in addition, contains additional resources,” is not being fulfilled by the Duque government.

Similarly, Norma Hurtado of the U Party warned of the lack provision for the implementation of peace as well as the absence of clarity regarding resources for gender equality, resources which successive governments are bound to implement for a 20-year period.

Goebertus also addressed the ongoing slaughter of social and community leaders across the country claiming the resources allocated to be insufficient to stop the bloodshed that is reminiscent of the elimination of the Patriotic Union in the late 1980s and 90s.

While Duque’s post-conflict adviser, Emilio Archila, claims that the government has taken “many actions” to protect FARC members and address the slaughter of social leaders, the figures highlighted by the Green Party representative suggest otherwise.

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Goebertus highlighted that despite the slaughter of more than 437 social leaders since 2016, areas under the Development with Territorial Focus Plan (PDET) that seeks increased public investment to impose state authority and stimulate the economy are still badly lacking in security and judicial resources.

“On #SocialLeaders, the growth of homicides concentrated in PDET municipalities: there are 6 judges per 100,000 inhabitants, in 36% there are no prosecutors, in 76% there is no CTI and in Duque’s NDP, for security, there is no aim to increase judges, prosecutors or technical investigators,” tweeted Goebertus.

Goebertus also highlighted that the government failed to set a goal for the restitution of land that was dispossessed during the armed conflict.

How to steal land the size of a small country and get away with it

Duque and his political party the Democratic Center have long been critics of the peace process agreed between ex-President Juan Manuel Santos and the now-demobilized FARC guerrillas.

The right-wing head of state has already turned his back on peace negotiations with the smaller ELN guerrilla group and continually insists that he is not bound by agreements made by his predecessor, Nobel Peace Prize winner Santos.

Duque isolated over refusal to honor international commitments to ELN talks

Goebertus has previously slammed Duque, claiming that the government is not just threatening to break its word with victims and the international community regarding both peace processes, but has been lying to the Colombian people about its state obligations.