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7/27/2019 What is Feasible and What is Non-negotiable
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What is feasible and what is non-negotiable in the proposals of political
participation of the FARC
By Juanita Leon
August 8, 2013
Translated for La Silla Vacía by Matilda Villarraga
Yesterday in the celebration of the Battle of Boyacá, President Santos called for a "Second Independence", which will allow the Colombians to
break forever with the yoke of violence building a lasting peace. This peace moves through the dialogues in Havana and through agreements on
the second point of the Agenda, which is the political participation of the guerrillas. La Silla reviewed the ten "minimal proposals of political
participation" that the FARC presented and the second communique where they explain them; it is more evident that everything they ask for is
to be applied to them and not the opposition in general. Based on these proposals, La Silla analyzes what would be negotiable and what non-
viable.
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Negotiable La Silla’s Explanation Non-negotiable
Constituent Assembly
The FARC are proposing a Constituent Assembly to
make permanent institutional changes that allow all
the guerrillas, including those who are prisoners,
elect and be elected and to form political parties.
Among these changes, they propose the
"permanent deletion of any prohibition or
impediment that may affect the full exercise of any
such investitures" on the part of the guerrillas.
A Constituent Assembly as such does not
seem feasible. First, because Santos has
made it "a point of honor" and because it
would open the gate, among other things,
for the guerrillas to end up legislating on
everything - including the economic model
and for reforms to be introduced as the
possibility of a second re-election to allow
the return of Alvaro Uribe to power.
It would be necessary to seek other legal
formulas to make a constitutional reform
that will give security to the legalagreements (and them), including the
participation in politics despite having
committed war crimes and crimes against
humanity. For this reason, is precisely the
Framework for Peace (now the FARC say
they don’t like it). This would enable the
majority of the guerrilla (even the
prisoners) to elect and be elected. But
some of the heads would have to pay a
conviction.
Nor is it negotiable the permanent deletion
of any prohibition or impediment to be
chosen because that would mean that the
guerrillas would be immune to the future of
any loss of investiture.
To facilitate their arrival in Congress
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The granting of direct seats would be a
toad hard to swallow but it is negotiable,
depending on the number. It would be
easier to allow a constituency for peace
during a time period that lowers the
threshold for the parties arising out of the
signing of the Agreement. This would
imply, almost necessarily, also to lower the
threshold for small parties who are at risk
of disappearing.
The FARC propose to create the conditions for them
to become a legal political party, which would
include the possibility that the party is to have legal
personality only with its registration and regardless
of a threshold. They are requesting that it be
assigned, directly, a number of seats in Congress
and in the assemblies and councils. And in addition,
they intend to create a "special constituency for
peace" to "parties or social and political movements
that arise as a result of the signing of an eventual
peace agreement," which would operate during the
time, with the threshold and with the seats that are
defined in the Final Agreement. It would be
something equivalent to the special constituency for
ethnic minorities.
The proposal to eliminate the threshold
runs counter to the idea of the latestpolitical reforms that are trying to do away
with garage political parties. In addition it
would have large financial implications with
regard to the financing of parties that arise
only with filling out a form and as a result it
would be impractical as it’s presented.
Guarantees for the opposition
The explicit reformulation of the military
doctrine does not seem feasible politically
because the military is opposed and it
would be the perfect battle horse for the
uribismo, whose axis is the security.
However, in practice if the FARC
disappeared the military doctrine would
have to change because it would be gone
the main enemy that sustains them.
The FARC propose a series of guarantees for the
opposition which would include, among others, a
Statute of Opposition and to reformulate the
security policy of the State and the military and
police doctrine "to deprive them of the contents of
the ”cold war”" and "in the design of persecution
and in the fight against the "enemy within" '; the
right of reply when the Government violates the
good name of the opposition; participation in the
shaping of boards and commissions of the Congress;
the last word before the conclusion to the debates
in Congress; participation in the monitoring of
electoral processes; prior consultation on matters of
national concern such as foreign affairs, security
and defense, or justice.
When Germán Vargas was minister of the
Interior proposed a Statute for the
opposition which, three years later has not
materialized with the Democratic Pole,
which shows that it is a difficult subject.
However, that it has already been an
initiative of the government shows that it is
a negotiable item.
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Funding for their party
This topic is thorny because part of the
electoral success of a party depends on themoney it can count on. With reason, left-
wing parties such as the Polo could argue
that giving that extra money to the FARC
would put them -that have acted within
the law - at a disadvantage. Particularly if
the FARC do not deliver the moment that
they have illegally obtained and exceeding
2,500 million pesos.
However, there is a ten percent of these
resources that today are not assigned
because the Constitutional Court struck
down the criteria by which they were
distributed. This percentage could be
negotiable with a legal reform and perhaps
if circulated among all the opposition
movements, not only the FARC.
The FARC demand for the party they want to create,
a state funding that complements the one already
that the opposition parties and social movements
have, that would be tantamount to a 10 per cent of
the total public funds allocated for the financing of
political parties and social movements. In 2009, the
State provided almost 25 billion pesos to finance
political parties, according to the information of the
MOE. This money is assigned in proportion to the
number of votes obtained. What the FARC would
like is that, in addition to what they already give
them to all the parties, they were to give them
(FARC) approximately 2,500 million (this figure is
adjusted each year) more.
Seats by their own right
To give them a post in the Advisory
Committee on Foreign Affairs, which is a
consultative body of the President of the
Republic for foreign affairs, would be viable
because outside of being composed of the
presidents, by the vice-president and by 12
congressmen, the President may appoint
two additional members. These two posts
could be for the opposition if so decided by
The FARC propose that the opposition have a seat at
the Advisory Committee on Foreign Affairs and on
the Board of Directors of the Bank of the Republic.
Also that the candidates for President and Vice
President, Governor and Mayor, who belong to the
parties or movements declared in opposition, and
follow on votes those who are elected in these
positions, will occupy a seat in the Senate,
Territorial Chamber, assembly and Municipal
The proposal to have a seat in different
instances is similar to the one made by the
Polo to Vargas Lleras when they discussed
the status of opposition and it’s in large
part the reason for braking the discussion.
Especially the seat in the Bank of the
Republic does not seem to be negotiable
because the idea of the Constitution was to
make it totally independent of the political
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the president. Council, respectively, during the period for which it
was the corresponding election. They also propose
having a representative of the FARC in the National
Electoral Council that they expect to be popularly
elected.
game, and it is difficult to argue that they
took up arms not to participate there.
In theory, in the National Electoral Council
the opposition already has a post. But in
practice the large parties make so one of
them reaches it as was the case with the
PIN, which is the one that occupies that
seat today, in spite of the fact it votes
always with National Unity. However, to
negotiate that one of these 8 posts in the
CNE go directly to the FARC would surely be
rejected by the other small parties.
Access to Media
To finance programs to the FARC in
regional stations where they have a
presence, or even national news, as
happened when the M-19 demobilized, or
ensuring that the number of minutes per
month on television, as currently have all
the parties, might be negotiable.
Beyond the access to the media that already have
all the political parties, the FARC demand for the
movement that they believe as a result of the Peace
Agreement, the State fund a printed journal, a
magazine of political analysis, a radio station and a
TV channel with national coverage. That's in
addition to participation in the programming of the
public media state.
That the State finance a magazine, a radio
station and a TV channel with national
coverage is an unfeasible proposal for how
much each one of these media costs(To
give only an idea, sustain an operation as
small as La Silla Vacía costs more than 600
million pesos a year). In addition, the
guerrillas did not leave for the mountains
for lack of have their own media and many
demobilized have columns in the traditional
media.
Reparation to the UP
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After the ruling of the Council of State,
which recently returned them the legal
personality, it is a viable return to the UP
five seats in the Senate (less than five
percent of the total number of seats) and
nine in the Camera. That is why the
discussion is about who would occupy
these seats, which would be the procedure
for choosing them and which interference
the FARC would have in that.
The FARC demand a law that expressly
acknowledges the State responsibility for the
extermination of this party emerged from the failed
agreements of peace with the FARC in 1985 and the
return of their seats at the time of greaterrepresentation in the legislative branch at all levels.
In 1986, when electorally, it did its best the UP
reached to have 5 senators, 9 representatives, 14
deputies, 351 councilors and 23 mayors.
Away with the black hand
The dismount of the "black hand" is an
imperative of the State, a need for the
Colombians and something that Santos is
committed with the Colombians to do from
the very beginning, peace or no peace
process signed.
Already a Truth Commission about all the
crimes committed in the conflict is
complicated because there is a lot of
reticence in all sectors to establish thetruth of the facts. On the part of the
military there is resistance, as seen in the
defense of the Palace of Justice that was
made by Rafael Nieto in the Cidh; on the
part of the business and political sectors
that financed and supported the
paramilitary; and on the part, even, of the
same guerrilla, who committed so many
The FARC propose the real dismount of the
paramilitary structures "and any illegal practice of
counterinsurgency that prevent the free exercise of
the right and the guarantees of social and political
opposition". For this, they ask for a criminal policy
aimed to remove such practices and a Commission
on the historical truth for the clarification of their
crimes, with the participation of representatives of
the social and political opposition and the
movement of victims and composed of Colombiansand foreigners. They propose that this committee
study the violence from the 40s and that to do this,
review the files of the intelligence agencies and the
minutes of the Council of Ministers since that time.
The Truth Commission would be un-
negotiable if it is only on "State terrorism"
as the FARC want.
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atrocities that they probably do not want
to come out if they aspire to someday be
elected with some vote.
However, a Truth Commission for all the
atrocities is negotiable and it’s usually a
frequent outcome in many peace
processes.