Colombia: Reaffirming Commitment to Peace, Security, & Justice Amid Challenges | United Nations

The Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Colombia, Carlos Ruiz Massieu, today (22 Apr) told the Security Council that “illicit economies are intertwined with conflict in Colombia,” and solving this problem “is necessary for peace to be consolidated.” Ruiz Massieu said, “despite the many challenges still present,” Colombia “is a changed country” compared to the years preceding the signing of the 2016 Peace Agreement,” which “brought to an end the largest insurgency in the country which spanned decades.” He told the Council that “the provisions of the Agreement on the problem of illicit drugs have the potential to contribute to these solutions. Yet, the success of instruments such as voluntary crop substitution has been limited, including due to a lack of follow-through by the State with development assistance promised to peasants who voluntarily eradicated coca.” Ruiz Massieu, who is the Head of the United Nations Verification Mission in Colombia (UNVIC), said “looking to the future, it is essential to prioritize those processes of dialogue with actors that demonstrate a real desire for peace and that can have tangible results to benefit communities.” He said, “no real desire for peace is demonstrated if minors are recruited and leaders are assassinated. There is no real desire for peace if you extort money from communities. You don't show a real desire for peace, if people are deprived of their freedom.” Ruiz Massieu said, “I am convinced that if the Agreement had been implemented more thoroughly in the last eight years, we would not have situations like those experienced in Catatumbo or Cauca today,” and stressed that “there is still time to use the Agreement as a current and necessary instrument to overcome these cases and prevent the repetition of cycles of conflict in Colombia.” For her part, Colombia’s Minister for Foreign Affairs Laura Camila Sarabia Torres told the Council that “fulfilling the Agreement has not been and will not be easy.” Sarabia Torres said, “the implementation of the Agreement was ignored for four years because of selfish political decisions. The consequences are now being experienced; a rural reform that was ignored and that is advancing at a slow pace; a clarification of the truth that was fragmented and that has left victims in the middle. She said, “the transformation of the most vulnerable territories wasn't a priority. Public resources were committed for decades to urban works, while in departments such as Chocó more than half of the population lives without water.” The Agreement followed years of negotiations which began at the Havana dialogues between delegates from the National Government, led by President Juan Manuel Santos, and delegates from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia – People’s Army (FARC-EP), based on their mutual decision to bring the national armed conflict to an end.


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