MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Colombia's FARC reject submission to judicial processes as “common criminals”
Colombia's FARC rebels cannot be submitted to the same judicial processes as “common criminals” under a possible peace deal, the Marxist group said on Friday. The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) made the comments after President Juan Manuel Santos said in an interview that the biggest hurdle to signing peace would be getting the group to agree to face justice after 50 years of war. Read full article
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Disclaimer & comment rulesIf Colombia can overcome this, they could join Chile at the Top Table, and lead the way for a new future for Latin America.
Apr 12th, 2015 - 01:58 am - Link - Report abuse 0It will be very difficult, and they should look to South Africa and Northern Ireland for guidance.
I wish them all the best.
FARC is worse than common criminals; they are a combination of criminals and political terrorists. It's time to end the farce of negotiations, and make a real attempt at exterminating these people, rather than the half-hearted skirmishes that have been going on for decades.
Apr 12th, 2015 - 05:21 pm - Link - Report abuse 0@2
Apr 12th, 2015 - 05:31 pm - Link - Report abuse 0They had that chance a year ago when they elected for Santos instead of Zuñiga. I said so at the time they would fail and the liberals and PC nut heads believed it.
The FARC doesn't agree on facing the courts?? Really?? Ask yourself why are they at the negotiation table in the first place, if that was the Colombian government un declining position
They, like the Tupa of Uruguay, should be executed for sedition.
Apr 12th, 2015 - 06:34 pm - Link - Report abuse 0It will not matter what FARC do, there will always be their type in that country.
So negotiate at still ongoing!
Apr 12th, 2015 - 09:14 pm - Link - Report abuse 0And FARC are still talking!
@5
Apr 12th, 2015 - 10:43 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Whats in going to be in September 3 years since they are talking?? Remember In the World cup, when Santos got re elected, it was going to be a deal at the end of 2014??
Little Anglotino you have so much to learn.
If you say so.
Apr 13th, 2015 - 05:35 am - Link - Report abuse 0So 3 years in September. So in other words we are only just past 2.5 years.
How many years did Colombia try to finish this war/insurgency by fighting?
How many?
Was it 2.5 years? Nope
Was it 3 years? Nope
Try 51 years. So for 51 years the Colombian government hasn't defeated FARC.
CabezaDura, I know you are a drama queen but you really need to chill out. Every minor setback in this process and suddenly you are Chicken Little and the sky is falling in.
It isn't.
They are still negotiating. If the process was quick I would be more worried.
The longer FARC negotiates the harder it is to go back to the bush and live like they were. Time is on the government's side. Putting a deadline on it only works for simpletons like you that believe that these issues can be easily fixed. That is what they sell to the masses. You seem to fall for it.
I'm sure when September comes around you will still be pessimistically gnashing your teeth over the failure of these talks as you have continuously done for the past year.
And yet they will still be talking and not fighting.
The gov't actually loses popularity since the last election and the one who benefits more is the FARC.
Apr 13th, 2015 - 10:00 am - Link - Report abuse 0Governments lose and gain popularity all the time. Colombia is no different. Indeed the fact that it isn't a populist government nor a country that is prone to popularism like Brazil, Venezuela and Argentina is one of the reasons it is now doing so well.
Apr 13th, 2015 - 10:55 am - Link - Report abuse 0And of course the FARC benefits from this whole process. Bit stupid if they didn't.
Why the hell would they be negotiating otherwise?
They will wrong every possible concession out of the Colombian government. As they should.
Why is that liberals here believe all the crap that all other non Argentine politicians say?? Not populist !??
Apr 13th, 2015 - 12:45 pm - Link - Report abuse 0“Santos is a politician! And he beat Zuñiga only after ”swift advances in the talks“ just before the elections and an easy first stage in the WC for Colombia. Thats it the thinking people of Colombia, the loyal to Uribe vote elected Zuñiga in the first round. The people in Colombia that know that talks are futile and know the guerilla aint going away with the largest piece of the pie. They are not liberal gay students in Sydney like your roomates.
Now he got elected, no reason for the talks to be succesfull.
A poll following the general’s release revealed that only 34 percent of Colombians favor the peace talks today, compared to 51 percent in June. By a margin of 70 percent to 23 percent, Colombians do not believe the FARC has good intentions in the peace talks; and they reject the eventual participation of FARC leaders in the nation’s political process by 74 percent to 22 percent. It also showed Santos’s approval rating has dropped to 38 percent since his reelection last June, when he had the support of 55 percent of respondents.
In staking his presidency on a successful peace negotiation, President Santos now has a tiger by the tail. Colombians are losing faith in the talks because they have dragged on for two years now with no resolution in sight, especially since the most difficult issues — the disarming and demobilization of the FARC — have not even been addressed yet. Yet prolonging the talks suits the FARC just fine, since they lose nothing by continuing to discuss their political project as a legitimate belligerent in U.S.-supported talks, while the strength of the government’s negotiating hand grows weaker by the day.”
Jose Cardenas FP.
CabezaDura like Paulcedron, your Argentinean education is showing.
Apr 13th, 2015 - 02:19 pm - Link - Report abuse 0I have stated more than once and DIRECTLY to you that I do not live in Sydney. I live in Melbourne. I attend The University of MELBOURNE. Its location is given away by its bloody name mate.
If continually calling me a liberal and placing me on some facile one dimensional left-right political spectrum keeps you happy then power to you. However my beliefs and knowledge about politics refuses to be pigeon-holed to such a simplistic world view.
If yours is trapped in such, then more power to me for not being as narrow-minded as you.
If the reality of Colombia continually causes you to sink into fantasy then have fun.
Santos is in power. Doesn't matter how he got there. Doesn't matter what his popularity is. He is there. And he will remain there until the next election in 2018 where he won't be able to stand.
That gives him 3 more years.
The talks dragging on is not damaging Colombia. Indeed the reduction in killings and bombings is only strengthening Colombia. FARC will push as far as they can. The Colombian government will balance their demands against their own agenda.
2.5 years is nothing for these talks. Uribe tried to create a climate of haste and continually raised expectations that the FARC were close to defeat and the problem was about to be solved permanently.
That was never going to happen. But much of the Colombian population (like you) have fallen into the trap that these talks are failing because they expected a resolution sooner.
The simply fact that you can never deny whenever you comment on a Colombian article is that the talks ARE continuing. That their lengths has not lead to arise in violence or caused either party to stop and walk away.
Colombia is benefitting from a peace dividend already! These talks might not solve every problem but I am yet to see a viable alternative offered because all others have failed up until now.
Ohh fusspot, its Melbourne not Sydney, all right OK I’m guilty of not memorizing that!
Apr 13th, 2015 - 02:53 pm - Link - Report abuse 0I’m not condemning you for being a liberal, I’m condemning you for being that naive, you are a grown up man that has travelled extensively this region and being following its news for many years.
What part don’t you understand. He got another term, that’s all he wanted never mind if they agree or not.
“Colombia is benefitting from a peace dividend already! These talks might not solve every problem but I am yet to see a viable alternative offered because all others have failed up until now.”
Well hell that is the hole idea of a truce.
All you need to stall Colombia's economy is 10 guys with FAL's, AK47 and some RPGs in the jungle that kidnap miners, loggers and cut infrastructure like roads, gas lines, electric grids etc
That is geographical leverage that the guerrillas will always have even if they are a political party.
Every single country on Earth is prone to a terrorist attack that will stall its economy.
Apr 14th, 2015 - 07:36 am - Link - Report abuse 0That is not unique to Colombia.
It took less than 10 people with pilot's licences to bring the US to a stand still.
That was a straw man argument.
The talks are continuing. They do not seem in danger of failing and that is a success because people like you keep making out that they are failing.
Geography predetermines destiny. Thats is the foundation of political science.
Apr 14th, 2015 - 10:07 am - Link - Report abuse 0“It took less than 10 people with pilot's licences to bring the US to a stand still.”
And the next year everyone kept going to work and nothing has happaned for over the next 14 years.
Colombia is a world different.
Geography predetermines destiny?
Apr 14th, 2015 - 12:22 pm - Link - Report abuse 0If you say so.
Colombia is a different world?
If you say so.
But the negotiations are still ongoing.
Haven't failed nor stopped.
Colombia is not the US, simple.
Apr 14th, 2015 - 12:25 pm - Link - Report abuse 0And boy, if I was Santos I would also keep a nominal negotiation ongowing too, even if I know there is no solution. At least until the end of my term.
Never said that Colombia was the US.
Apr 14th, 2015 - 10:44 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Was just highlighting the stupidity of your straw man argument.
No, what is a straw man argument is running around in circles over nothing at all.
Apr 15th, 2015 - 01:36 am - Link - Report abuse 0Anglotino,
“I have known people that have spent their lives in politics, and yet don’t understand politics. Men are not taught politics, men are born to understand it and others are not and will never understand it”
The one of a few statements which I agree with Juan Domingo Peron.
51 years of war has not provided a solution for anyone.
Apr 15th, 2015 - 07:03 am - Link - Report abuse 0Time to try something different.
Anything different!
To continue as before is madness for all. It is time to be pragmatic and search for the least worst outcome.
Hablando de Roma, por la puerta se asoma.
Apr 15th, 2015 - 03:02 pm - Link - Report abuse 0http://www.urgente24.com/239070-10-soldados-muertos-y-18-heridos-tras-un-ataque-de-las-farc
“To continue as before is madness for all. It is time to be pragmatic and search for the least worst outcome.”
And isn't that what is happening 10 years of combat, an negotiation period for two years and FARC outlives the govenrment always and falls away??
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