{"id":31776,"date":"2015-09-25T08:05:46","date_gmt":"2015-09-25T15:05:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/political-legal-barriers-face-historic-colombia-peace-deal\/"},"modified":"2015-09-25T08:05:46","modified_gmt":"2015-09-25T15:05:46","slug":"political-legal-barriers-face-historic-colombia-peace-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/political-legal-barriers-face-historic-colombia-peace-deal\/","title":{"rendered":"Political, legal barriers face historic Colombia peace deal"},"content":{"rendered":"

BOGOTA, Colombia<\/strong> \u2014 A stunning diplomatic breakthrough leaves a minefield of problems standing between Colombia and the tantalizing prospect of peace after generations of armed conflict.<\/p>\n

President Juan Manuel Santos and leaders of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia are celebrating Wednesday\u2019s announcement that they had crossed what many see as the point of no return after three years of peace talks by settling on a formula to punish human rights abuses.<\/p>\n

They set a six-month deadline to sign a final agreement ending more than half a century of drug-fueled fighting.<\/p>\n

Still to resolve, though, are legal obstacles, such as dozens of U.S. drug warrants for rebels and the threat of lawsuits by victims, as well as political considerations, such as widespread mistrust of the guerrillas\u2019 intentions and the puzzle of how to pay for peace at a time of economic malaise.<\/p>\n

Under the terms, rebels who confess crimes to special tribunals, compensate victims and promise not to take up arms again will receive from five to a maximum of eight years of labor \u2014 but no prison time.<\/p>\n

War crimes by government forces will also be judged by the tribunals, and combatants on either side of the conflict caught lying will face penalties of up to 20 years in jail.<\/p>\n

Some critics complain the provisions are too light on a guerrilla group accused of repeatedly kidnapping civilians, forced recruitment of child soldiers and sexual violence.<\/p>\n

Human Rights Watch said it\u2019s difficult to imagine how such an arrangement could survive a serious review by Colombian or international courts.<\/p>\n

Former President Alvaro Uribe, whose military offensive helped push a weakened FARC to the negotiating table, said it would generate more violence and fuel impunity by putting patriotic Colombian soldiers on the same witness stand as the \u201cterrorists.\u201d<\/p>\n

Uribe\u2019s comments foreshadow what\u2019s likely to be a bitter political fight to ratify any deal. While details are still being worked out, Santos has vowed to hold at least a symbolic referendum and congress also must pass legislation implementing any deal.<\/p>\n

Polls show Colombians overwhelmingly loathe the FARC, and as recently as June a majority favored trying to defeat the rebels militarily instead of negotiating with them.<\/p>\n

Santos has acknowledged that Colombians will have to \u201cswallow some toads\u201d if they want to bring an end to a spiral of violence that has claimed more than 225,000 lives.<\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s the whopping cost of attacking the root causes of the insurgency: crushing poverty, inequality and a lack of state presence in the Colombian countryside that have seen an exodus of more than 5 million internally displaced people. The estimated costs of implementing already agreed-upon provisions for rural development and combatting drug trafficking start at $30 billion over the next decade.<\/p>\n

Colombia will have to build roads, provide training for farmers and redistribute land while coping with an economic shock from crashing oil prices. Santos also may not be able to count on as much foreign assistance as he did when waging war. From a peak in 2007, U.S. economic and military assistance to the South American nation has declined 58 percent to around $325 million this year.<\/p>\n

Another unknown is whether the FARC\u2019s leadership will be able to enforce disarmament and a cease-fire on its estimated 6,400 troops, many of whom are involved in Colombia\u2019s lucrative cocaine trade.<\/p>\n

In 2006, the U.S. indicted 50 leaders of the FARC on charges of running the world\u2019s largest supplier of cocaine to the U.S. While the U.S. is unlikely to shelve the requests, a source close to the talks, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Colombian government is working on guarantees that FARC leaders who honor their commitments won\u2019t be sent to U.S. prisons.<\/p>\n

But especially for mid-ranking commanders, the opportunity to recycle themselves into Colombia\u2019s flourishing criminal underworld may be greater than any incentive to lay down their weapons, no matter how light the punishment.<\/p>\n

Thousands of members of the right-wing paramilitary groups that were originally founded by ranchers to fight the rebels went rouge after a 2003 peace deal, joining criminal gangs that today represent Colombia\u2019s top public security threat.<\/p>\n

Despite the obstacles, supporters are optimistic.<\/p>\n

\u201cImplementation is going to be a challenge, but that\u2019s true for most peace settlements,\u201d said Bernard Aronson, President Barack Obama\u2019s envoy to the talks and a former senior State Department official who worked on the end of civil wars in El Salvador and Nicaragua. \u201cThe encouraging news is both sides are committed to making it work.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is probably the FARC\u2019s last chance to enter politics through a negotiated settlement and a successful peace agreement will be the capstone of Santos\u2019 presidency.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Follow Goodman on Twitter: https:\/\/twitter.com\/apjoshgoodman<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BOGOTA, Colombia \u2014 A stunning diplomatic breakthrough leaves a minefield of problems standing between Colombia and the tantalizing prospect of peace after generations of armed conflict. President Juan Manuel Santos and leaders of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia are celebrating Wednesday\u2019s announcement that they had crossed what many see as the point of no […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[65],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-31776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-nation-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31776","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31776"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31776\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31776"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=31776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}