Colombia President Juan Manuel Santos took to national television on Monday to defend an agreement for judicial protection of a pending peace deal with FARC rebels after the opposition accused him of leading a “coup d’état against democracy.”
Last week the Colombian government and the FARC announced an agreement to judicially shield any peace deal from future revisions and to secure its compliance with international humanitarian law.
Colombia’s government and FARC rebels agree on judicial shield for peace deal
The agreement will protect the peace accord and implied changes to common law from being undone or altered by Congress of future administrations.
Moments after this agreement was announced, Alvaro Uribe and his party, the Democratic Center, condemned it as “coup d’état against Colombian democracy.”
“With the modification of the Constitution taking place in Havana, Congress will become a passive actor… approving the concessions of the Government to the FARC.”
Senator Alvaro Uribe
On Monday Santos strongly rejected Uribe’s allegations.
“After more than 50 years of fighting the state and its institutions, of rejecting our constitution and our laws, the FARC accepted that the process of making these agreements and guaranteeing their fulfilment must pass – precisely – through the Constitution and the three powers that come of it: the Executive, the Legislative, and the Judicial… this is a momentous step.”
President Juan Manuel Santos
As Santos paints it, the FARC have agreed to submit themselves to the constitution and its laws, but they needed the extra security of knowing that they would be protected from any U-turns by subsequent governments.
Santos highlighted that it would still fall to Congress to approve the draft legislative act and to make the special procedures of the laws and reforms necessary to implement the agreement.
Beyond Congress, the treaty would pass into the control of the Constitutional Court, which he assured would “protect the rights of our citizens, democracy and institutions.”
Finally, he emphasized that the people would have the last word on the matter, with a choice to accept or reject the treaty at the polls.
“What will happen is nothing other than the participation of all aspects and controls of our democracy. It will be the people, the Congress and the Constitutional Court who give it validity, substance and sustainability… That is why it is absurd to talk of a coup d’état, or how we are delivering the country to FARC when it is the opposite: FARC are submitting to our Constitution and our laws.”
President Juan Manuel Santos
After more than four years of negotiations, the administration of Santos and the FARC leadership are as close as they have ever been to ending a conflict that has lasted more than 50 years and cost more than 260,000 lives.