The struggle for peace in Colombia

When the Colombian government and leaders of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) signed a peace agreement in November 2016, many hailed it as the end of one of the longest running conflicts in the world. After over 50 years of armed conflict and various failed negotiation attempts, members of the country’s largest rebel group last year began a process of peaceful reintegration into Colombian society.

However, as criminal organisations and other armed groups seek to fill the power vacuum left by FARC, and violence persists in many rural regions, there is no guarantee that lasting peace is around the corner.

Systemic violence has plagued the cities and countryside of Colombia for decades. In 1948, the assassination of liberal politician Jorge Eliécer Gaitán sparked a period of widespread political violence in rural areas. Later, left-wing armed groups such as FARC began to emerge, clashing with right-wing paramilitary groups and government forces. A third type of violence erupted as prominent drug cartels exploited the unemployed urban youth for cheap, disposable labour and violently collided with rival cartels, local security forces and US law enforcement.

Violence and conflict in Colombia have deep roots. “People have been quick to talk of Colombia’s ‘post-conflict’ era,” Mimi Yagoub, an investigator at InSight Crime, a think-tank focused on organised crime in the Americas, told The World Weekly, “but FARC was far from the only powerful armed group in the country”.

Whilst all eyes remain centred on FARC, different actors are seizing the opportunity to take control of some of the country’s most strategic - and vulnerable - territory.

Read the full article on The World Weekly