By Ivanía Alejandra Aroca Gaona
LA PRENSA RURAL, SEPTEMBER 3, 2021
https://prensarural.org/spip/spip.php?article27075
(Translated by Eunice Gibson, CSN Volunteer Translator)
Based on a report by the Inspector General’s Office.
The third report on the implementation of the Peace Agreement, issued in August of 2021, has revealed that after five years since the signing of this historic pact, the technical instruments, the programs, and the plans designed in the agreement still have not been articulated effectively. This demonstrates weakness in the institutions called upon to carry out what was agreed to.
The Peace Agreement, signed in 2016 between the Colombian government and the now-defunct FARC-EP, is one of the most important peace agreements in the history of this country and of Latin America. Because after more than 50 years of armed conflict, there came a time for demobilization and for the rebuilding of the social fabric.
However, after five years of implementation, it’s worrisome that the different technical instruments, programs, and plans designed to sustain the peace, have still not been articulated effectively to obtain the expected results. That’s what the Inspector General’s third report on the implementation of the Peace Agreement has revealed. The report was issued to the Colombian Congress last August 13, 2021. Here are the results:
Point 1. Integrated Rural Reform
Regarding access to land, we see that, of the more than one million hectares deposited in the Land Fund, 71% are concentrated in only 15 of the 32 provinces in the country, principally in Bolívar, with 22%, Antioquia, 13%, and Caquetá, 11%. In addition, the document emphasizes that only 0.4% of the properties projected to be deposited in the Fund have had titles adjudicated.
In addition, the report showed that, although the Programs for Development with a Territorial Focus (PDET in Spanish), propose 32,808 productive initiatives, only 7,282 initiatives, that’s 22.2%, are on a path to active implementation. And none of those have a system of public information that would demonstrate the progress and the current status of every one of the strategies in the Action Plans for Regional transformation (PATR in Spanish), as well as their results and the amounts invested.
Point 2. Political Participation
The Inspector General emphasized that, according to the Integrated Information System for the Postconflict (SIIPO in Spanish), there is progress on only 32% of the commitments achieved in order to assure the participation of citizens in the building of the peace, the strengthening of the culture of respect, tolerance, and no stigmatization, and of the opening up of democracy in the country. That’s because the necessary legal reforms have not been offered in Congress as bills to be acted upon.
In a similar vein, the report identified an increase in risk for those who exercise social leadership and defend human rights, as well as risks to those in the process of reincorporation, noting that, in the years from 2016 to June of 2021, 500 leaders and defenders of human rights have lost their lives; during the first half of 2021 there have been 118 such cases. Also, the report expressed concern about the situation of murders of people in the process of reincorporation; those killings have increased to 278 since the Agreement was signed.
Point 3. The End of the Conflict
With regard to reincorporation, the Inspector General’s Office emphasized the purchase of 9 properties for the consolidation of the 7 Previous Territorial Areas for Training and Reincorporation (AETCR in Spanish), but it warned that these have not yet been titled for housing projects. It also stated that neither do these properties have the necessary roads for access to properties that would allow them to be used for farming or raising livestock.
Point 4. Solution to the Illegal Drug Problem
As concerns this priority, the report calls attention to the fact that 3,600 families were suspended and 10,248 families were excluded from the Integrated National Program for the Substitution of Illegal Crops, with no explanation whatsoever. It calls for clarification of the reasons for those actions.
Point 5. Agreement on the Victims of the Conflict
The report revealed that only 4% of the measures of complete reparation to victims have completed the necessary procedures, and finally, the report indicated that one of the worst lags in performance in found in the Ethnic Chapter, because there is only 19.67% progress, and the indigenous communities are continuing to suffer unfair and unjust conditions because of the disproportionate impact of the armed conflict.
The foregoing is evidence of minimal compliance with what was established in Havana to attain the longed-for peace in Colombia, as well as the government’s feeble commitment toward compliance.