Surviving members of the FARC-linked Union Patriotica (UP) have petitioned to regain their status as a political party, newspaper El Espectador reported Monday.
Former Supreme Court magistrate Jaime Araujo Renteria filed a lawsuit on behalf of the defunct organization, requesting that the UP regain its political party status and claiming that it was unfairly taken away in 2002 by the National Electoral Council.
“In my opinion there was a misinterpretation because the National Electoral Council said the UP had neither 50,000 votes nor representation in Congress,” Araujo told the newspaper. He went on to say that the Council had neglected the fact that most of the members of the UP were assassinated by paramilitaries, therefore making it impossible to meet the representation requirements of the council.
The State Council will decide whether the UP will be able to enter local elections in October as an official political party.
The UP was founded in 1985 by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and Colombian Communist Party during peace negotiations with the government.
The party was dissolved in the 1990s after the systematic assassinations of its members by paramilitaries and drug traffickers, who allegedly worked in coordination with state agents.
