The United Nations Security Council on Wednesday called on Colombia’s government to implement “all aspects” of a 2016 and expressed “serious concern” over ongoing violence.
In a joint statement, the ambassadors reiterated their concern “over reports of grave security conditions in several of Colombia’s departments, and continued threats, attacks and killings targeting community and social leaders, including those from indigenous and Afro-Colombian populations, and former Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People’s Army (FARC-EP) members.”
The security council increased pressure on the government of President Ivan Duque to implement the deal that is fiercely opposed by his far-right party.
UN Security Council
During a meeting of the UN’s Peacebuilding Commission in the coastal city of Cartagena, Duque stressed the need to combat drug trafficking in order to comply with his “Peace with Legality” policy that excludes key elements of the 2016 peace deal.
President Ivan Duque
Duque’s party denies his country’s armed conflict. The president told the UN commission that the assassinations have been carried out by “drug trafficking networks, dissidents and terrorist groups,” ignoring the paramilitary groups and the military.
Despite Duque’s reluctance to implement the peace deal and his party’s attempts to sabotage it, the government has slowly been forced to implement elements it initially tried to ignore.
The courts and Congress, where the government has no majority control, have forced Duque to implement the deal closed with the FARC by his predecessor, Nobel Peace Prize winner Juan Manuel Santos.
Public resistance to the government has additionally grown in par with support for the peace process.