Incoming Colombia president faces long list of challenges

August 07, 2018

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — The young protégé of a powerful former president is being sworn in as Colombia's new leader Tuesday, tasked with guiding the implementation of a peace accord with leftist rebels that remains on shaky ground.

Forty-two-year-old Ivan Duque will be the youngest Colombian chief of state ever elected in a popular vote when he is sworn into office at Bogota's Plaza Bolivar. The prematurely graying father of three describes himself as a centrist who will unite the nation at a time when many are still fiercely divided over the peace agreement that ended more than five decades of bloody conflict.

His detractors fear he will be little more than a puppet for Alvaro Uribe, the conservative ex-president who led a referendum defeat of the initial version of peace accord in 2016. Uribe is still backed by millions of Colombians, though he is perhaps equally detested by legions who decry human rights abuses during his administration.

Duque is taking Colombia's presidency at a critical juncture: Coca production is soaring to record levels, holdout illegal armed groups are battling for territory where the state has little or no presence and a spate of killings of social activists has underlined that peace remains a relative term.

"If Duque is not able to solve this problem and find a way to bring the state into the countryside, we're going to keep having the same problems we've had for decades," said Jorge Gallego, a professor at Colombia's Rosario University.

Duque is the son of a former governor and energy minister and friends say he has harbored presidential aspirations since early childhood. But his rise from unknown technocrat to a popular senator and now president has been extraordinarily rapid, propelled in large part by the support of his mentor, Uribe.

Just four years ago, Duque was a Washington suburbanite with a cushy job at an international development bank. It was there that he developed close ties to Uribe, assisting the former president when he taught a course at Georgetown University. Later Duque helped Uribe lead a United Nations probe into Israel's deadly attack on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla and helped him write his memoir.

Then in 2014, Uribe propelled Duque into the political limelight when he encouraged him to return to Colombia to run for a Senate seat and placed him on a list of newcomer candidates that he urged his multitude of supporters to elect.

Within Uribe's conservative Democratic Center party, Duque's reputation as a more moderate voice can at times put him at odds with the solidly right-wing faction. Uribe's support is thus considered crucial for Duque to rule with the full backing of his party. But he will need to build a broader alliance to pass laws in Congress.

Duque's dependence on Uribe has sparked concern from critics, though analysts believe the former leader's mounting legal troubles could provide the incoming president a new degree of independence. Uribe briefly stepped down from the Senate in July after the Supreme Court asked him to testify on allegations of bribery and witness tampering in a case related to claimed ties to paramilitaries, which he vehemently denies. Uribe later reversed course and withdrew his resignation letter.

In the weeks since Duque's resounding victory over leftist ex-guerrilla Gustavo Petro, the president-elect has signaled both his loyalty to Uribe and a conviction to chart his own path. While many of his Cabinet picks have ties to Uribe, there are also a number of incoming ministers with no links to a traditional political party.

"So far I think he has shown more independence than some sectors believed," Gallego said. "Treating Duque as a puppet of Uribe is a very simplistic way of analyzing things." At the top of Duque's agenda are likely to be Colombia's economy and the peace agreement as well as reversing coca production that last year reached levels unseen in more than two decades of record keeping and $10 billion in U.S. counter-narcotics work. The soaring coca levels have tested traditionally close ties with the United States.

Throughout his campaign, Duque promised to push changes in the peace agreement, including creating tougher penalties for former leaders of the now defunct Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia responsible for crimes against humanity. Under the accord, most rebels who fully confess their crimes will be spared any jail time, a sore point for many Colombians who still vividly remember the atrocities of war.

Colombia's conflict between leftist rebels, the state and paramilitary groups left at least 260,000 dead, some 60,000 missing and millions displaced. While some fear Duque's anti-accord rhetoric and proposed changes could further destabilize what has already been a slow and tumultuous implementation, others hope that in the long-term the agreement could enjoy broader support from a divided Colombian society if led by someone with a critical approach.

Cynthia Arnson, director of the Latin America program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, noted that Duque's rhetoric on the peace accord has softened somewhat since his election.

"There was a sense that because Uribe had campaigned so strenuously against the peace agreement that Duque was going to come into office and just rip the thing apart," she said. "I don't think that that's likely."

Former guerrilla, young conservative vie to lead Colombia

June 17, 2018

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Colombians will choose between a leftist former guerrilla and a young conservative lawmaker Sunday in a presidential election to decide who will lead the nation as it implements a still-fragile peace accord.

One-time militant and former Bogota mayor Gustavo Petro and frontrunner Ivan Duque harbor contrasting views on the historic accord ending Latin America's longest-running conflict and could significantly shape how Colombia proceeds with putting key aspects of it into motion.

Petro is vowing to uphold the 310-page accord while Duque wants to make changes like requiring ex-combatants to serve time before entering politics if they are guilty of crimes against humanity. Under the final agreement, rebels who fully confess and offer reparations to victims are unlikely to be sent behind bars.

"Undoubtedly, for the peace process, this is an important test," said Patricia Munoz, a professor of political science at the Pontifical Xavierian University in Bogota. The first presidential vote since the signing of the 2016 accord has polarized voters, pitting even close family members against one another. Duque won a first-round vote held in June, topping Petro by 14 percentage points but falling short of the majority needed to avoid a runoff. Recent polls indicate Duque still holds a decisive advantage but suggest the distance between the candidates is narrowing.

Duque is the protege of powerful former President Alvaro Uribe, one of the most admired and abhorred leaders in Colombia's recent history. On the cusp of turning 42, Duque would become the youngest president in Colombia in more than a century. Critics are wary that the father-of-three's limited experience in politics could leave him dependent on Uribe, who is the leader of his party's bloc in the Senate.

Though millions of Colombians praise Uribe, some giving him an even cult-like status, others contend his advances as president came at the price of grave human rights abuses. While he succeeded in boosting Colombia's economy and weakening illegal armed groups, he presided over the government at a time when military officers killed thousands of civilians who were then dressed up as rebels to inflate body counts in exchange for vacations and bonus pay.

In a sign of how tense relations between both camps of voters remain, even acts of nature have turned into fodder for political jousting. A week before the vote, a swarm of killer bees attacked supporters who showed up to see Uribe speak at a Duque rally in a small town in northern Colombia. Supporters of Duque accused Petro backers of launching the bees in an act of "biological terrorism."

"Now African bees as Petristas," Petro groaned later on Twitter, using the play on his last name used to describe his supporters. "Is it because they are worker bees?" Officials later said Uribe's helicopter had likely stirred the bees into a frenzy.

Petro, a former member of the M-19 guerrilla group that signed a peace accord with the government in 1990, is promising to overhaul Colombia's economic model. He wants to free Colombia from dependency on fossil fuel exports and raise agricultural production by increasing taxes on unused lands and giving them to peasants if the owners sell them to the state. His early fondness for the late Venezuelan socialist leader Hugo Chavez and a now-ditched campaign pledge to create a constitutional assembly have sparked fears among some that he'll make Colombia "another Venezuela."

Analysts say Petro's candidacy is an important development in a country where more than five decades of conflict against rebels created a stigma around any candidate who appeared to sympathize with leftist causes. If he were to win, he'd likely face an uphill battle in implementing any of his campaign proposals. His allies represent a minority in congress and would struggle to pass any laws.

Duque's own proposed changes to the peace accord may also encounter considerable resistance. Though he could implement reforms by decree, he would more likely choose to go through congress. Even though his allies represent a majority, some could push back against any changes that would put the accord on shaky ground. Observers suspect Duque himself might modify his positions if elected.

In the final weeks before the vote Duque has repeatedly said that he does not want to "shred the accord to pieces" and has tweaked several of his positions. "The entire panorama today indicates the peace process is not reversible," Munoz said. "We have a society that does not want the FARC to return to armed conflict."

Ex-rebel looks to defy odds in Colombia presidential race

June 17, 2018

ZIPAQUIRA, Colombia (AP) — Gustavo Petro began his long ascent to the cusp of Colombia's presidency in this self-built barrio named after South American independence hero Simon Bolivar. In 1983, equipped with little more than a shovel and a surplus of revolutionary ideals, the then-clandestine militant led some 400 squatter families in a months-long battle with local authorities to secure a plot of land to build their ramshackle homes here in Zipaquira, a city north of Bogota. Their rallying cry was: "A roof and a dignified life."

Thirty five years later, the founders of the "Bolivar 83" barrio still living in the slum celebrate Petro's rise as their own. The leftist candidate will face off against conservative Ivan Duque on Sunday in Colombia's presidential runoff election.

"He taught us to call each other comrades, not neighbors," remembers Ana Miriam Chitiva, pointing to photos hung on her home's wall of the barrio's early days, when the bespectacled, introverted Petro would help her lug concrete pipes and carve out dirt roads from the rocky, forested hillside.

The same crusading spirit has accompanied Petro throughout his four-decade political ascent. He's gone from fearless lawmaker who tormented Colombia's political class, to the renegade mayor of Bogota who took on powerful private interests and now a surprise, surging finalist in the country's first presidential election since the signing of a historic peace accord.

The two-man race between Petro and Duque has tightened in the final stretch, with one poll indicating Petro had climbed to within 6 points of his conservative rival. In the first round of voting three weeks ago, Duque topped Petro by more than 14 points.

Whoever is elected will lead Colombia at a crucial juncture. The country is in the early stages of implementing an accord with leftist rebels to end Latin America's longest running conflict. But cocaine production has soared in areas vacated by the rebels, threatening to undo security gains and testing traditionally close relations with the U.S.

Petro has vowed to fulfill the 310-page accord's lofty aspirations to tackle poverty and unequal land distribution. Duque meanwhile wants to roll back some of the accord's benefits for top commanders until they confess their war crimes and compensate victims.

For Petro to even be within striking distance of Duque is a major feat — never before in Colombia's history has a leftist been so close to the apex of power. To get this far he's had to soften his sometimes radical rhetoric, even going so far as to hold up mock stone tablets inscribed with 12 "commandments" committing him to stay clear of expropriating private property and earlier calls to rewrite the constitution.

He's also had to overcome comparisons with the late socialist revolutionaries Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez that the Colombian right-wing has labelled "Castro-Chavismo," a smear bandied about so much during the campaign that Petro's 7-year-old daughter has come up with a left-stepping dance to parody the accusations.

Business elites have thrown their support squarely behind Duque, the hand-picked candidate of powerful former President Alvaro Uribe, fearful that Petro's efforts to present himself as a moderate are a ruse.

Even some fellow leftists worry about a messianic streak. Senator Antonio Navarro Wolff, a former peace negotiator for Petro's 19th of April Movement, or M-19, said his former comrade always stood out for his sharp intellect and shrewd political instincts — as well as a self-defeating tendency to shun others' opinions. But with his fledgling political movement occupying just four of 107 seats in the senate and an even smaller number in the lower house, he'll need to build bridges if elected president.

"The truth is he's always been a little selfish," said Wolff, who is among a group of high-profile leftists that belatedly endorsed Petro in the runoff after backing another, less polarizing candidate in the first round. He said the support was not a blank check, however. "If you want to get things done as president you can't act alone."

Petro, 58, was born on the same day — April 19 — that would give rise to the guerrilla movement that he joined as a muckraking teenage journalist in Zipaquira. His nom de guerre was Aureliano, for a protagonist from "One Hundred Years of Solitude," the beloved work by novelist Gabriel Garcia Marquez. But in "Bolivar 83," most of whose residents didn't know of his double life at first, he was called "Flaco" — Spanish for skinny — or "Little Gustavo."

After the housing fight was won, Petro was hunted down. While on the run, he'd jump between the homes of Chitiva and a sisterhood of single moms in "Bolivar 83" who now proudly call themselves "Petro's girlfriends." Once they even disguised him in high heels, lipstick and tight-fitting dress so he could slip past an army barricade.

Eventually his luck ran out and in a 1985 raid by the army he was discovered hiding in a hole dug next to one of the homes he helped build. He was taken to an army base in Bogota and beaten, and eventually spent two years in jail on weapons charges.

"Those who seek to brand Gustavo a guerrilla and a killer don't realize he didn't carry a weapon in his hands," said Gonzalo Suarez, a fellow M-19 militant. "His biggest and most powerful weapon was, and still is, his deft mind, which is always focused on helping the poorest and worst off people in Colombia," said Suarez.

Petro rose to national prominence in 2006 leading a crusade to expose the alliance between conservative allies of then-President Uribe and right-wing paramilitary groups. In hours-long televised speeches from the senate floor that mesmerized much of Colombia, he revealed evidence accusing Uribe of providing political cover for the formation of the militias as a governor in the 1990s and the personal involvement of his brother in murder and forced disappearances. Being so outspoken in a country where landholding elites have traditionally governed with impunity engendered numerous death threats.

But his allegations spurred the arrest and watershed conviction of dozens of politicians and members of congress for criminal ties to the paramilitaries. A decade later Santiago Uribe is now on trial for leading a death squad known as the 12 Apostles.

During his rise, U.S. officials viewed Petro as a radical "populist" in the mold of Chavez, according to a 2006 secret U.S. Embassy cable written by then deputy chief of mission Milton Drucker and published by pro-transparency group Wikileaks. But two years later, Ambassador William Brownfield in another cable described him as "pragmatic."

But some fellow leftists blame him for unilaterally cutting deals with President Juan Manuel Santos following his election in 2010. The same go-it-alone streak was on display as mayor of Bogota, where he earned numerous enemies by banning bull fights, cutting bus fares and transferring control of private garbage collection to a city agency. For the latter he was ousted in 2014 by the Inspector General and banned from holding public office for 15 years. But the punishment was overturned and he was reinstated a month later by a judge acting in accordance with findings by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

"There's no doubt he's got a strong character," said Maria Mercedes Maldonado, the candidate's top policy adviser. "But that's what you need if you want to risk making meaningful transformations."

Conservative, leftist head to contentious runoff in Colombia

May 28, 2018

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — The conservative protege of a powerful former president and a leftist former guerrilla who has galvanized voters with an anti-establishment message are headed for what promises to be a polarizing presidential runoff after gaining the most votes in Sunday's election.

With almost all quick-count results in, former senator Ivan Duque was leading with 39 percent of the ballots cast, short of the 50 percent threshold needed to avoid a June runoff. One-time rebel and ex-Bogota mayor Gustavo Petro trailed in second place with 25 percent, edging out former Medellin Mayor Sergio Fajardo, who garnered nearly 24 percent.

Duque and Petro represent opposite ends of Colombia's political spectrum and have presented dramatically different visions for the future of the Andean nation as it moves forward with a historic peace process with leftist rebels.

Duque is the handpicked candidate of Alvaro Uribe, the ex-president and chief critic of the nation's 2016 peace deal with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. He is promising to amend important aspects of the accord like ensuring that drug trafficking is not an amnestied crime and blocking guerrilla leaders from political office.

Petro supports the accord and has galvanized youth voters angered by deeply entrenched corruption and income inequality. He is vowing to end Colombia's dependence on oil exports and raise taxes on vast swaths of unproductive land in hopes of boosting agricultural production. Critics have warned his rise could push Colombia dangerously toward the left and rattle markets.

"The result was a sharp blow to traditional politics," said Michael Shifter, president of the Inter-American Dialogue. "With a Duque/Petro runoff, Colombians will face a starker choice than in many years."

The election has sparked fears on both the left and right, with Duque's critics cautioning that his presidency would be tantamount to a constitutionally barred third term for Uribe. Though hugely popular among Colombians for improving security and weakening illegal armed groups, Uribe also presided over grave human rights violations by the military.

Meanwhile, Petro and his populist "Humane Colombia" platform have drawn comparisons from critics to the late Venezuelan socialist leader Hugo Chavez, who Petro once admired. He brought Chavez to Colombia in 1994 shortly after the Venezuelan paratrooper was released from jail, where he was sent for staging a military coup.

Petro describes himself as a "strong adversary" of the neighboring country's current president, Nicolas Maduro, but his early ties to Chavez have dogged him throughout the campaign. His campaign likened the comparisons to fear-mongering tactics by a traditional political class no longer able to court votes based on their hardline stance against leftist rebels.

In a speech before hundreds of supporters Sunday night, Petro said fears that he would turn Colombia into an authoritarian state where wealth is redistributed are unfounded. He said his proposals instead amount to a "democratization" of opportunities so that more Colombians can benefit from education and join the middle class.

"The nearly 5 million votes we received today are the votes of the youth, of excluded sectors far and wide across Colombia who have decided to burst in and say, 'We are present,'" he said. Supporters waved flags emblazoned with the Soviet Union's hammer and sickle and the logo of the disbanded M-19 rebel group that Petro belonged to in his youth.

Edilia Pinzon, 55, was among those cheering on Petro. "We are making history," said Pinzon, a street merchant. "The others who have reached power haven't fulfilled their promises, especially to those of us with few means."

More than 19 million voters cast ballots in the election, the highest turnout in two decades. The results were especially harsh for Fajardo, who fell less than 2 points behind Petro and failed to advance to the next round. During weeks of negotiations he tried unsuccessfully to form an alliance with like-minded centrist Humberto de la Calle, whose 2 percent vote haul would've been enough to push Fajardo past Petro.

Fajardo conceded defeat but showed no sign of who he'll support in a runoff where his 4.5 million supporters are likely to be decisive. Petro and Duque differ on almost every critical issue facing Colombia: Duque favors forcibly eradicating coca crops that have skyrocketed to record levels, whereas Petro favors substitution. Historically tight relations between the U.S. and Colombia would likely remain unchanged under a Duque presidency, whereas Petro has called U.S. assistance to Colombia "help that has served for nothing."

In regards to the peace deal, Duque has said he'll introduce a constitutional reform mandating that drug trafficking cannot be an amnestied crime. Under the accord, guerrillas involved in drug trafficking and violent crimes during the conflict who fully confess can avoid jail time. Many Colombians consider those terms far too generous.

The FARC long funded itself by leveling a "war tax" on cocaine moving through territory it dominated, and 50 members of its leadership structure were indicted in 2006 in the U.S. on charges of running the world's largest drug cartel.

In April, Colombian authorities arrested a former top rebel peace negotiator on a U.S. drug warrant on charges that he conspired with three others to smuggle several tons of cocaine into the U.S. with a wholesale value of $15 million.

In a victory speech to supporters little changed from his regular campaign stump, Duque stressed law and order issues that are red meat to his conservative base. He said he didn't want to "tear up" Colombia's peace agreement but rather make modifications that would ensure victims of the conflict achieve "peace with justice."

"I want to be the president who unites our country and not govern with a rearview mirror," he said. Analysts said that mostly urban voters turned off by Colombia's polarizing politics will play kingmaker in the second round.

Political analyst Ivan Valencia, himself a former rebel, said Duque will face a steeper challenge winning over supporters of Fajardo and other centrist candidates because he's more hostile to the peace process, while Petro from the campaign's outset has tried to portray himself — so far with mixes success — as a moderate.

"Whichever candidate is able to move more to the center is the one who will win the election," said Valencia. De la Calle, the government's chief negotiator with the FARC, without specifically endorsing Petro, made an impassioned plea not to backtrack on implementation of the peace accord when a future free of armed conflict is within reach.

"The war brought us together during eight years," he said. "And now peace is dividing us."

Associated Press writer Cesar Garcia contributed to this report from Bogota.

Ex-guerrilla launches historic presidential bid in Colombia

January 28, 2018

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Former guerrilla leader Rodrigo Londono was once one of Colombia's most-wanted men. Now he is a presidential contender. The graying, spectacled man best known by his alias Timochenko launched his bid Saturday to lead the government he once battled from the jungle with a celebratory campaign kickoff featuring giant posters, colorful confetti and even a catchy jingle.

"I promise to lead a government that propels the birth of a new Colombia," he said. "A government that at last represents the interests of the poor." Breaking with the traditional campaign launch from a five-star Bogota hotel, Timochenko initiated his presidential bid from one of the city's poorest, most crime ridden neighborhoods in a clear nod to the underprivileged class whose votes the ex-combatants are hoping to win. Hundreds gathered in the parking lot of a community center decorated with banners featuring a smiling Timochenko sporting a neatly trimmed beard, angular, thick-rimmed glasses, and a crisp blue shirt.

"Timo president," a new campaign song played from loudspeakers. "For the people." The campaign is another historic step in transforming the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia into a political party following the signing of a 2016 peace accord ending more than a half-century of conflict. The nation's once-largest rebel group is now known as the Common Alternative Revolutionary Force, keeping its Spanish FARC acronym, and presenting a slate of former guerrillas as candidates.

Yet even as the ex-combatants ditch rebel green fatigues for simple white T-shirts emblazoned with the party's red rose emblem there have been fresh reminders that the road to peace is filled with hazard.

Two ex-combatants were recently shot to death while campaigning for a FARC congressional candidate in northwestern Colombia. In total, 45 former FARC members or their relatives have been reported killed, according to a recent government report. Many fear a repeat of events in the 1980s, when scores of leftist politicians affiliated with the Patriotic Union party were gunned down.

On the same day as the FARC campaign's inauguration at least four police officers were killed and another 42 injured when a homemade bomb exploded outside a police station in the city of Barranquilla, underscoring security challenges that remain even after the peace signing.

"From here on is going to be a huge test of whether the FARC's gamble is correct: That they can practice politics without fear of being killed," said Adam Isacson, an analyst at the Washington Office on Latin America.

Like Timochenko, the candidates include ex-guerrillas who have been convicted in Colombian courts for their part in massacres and kidnappings and whose new role as politicians has irked many Colombians. The U.S. State Department has offered a $5 million reward for anyone who helps secure Timochenko's capture and accused him of directing the FARC's cocaine trafficking and "the murders of hundreds of people."

The budding politicians will still have to go before a special peace tribunal, but so long as they fully confess their crimes they are unlikely to serve any jail time. Formed in the 1960s and inspired by Marxist principles, the ex-combatants are vowing to tackle Colombia's entrenched inequalities, though their initial proposals haven't been as radical as many of the country's conservatives have warned. In community meetings and ads leading up to the launch, candidates have talked about creating a subway in Bogota and a basic monthly income, an idea currently being debated throughout Europe.

"They are not proposals of a socialist, Soviet or Chavista model," said Ivan Cepeda, a trusted conduit of both the FARC and the government, referring to the Venezuelan socialist model promoted by the late Hugo Chavez.

FARC leader and candidate Griselda Lobo, alias Sandra Ramirez, characterized the party's ideology as being based on "principles of unity, solidarity and honesty" rather than attaching themselves to a particular political philosophy.

"That is what has characterized us as guerrillas and that is what we will bring society," she said. The ex-combatants are guaranteed 10 seats in congress as a condition of the peace agreement, but could capture more depending on how many votes they receive. Though Timochenko's presidential bid is widely considered a long shot, the former guerrillas are entering politics at a time when polls show Colombians are frustrated with corruption and give the more established political parties dismal approval ratings.

"That group of thieves needs to get out," one man told a contingent of FARC supporters recently canvassing a poor Bogota neighborhood. The FARC's entry into politics thus far has been emblematic of the challenges Colombia still faces in implementing the peace accord. One of the biggest concerns has been security, as an estimated 10,000 fighters return to life as civilians. Some are going home to families and communities who despise the FARC. Many Colombians are reluctant to quickly turn a page on a conflict that left at least 250,000 dead, another 60,000 missing and more than 7 million displaced.

Lawmaker Edward Rodriguez said the political party founded by former president and peace accord critic Alvaro Uribe would file a complaint with the International Criminal Court to try and halt Timochenko's candidacy.

"It's an affront to Colombians," he told reporters at a small protest in Bogota's historic district where demonstrators held up signs reminding passersby of crimes committed by the FARC. The FARC campaign kickoff drew retirees, housewives and construction workers who live in Ciudad Bolivar and said that despite the FARC's legacy as a violent guerrilla group they were nonetheless curious to hear their proposals.

"They are human beings and like all human beings make mistakes," said Marco Tulio, 65, a former railroad worker. "Today they are reflecting and I think it's magnificent that people listen to them."

Colombia: Bombing at mall kills 3, including French woman

June 18, 2017

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — A bomb rocked one of the busiest shopping centers in Colombia's capital Saturday, killing three people, including a 23-year-old French woman, and injuring nine others. Witnesses told of being evacuated from movie theaters and stores after the blast in a second-floor women's restroom at the upscale Centro Andino in the heart of Bogota's tourist district. Ambulances and firetrucks rushed to the scene and the injured were taken to a hospital, where two later died.

Police said a bomb from an undetermined explosive had caused the destruction. Mayor Enrique Penalosa called it a "cowardly terrorist bombing," and attention immediately focused on the National Liberation Army, which is the last rebel movement still active in Colombia. The group, known as the ELN, carried out a spate of recent attacks in Bogota, but leaders denied involvement in the latest bombing.

Penalosa said the French victim, identified as Julie Huynh, had been in Colombia the past six months volunteering at a school in a poor neighborhood. He said she was preparing to return to France in the coming days in the company of her mother, who was with her in Bogota.

The ELN, which is engaged in long-running peace talks with the government, rejected accusations it was behind the attack. "We ask for seriousness from people making unfounded and reckless accusations," ELN negotiators at peace talks taking place in neighboring Ecuador said on Twitter. "This is the way people are trying to tear up the peace process."

The ELN in February claimed responsibility for a bombing near Bogota's bullring that killed one police officer and injured 20 other people. But the group said it doesn't target civilians. Penalosa urged residents of Bogota's wealthier districts to be on high alert but cautioned that there was no hint of other attacks being planned. Police said they were still trying to determine what the device that exploded was made of.

The government last year reached a peace deal with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, which was much bigger than the ELN. Some analysts attribute an uptick in violence in Colombian cities to the ELN's desire to wrest concessions from the government at the negotiating table.

Bogota has seen dramatic improvement in security over the past decade as the country's long-running conflict has wound down. But the capital remains vulnerable to attacks as residents have let down their guard

Still, the Andino shopping center would seem a difficult target. All vehicles entering the parking garage are screened by bomb-sniffing dogs and security guards are present throughout the mall. President Juan Manuel Santos was expected to visit the mall to personally oversee the investigation and in a message posted on Twitter he expressed his solidarity with the victims.

Colombia: 193 dead after rivers overflow, toppling homes

April 02, 2017

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — An avalanche of water from three overflowing rivers tore through a small city in Colombia while people slept, destroying homes, sweeping away cars and killing at least 193 unsuspecting residents.

The incident triggered by a sudden, heavy rainstorm happened around midnight Friday and into early Saturday in Mocoa, a provincial capital of about 40,000 tucked between mountains near Colombia's southern border with Ecuador.

Muddy water quickly surged through the city's streets, toppling homes, ripping trees from their roots and carrying a torrent of rocks and debris downstream. Many residents did not have enough time to flee.

According to the Red Cross, 202 people were injured and 220 believed missing. President Juan Manuel Santos declared a state of emergency and said the death toll will likely rise but warned against speculating about how many are dead. Late Saturday, he said the toll had reached 193.

"We don't know how many there are going to be," he said of the fatalities when he arrived at the disaster zone to oversee rescue efforts. "We're still looking." Eduardo Vargas, 29, was asleep with his wife and 7-month-old baby when he was awoken by the sound of neighbors banging on his door. He quickly grabbed his family and fled up a small mountain amid the cries of people in panic.

"There was no time for anything," he said. Vargas and his family huddled with about two dozen other residents as rocks, trees and wooden planks ripped through their neighborhood below. They waited there until daylight, when members of the military helped them down.

When he reached the site of his home Saturday, nothing his family left behind remained. "Thank God we have our lives," he said. As rescuers assessed the full scope of the damage, many residents in Mocoa continued a desperate search for friends and relatives.

Oscar Londono tried in vain throughout the night to reach his wife's parents, whose home is right along one of the flooded rivers. He decided it was too dangerous to try to reach them in the dark. So he called over and over by phone but got no answer.

Once the sun began to rise he started walking toward their house but found all the streets he usually takes missing. As he tried to orient himself he came across the body of a young woman dressed in a mini-skirt and black blouse.

He checked her pulse but could not find one. "There were bodies all over," he said. When he finally reached the neighborhood where his in-laws live he found "just mud and rocks." Rescue workers with the military oriented him toward the mountain, where he found his relatives camped with other survivors.

"To know they were alive," he said, "it was a reunion of tears." Santos said at least 22 people were seriously injured and being airlifted to nearby cities, as the small regional hospital in Mocoa struggled to cope with the magnitude of the crisis. Herman Granados, an anesthesiologist, said he worked throughout the night on victims, cleaning wounds. He said the hospital doesn't have a blood bank large enough to deal with the number of patients and was quickly running out of its supply.

Some of the hospital workers came to help even while there are own relatives remained missing. "Under the mud," Granados said, "I am sure there are many more." The Red Cross planned to set up a special unit in Mocoa Saturday afternoon to help relatives search for their loved ones.

"In this moment, it's chaos," said Oscar Forero, a spokesman with the Colombian Red Cross. "There are many people missing." Rescuers suspended the search late Saturday night due to darkness but vowed to continue at first light Sunday.

Santos blamed climate change for triggering the avalanche, saying that the accumulated rainfall in one night was almost half the amount Mocoa normally receives in the entire month of March. With the rainy season in much of Colombia just beginning, he said local and national authorities need to redouble their efforts to prevent a similar tragedy.

The crisis is likely to be remembered as one of the worst natural disasters in recent Colombian history, though the Andean nation has experienced even more destructive catastrophes. Nearly 25,000 people were killed in 1985 after the Nevado del Ruiz volcano erupted and triggered a deluge of mud and debris that buried the town of Armero.

Colombia's Santos accepts Nobel, urges shift in drug war

December 10, 2016

STOCKHOLM (AP) — Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos accepted the Nobel Peace Prize on Saturday, saying it helped his country achieve the "impossible dream" of ending a half-century-long civil war.

A smiling Santos received his Nobel diploma and gold medal at a ceremony in Oslo, Norway, for his efforts to end a conflict that has killed 220,000 people and displaced 8 million. "Ladies and gentlemen, there is one less war in the world, and it is the war in Colombia," the 65-year-old head of state said, referring to the historic peace deal this year with leftist rebels from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.

Santos used his acceptance speech to celebrate the end of the longest-running conflict in the Americas, pay tribute to its victims and call for a strategy shift in another, related war — on drug trafficking worldwide.

Just a few years ago, imagining the end of the bloodshed in Colombia "seemed an impossible dream, and for good reason," Santos said, noting that very few Colombians could even remember their country at peace.

The initial peace deal was narrowly rejected by Colombian voters in a shock referendum result just days before the Nobel Peace Prize announcement in October. Many believed that ruled out Santos from winning this year's prize, but the Norwegian Nobel Committee "saw things differently," deputy chairwoman Berit Reiss-Andersen said.

"The peace process was in danger of collapsing and needed all the international support it could get," she said in her presentation speech. A revised deal was approved by Colombia's Congress last week.

Several victims of the conflict attended the prize ceremony, including Ingrid Betancourt, who was held hostage by FARC for six years, and Leyner Palacios, who lost 32 relatives including his parents and three brothers in a FARC mortar attack.

"The FARC has asked for forgiveness for this atrocity, and Leyner, who is now a community leader, has forgiven them," the president said. Palacios stood up to applause from the crowd. FARC leaders, who cannot travel because they face international arrest warrants by the U.S., were not in Oslo. A Spanish lawyer who served as a chief negotiator for FARC represented the rebel group at the ceremony.

Colombians have reacted to Santos' prize with muted emotion amid deep divisions over the peace deal. The vast majority didn't bother to vote in October's referendum. For many Colombians in big cities, Santos' overriding focus on ending a conflict that had been winding down for years has diverted attention from pressing economic concerns.

Santos' speech made a reference to fellow Nobel laureate Bob Dylan, this year's surprise winner of the literature award, by citing the lyrics of one of his most famous songs, "Blowin' in the Wind." The president also used the Nobel podium to reiterate his call to "rethink" the war on drugs, "where Colombia has been the country that has paid the highest cost in deaths and sacrifices."

Santos has argued that the decades-old U.S.-promoted war on drugs has produced enormous violence and environmental damage in nations that supply cocaine, and needs to be supplanted by a global focus on easing laws prohibiting consumption of illegal narcotics.

"It makes no sense to imprison a peasant who grows marijuana, when nowadays, for example, its cultivation and use are legal in eight states of the United States," he said. The other Nobel Prizes were presented at a separate ceremony in Stockholm to the laureates in medicine, chemistry, physics and economics. Dylan wasn't there — he declined the invitation, citing other commitments.

The crowd still gave Dylan a standing ovation after a Swedish Academy member praised his work in a speech. An awkward moment ensued as American singer-songwriter Patti Smith, performing Dylan's "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall," forgot the lyrics midway through.

"I apologize. I'm sorry, I'm so nervous," Smith said, asking the orchestra to start over, as the formally dressed audience comforted her with gentle applause. In a speech read by U.S. Ambassador to Sweden Azita Raji at the Nobel banquet later Saturday, Dylan alluded to the debate about whether a songwriter deserved the Nobel Prize in literature.

Dylan said when William Shakespeare was working on "Hamlet," he probably was thinking about which actors to pick and where he could find a skull. "I'm sure the farthest thing from Shakespeare's mind was: 'Is this literature?'" Dylan said.

Like the Bard of Avon, Dylan said, he also deals with "mundane matters" such as whether he's recording in the right key and not whether his songs are literature. However, he thanked the Swedish Academy for considering that question "and, ultimately, for providing such a wonderful answer."

__ Associated Press writer Joshua Goodman in Bogota, Colombia, contributed to this report.

Colombia's congress ratifies peace accord with rebels

December 01, 2016

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — After five decades of war, more than four years of negotiations and two signing ceremonies, Colombia's congress late Wednesday formally ratified a peace agreement allowing leftist rebels to enter politics.

The 310-page revised accord was approved unanimously by the lower house, which voted a day after the Senate approved the same text 75-0 following a protest walkout by the opposition led by former President Alvaro Uribe.

The accord introduces some 50 changes intended to assuage critics who led a campaign that saw Colombians narrowly reject the original accord in a referendum last month. President Juan Manuel Santos has said there won't be a second referendum.

Revisions range from a prohibition on foreign magistrates judging alleged crimes by government troops or by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia to a commitment from the rebels to forfeit assets, some amassed through drug trafficking, to help compensate their victims.

But the FARC wouldn't go along with the opposition's strongest demands — jail sentences for rebel leaders behind atrocities and stricter limits on their future participation in politics. "There needs to be a balance between peace and justice, but in this agreement there's complete impunity," Uribe, now a senator, said during Tuesday's heated debate. Other senators accused him of standing in the way of a peace deal that he pursued with the FARC as president in 2002-10.

Santos says ratification will set in motion the start of a six-month process in which the FARC's 8,000-plus guerrillas will concentrate in some 20 rural areas and turn over their weapons to United Nations monitors.

"Tomorrow a new era begins," Santos said Wednesday, celebrating the Senate's endorsement before the vote in the lower house. But the rebels insist that their troops won't start demobilizing until lawmakers pass an amnesty law freeing some 2,000 rebels in jail.

"D-Day starts after the first actions are implemented," the rebel leader "Pastor Alape," a member of the FARC's 10-member secretariat, told foreign journalists last week after the new accord was signed. "The president unfortunately has been demonstrating an attitude that creates confusion in the country."

The debate over amnesty highlights one of the peace deal's early challenges: the need for congress to pass legislation implementing the accord and setting up special peace tribunals. Santos was initially counting on swift approval of the needed changes that in some cases require constitutional amendments. But the referendum loss has left the status of his fast-track authority in doubt, awaiting a ruling by the constitutional court. Experts say a solid pro-peace coalition could crumble if implementation drags on and butts against the political maneuvering for the 2018 presidential election.

Beyond the legal hurdles, there is also concern FARC fighters will wind up joining criminal gangs rampant throughout the country or the much-smaller rebel National Liberation Army, which for months has been playing cat and mouse with the government over opening a peace process of its own. On Wednesday, both sides said they would delay until January any decision about when to start talks.

Combating security threats will test the state's ability to make its presence felt in traditionally neglected rural areas at a time of financial stress triggered by low oil prices. There is also a risk that peace could trigger more bloodshed, as it did following a previous peace process with the FARC in the 1980s. At that time, thousands of former guerrillas, labor activists and communist militants were killed by right-wing militias, sometimes in collaboration with state agents.

Worries about new bloodshed, although less prevalent than in the darker days of Colombia's half-century conflict, has become more urgent with more than a dozen human rights defenders and land activists in areas dominated by the FARC being killed by unknown assailants since the initial signing ceremony in September. So far this year, 70 have been killed, according to Bogota-based We Are Defenders, more than in all of 2015 and 2014.

Colombia government, rebels sign revised peace agreement

November 25, 2016

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos signed a revised peace agreement with the country's largest rebel movement on Thursday, making a second attempt within months to end a half century of hostilities.

Santos and Rodrigo Londono, leader of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, signed the 310-page accord at Bogota's historic Colon Theater — nearly two months after the original deal was surprisingly rejected in a referendum.

After signing with a pen crafted from the shell of an assault rifle bullet, they clasped hands to shouts of "Yes we could!" Thursday's hastily organized ceremony was a far more modest and somber event than the one in September, in the colonial city of Cartagena, where the two men signed an accord in front of an audience of foreign leaders and United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, all of whom were dressed in white to symbolize peace.

Santos looked and sounded tired after a two-month political roller coaster that saw him rise from the humiliating defeat to win this year's Nobel Peace Prize. This time the deal will be sent directly to Congress without a public referendum.

He tried to inject a dose of optimism about the hobbled accord whose outlook for implementation is shrouded in uncertainty. "In 150 days — only 150 days — all of the FARC's weapons will be in the hands of the United Nations," he said during the only part of his speech that drew applause from the audience of a few hundred local politicians and officials.

FARC leader Londono used his address to call for a transitional government to ensure the accord is effectively implemented, a suggestion immediately denounced by the opposition as a veiled attempt to extend Santos' tenure past elections in 2018, when he'll be constitutionally banned from competing. The rebel leader also congratulated Donald Trump on his victory and called on the president-elect to continue strong U.S. support for Colombia on its path to peace.

"Our only weapons as Colombians should be our words," said Londono, better known by his alias Timochenko, in a 15-minute speech. "We are putting a definitive end to war to confront in a civilized manner our contradictions."

The new accord introduces some 50 changes intended to assuage critics led by still-powerful former President Alvaro Uribe. They range from a prohibition on foreign magistrates judging crimes by the FARC or government to a commitment from the insurgents to forfeit assets, some of them amassed through drug trafficking, to help compensate their victims.

But the FARC wouldn't go along with the opposition's strongest demands — jail sentences for rebel leaders who committed atrocities and stricter limits on their future participation in politics. Members of Uribe's political party are threatening protests against what they consider a "blow to democracy." They also are demanding another referendum, which they are confident they'll win. Shortly after Thursday's ceremony, Santos delivered the accord to congress, where a solid pro-peace majority is expected to ratify it in as early as next week.

"I ask public opinion to reflect on what this means for the future of the country," Uribe said on the Senate floor Thursday, drawing attention to the fact that FARC leaders will be allowed to fill specially-reserved seats in congress before completing any sentences handed down by special peace tribunals.

The lack of broad support for the accord will make the already-steep challenge of implementing it even tougher. Colombians overwhelmingly loathe the FARC for crimes such as kidnappings and drug-trafficking. Ensuring that the 8,000-plus fighters don't wind up joining criminal gangs rampant throughout the country, or the much-smaller National Liberation Army, will also test the state's ability to make its presence felt in traditionally neglected rural areas at a time of financial stress triggered by low oil prices.

There's also a risk that peace could trigger more bloodshed, as it did following a previous peace process with the FARC in the 1980s when thousands of former guerrillas, labor activists and communist militants were gunned down by right-wing militias, sometimes in collaboration with state agents.

That fear, although less prevalent than in the darker days of Colombia's half-century conflict, has become more urgent with more than a dozen human rights defenders and land activists in areas dominated by the FARC being killed by unknown assailants since the initial signing ceremony in September.

Santos this week held an emergency meeting with his Cabinet and U.N. officials to discuss the murders, taking an opportunity to reinforce his message that peace can't wait. So far this year, 70 have been killed, according to Bogota-based We Are Defenders, more than in all of 2015 and 2014.

"We couldn't delay implementation a single minute longer," Santos said in his speech, alluding to the risk of a ceasefire falling apart if negotiations were allowed to stretch on. Once signed, Santos will introduce the accord to Congress, where a solid majority in support of peace is expected to ratify it as early as next week. Lawmakers will then embark on the nettlesome task of passing legislation so the guerrillas can begin concentrating in some 20-plus demobilization areas where they will begin turning over their weapons to United Nations-sponsored monitors.

With less fervor, Colombia takes another stab at peace

November 24, 2016

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — With less fervor and an added dose of uncertainty Colombia's government on Thursday will sign another peace accord with the country's largest rebel group — the second in two months.

The simple, hastily-organized ceremony in a Bogota theater reflects President Juan Manuel Santos' greater sense of urgency to end hostilities with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia after the original accord, brokered over four years of talks, suffered a shock defeat in a referendum a week after it was signed in front of heads of state and U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

Santos, winner of this year's Nobel Peace Prize, has tried to project a conciliatory image in the face of the humbling defeat at the polls. The new, 310-page accord introduces some 50 changes intended to assuage critics led by still-powerful former President Alvaro Uribe. They range from a prohibition on foreign magistrates judging FARC crimes to a commitment from the insurgents to forfeit assets, some of them amassed through drug trafficking, to help compensate their victims.

But the FARC wouldn't go along with the opposition's strongest demands — jail sentences for rebel leaders who committed atrocities and stricter limits on their future participation in politics. In an act of protest, members of Uribe's political party are considering a boycott of next week's scheduled debate in congress on ratifying the agreement, accusing the legislature of disobeying the constitution. They're also threatening to call for street protests to denounce what they say is a "blow against democracy."

"The government preferred to impose itself in a way that divides Colombians instead of a national pact that would bring us together," Uribe's Democratic Center party said in a statement Wednesday. The lack of broad support for the accord will make the already-steep challenge of implementing it even tougher.

Colombians overwhelmingly loathe the FARC for crimes such as kidnappings and drug-trafficking. Ensuring that the 8,000-plus fighters don't wind up joining criminal gangs rampant throughout the country, or the much-smaller National Liberation Army, will also test the state's ability to make its presence felt in traditionally-neglected rural areas at a time of financial stress triggered by low oil prices.

There's also a risk that peace could trigger more bloodshed, as it did following a previous peace process with the FARC in the 1980s when thousands of former guerrillas, labor activists and communist militants were gunned down by right-wing militias, sometimes in collaboration with state agents.

That fear, although less prevalent than in the darker days of Colombia's half-century conflict, has become more urgent with more than a dozen human rights defenders and land activists in areas dominated by the FARC being killed by unknown assailants since the first signing ceremony in September.

Santos this week held an emergency meeting with his Cabinet and U.N. officials to discuss the murders, taking an opportunity to reinforce his message that peace can't wait. So far this year, 70 have been killed, according to Bogota-based We Are Defenders, more than in all of 2015 and 2014.

"We have to take action. There's no time to lose," Santos said in a televised address announcing Thursday's ceremony with less than 40 hours of anticipation. Once signed, Santos will introduce the accord to Congress, where a solid majority in support of peace is expected to ratify it as early as next week. Lawmakers will then embark on the nettlesome task of passing legislation so the guerrillas can begin concentrating in some 20-plus demobilization areas where they will begin turning over their weapons to United Nations-sponsored monitors.

Colombia tries again for peace with sides signing new accord

November 13, 2016

HAVANA (AP) — Colombia tried a second time to achieve peace, with its government and largest rebel group signing a revised deal to end its brutal conflict following the surprise rejection of an earlier peace accord by voters in a referendum.

Government negotiator Humberto de la Calle and rebel negotiator Ivan Marquez announced the new, modified deal Saturday in Havana, moving to end a half-century-long conflict that has claimed more than 220,000 lives and driven almost 8 million people from their homes.

The latest agreement aims to address some of the concerns of opponents of the original accord, who said the deal was too lenient on a rebel group that had kidnapped and committed war crimes. "The new deal is an opportunity to clear up doubts, but above all to unite us," said De la Calle, who described the text of the modified accord as "much better" than the previous one. The negotiator didn't say if or how it would be submitted again to voters for approval or to congress.

President Juan Manuel Santos and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia inked an initial peace deal on Sept. 26 amid international fanfare after more than four years of negotiations. But voters rejected it on Oct. 2 by just 55,000 votes, dealing a stunning setback to Santos who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to end Colombia's conflict.

Santos immediately began looking for ways to rescue the deal and the sides extended a cease-fire until Dec. 31 to get the modified deal done. The rebels insisted they wouldn't go back to the drawing board and throw out years of arduous negotiations with the government.

"The meetings with the FARC delegation were intense," said De la Calle. "We worked 15 days and nights to reach this new agreement." De La Calle said some modifications made were related to justice, punishment for combatants accused of war crimes and reparations for the conflict's victims. He said negotiators had worked out the details of how and where those responsible for crimes would serve their sentences, addressing complaints by opponents that rebels accused of atrocities would not be imprisoned but submitted to "alternative punishments."

Other modifications include requiring the rebels to present an inventory of acquired money and holdings, and the provision of safeguards for private owners and property during reforms carried out in the countryside.

Cases of conflict participants accused of drug trafficking would be dealt with under Colombia's penal code and be heard by high courts. In a televised address Saturday night, Santos said he had instructed De la Calle and the negotiating team to return to Bogota to explain the details of the new accord to the "no" campaign led by conservative former President Alvaro Uribe.

Santos said that an issue where negotiators did not achieve advances was on the insistence by opponents of the peace deal that guerrilla leaders not be allowed to run for elected office. "We won't have assigned legislative seats. To the contrary, they will have to participate in elections. Nor will they have positions in government, as has occurred in other cases. But yes they can be elected," he said.

FARC negotiator Marquez said "the implementation of the accord is all that remains for the construction of the bases for peace in Colombia." U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry congratulated Colombians, including Santos and those from the "no" campaign, for reaching the new peace deal.

"After 52 years of war, no peace agreement can satisfy everyone in every detail. But this agreement constitutes an important step forward on Colombia's path to a just and durable peace. The United States, in coordination with the Government of Colombia, will continue to support full implementation of the final peace agreement," he said in a statement.

Hours before the deal was announced, Uribe, who was Colombia's president from 2002 to 2010, had asked that it "not be definitive" until opponents and victims of the conflict could review the text. Following a meeting with Santos, Uribe read a statement to reporters saying he had asked that the "texts to be announced from Havana" not be official until they had been reviewed.

Uribe and his supporters had demanded stiffer penalties for rebels who committed war crimes and criticized the promise of a political role for the FARC, a 7,000-strong peasant army that is Latin America's last remaining major insurgency. They didn't like that under the old deal guerrilla leaders involved in crimes against humanity would be spared jail time and allowed to enter political life.

Colombia's ELN rebels hopes to free hostage next week

Bogota (AFP)
Nov 4, 2016

Colombian rebel group ELN said Friday it hopes to free hostage ex-congressman Odin Sanchez next week, clearing the way to begin peace talks with the government.

"We hope it will be in the coming week," said Pablo Beltran, the chief peace negotiator for the National Liberation Army (ELN), in comments to Caracol Radio.

He said a "humanitarian commission" including international mediators, government and rebel negotiators, and representatives of the Catholic Church had been set up to oversee Sanchez's release.

President Juan Manuel Santos's government had been due to open peace talks with the ELN, Colombia's second-largest rebel group, on October 27.

But he called them off when the rebels failed to release Sanchez, which he had set as a pre-condition.

Beltran said there had been "two differing interpretations" of the two sides' deal on opening talks.

Potentially complicating matters further, some sources say the ELN is still holding at least two other hostages: a doctor named Edgar Torres and a businessman named Octavio Figueroa.

Beltran said the rebels had "very few" remaining hostages.

"They are so few that these cases will be resolved sooner rather than later," he said.

Santos, who won the Nobel Peace Prize last month, has faced a series of recent setbacks in his efforts to bring "total peace" to Colombia after a 52-year conflict.

Voters rejected a peace deal with the country's largest rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), in an October 2 referendum after opponents jeered it as too soft on the guerrillas.

And the talks with the ELN are on hold over the hostage issue.

Both the FARC and ELN have used ransom kidnappings and drug trafficking to finance themselves over the years.

Founded in 1964, they are the last two leftist guerrilla groups involved in a messy, multi-sided conflict that has killed more than 260,000 people.

Source: Space War.
Link: http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Colombias_ELN_rebels_hopes_to_free_hostage_next_week_999.html.

Colombia to launch peace talks with ELN rebels

By Alexander Martinze, with Lissy de Abreu in Bogota
Caracas (AFP)
Oct 11, 2016

The Colombian government and the country's second-largest rebel group, the ELN, announced Monday they would launch negotiations on October 27 in Ecuador's capital, with President Juan Manuel Santos predicting "total peace".

Both sides have committed to doing everything in their power to "create an environment favorable to peace" once the talks begin, according to a joint statement delivered at the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry in Caracas.

The move comes as welcome news for Santos, fresh from his Nobel Peace Prize win but still reeling from voters' rejection in a referendum of a peace deal with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the country's largest rebel group.

"We've been seeking negotiations with the ELN for almost three years to end the armed conflict with them as well... Now that we're moving forward with the ELN, we will have total peace," Santos said in Bogota.

The ELN freed a civilian hostage, the International Committee of the Red Cross said, ahead of what the rebels had billed as an "important announcement" on potential peace talks with the government.

It was the third hostage release in two weeks by the leftist National Liberation Army (ELN).

Colombia and the ELN agreed in March to launch peace talks, in parallel with the government's negotiations with the FARC.

But the government has said negotiations with the ELN cannot begin until the group frees all its hostages.

In the text presented in Caracas, the ELN vowed to "initiate the process to free hostages before October 27".

The Red Cross said ELN fighters had handed over the latest hostage, who it did not identify, in a remote area in the department of Arauca, on the Venezuelan border.

Catholic Church sources identified the hostage as Nelson Alarcon, kidnapped three months ago.

The ELN is still believed to be holding at least one hostage, former congressman Odin Sanchez. But the text announcing peace talks spoke of "two cases," without giving further details.

Sanchez handed himself over to the rebels in April in exchange for the release of his brother, Patrocinio Sanchez, a former governor who had fallen ill after nearly three years in captivity.

- Fight for peace -

Santos is working to end half a century of conflict in Colombia that has killed more than 260,000 people, left 45,000 missing and uprooted nearly seven million.

Over the decades, the conflict has drawn in several leftist rebel groups, right-wing paramilitaries and drug gangs.

The last two leftist guerrilla groups, the FARC and ELN, have been at war with the state since 1964.

The ELN is estimated to be about one fourth the size of the FARC, with some 1,500 fighters.

After nearly four years of talks with the FARC in the Cuban capital Havana, the government and rebels signed a peace deal on September 26 -- only for the Colombian people to unexpectedly vote against it six days later, sending both sides back to the drawing board.

Critics of the deal argued it was too soft on the FARC.

Its top opponent, former president Alvaro Uribe -- Santos's predecessor and former boss -- said the deal would give impunity to rebels who committed gross human rights violations and let them run for elected office.

- UN to stay -

Santos's Nobel prize was seen as a boost for the process, as the government negotiates with both the opposition and the FARC to salvage the deal.

Meanwhile, FARC leader Timoleon "Timochenko" Jimenez tweeted that the ELN could "count on our militant support and solidarity. Many successes in this process that has now started".

Formal peace talks with the ELN would mark another victory for Santos, who has staked his legacy on ending the oldest armed conflict in the Americas.

Separately, a United Nations mission sent to Colombia to oversee the FARC's disarmament -- part of the now-sidelined peace deal -- said Monday it would ask the Security Council to "adjust" its mandate so it can monitor a ceasefire as negotiators try to hash out a compromise.

"We think the conditions are in place at this time for the Council to continue its solidarity with the country," the head of the UN mission in Colombia, Jean Arnault, told a press conference.

He said he would travel to New York this week to make his case before the Security Council.

Source: Space War.
Link: http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Colombia_to_launch_peace_talks_with_ELN_rebels_999.html.

Colombia in unchartered territory with peace deal's defeat

October 03, 2016

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — After a stunning referendum defeat for a peace deal with leftist rebels, Colombians are asking what comes next for their war-torn country, which like Britain following the Brexit vote has no Plan B to save an accord that sought to bring an end to a half century of hostilities.

The damage from Sunday's vote is still sinking in. Instead of winning by an almost two-to-one margin as pre-election polls had predicted, those favoring the accord with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia lost by a razor-thin margin, 49.8 percent of the votes to 50.2 percent for those against the deal.

Both President Juan Manuel Santos and leaders of the FARC, having come this far after four years of grueling negotiations, vowed to push ahead, giving no hint they want to resume a war that has already killed 220,000 people and displaced 8 million.

"I won't give up. I'll continue search for peace until the last moment of my mandate," Santos said in a televised address appealing for calm. But it's not clear how the already unpopular Santos can save the deal given the stunning political defeat he suffered. For now, he has ordered his negotiators to return to Cuba on Monday to confer with FARC's top leaders, who watched the results come in with disbelief after earlier ordering drinks and cigars at Club Havana, once Cuba's most exclusive beach club.

"The FARC deeply regret that the destructive power of those who sow hatred and revenge have influenced the Colombian people's opinion," the FARC's top commander, a guerrilla known as Timochenko, told reporters later.

The loss for the government was even more shocking considering the huge support for the accord among foreign leaders, who have roundly heralded it as a model for a world beset by political violence and terrorism. Many heads of state as well as U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry were present when Santos and Timochenko signed the deal less than a week ago in an elaborate, emotion-filled ceremony.

With the outlook uncertain, all eyes are on Santos' former boss and chief rival: Alvaro Uribe, the powerful former president who led the grass-roots campaign against the accord. With none of the government's huge PR machine an angry Uribe gave voice to millions of Colombians, many of them victims of the FARC like him, who bristled at provisions in the 297-page accord sparing rebels jail time if they confessed their crimes and instead reserved them 10 seats in congress.

Uribe, in prepared remarks from his ranch outside Medellin after the results were in, called for a "big national pact" and insisted on "correctives" that guarantee respect for the constitution, respect for private enterprise and justice without impunity. But he didn't specify whether he would join Santos in trying to salvage the deal, and took more swipes at the FARC, who he demanded put an end to drug-trafficking and extortion.

"The entire accord was full of impunity," said Ricardo Bernal, 60, celebrating the victory for the "no" side in a Bogota neighborhood where opponents were gathered. "We all want peace but there has to be adjustments made."

Across town, hundreds of supporters of the peace deal who had gathered in a hotel ballroom for what they expected would be a victory party with Santos wept in despair. The FARC's 7,000 guerrilla fighters are unlikely to return to the battlefield any time soon. For now, a cease-fire remains in place.

One option for Santos would be to reopen negotiations, something he had ruled out previously and his chief negotiator said would be "catastrophic." The president, who has a little under two years left in office, could also seek to bypass another popular vote and ratify the accord in congress or by calling a constitutional convention, something both the FARC and Uribe have previously favored.

"I've always believed in a wise Chinese proverb to look for opportunities in any situation. And here we have an opportunity that's opening up, with the new political reality that has demonstrated itself in the referendum," Santos said Sunday night before descending to the steps of the presidential palace to address a small group of supporters, some of waving white flags symbolizing peace.

But bringing Santos and Uribe together might be harder than achieving peace with the FARC. Santos served as Uribe's defense minister, when they worked together with the U.S. to drive the FARC to the edge of the jungles, but the two haven't spoken for years and frequently trade insults.

One of the reasons for the surprise defeat was low turnout, with only 37 percent of the electorate bothering to vote, a further sign to some analysts that Colombians' enthusiasm for the ambitious accord was lacking. Heavy rains from Hurricane Matthew especially dampened voting along the Caribbean coast, where the government's electoral machinery is strongest and the "yes" vote won by a comfortable double-digit margin.

The campaign exposed deep rifts in Colombian society, dividing many families and making clear the road to reconciliation would have been long and torturous even had the accord passed. Colombians overwhelmingly loathe the FARC, which the U.S. considers a terrorist group, and many considered the accord an insult to victims of the long-running conflict.

"In the end, hate toward the FARC won out over hope for the future," said Jason Marczack, an expert on Latin America at the Washington-based Atlantic Council.

Associated Press writer Michael Weissenstein in Havana contributed to this report.

Colombians vote on peace deal after polarized campaign

October 02, 2016

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — The guns have been silenced, the agreement signed and a historic handshake between former enemies made in front of the entire world. Now it's time for Colombians to decide whether or not to support a peace deal with the country's largest rebel movement.

Polls taken before Sunday's referendum, in which voters will be asked whether they want to ratify or reject a deal ending a half century of hostilities with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, show the "yes" vote favored by an almost two-to-one margin.

But the government isn't taking victory for granted amid a highly polarized campaign that has exposed how steep a challenge it faces implementing the 297-page accord and bringing about real reconciliation. Colombians overwhelmingly loathe the FARC, who the U.S. considers a terrorist group, and many consider provisions in the accord that would spare the rebels jail time an insult to the 220,000 killed and almost 8 million displaced by the long-running conflict.

In the past month, ever since the deal was announced in Cuba after four years of grueling negotiations, the government has been spending heavily on television ads and staging concerts and peace rallies around the country to get out the vote. They've even enrolled the help of U2's Bono and ex-Beatle Ringo Starr, and for the first time in an election it's making available in braille thousands of ballots so blind Colombians can vote.

"We don't want anyone to be feeling excluded because this is an important decision," said Luisa Fernanda Morena, a 30-year-old volunteer preparing the materials at the National Institute for the Blind.

For the referendum to be ratified at least 13 percent of the electorate, or 4.5 million voters, must cast "yes" ballots. Turnout is expected to be low, no higher than the 40 percent seen in recent congressional elections, a sign to some analysts that Colombians enthusiasm for implementing the ambitious accord is lacking.

The opposition, led by powerful ex-President Alvaro Uribe, argues that the government is appeasing the FARC and setting a bad example that criminal gangs will seize on. But the FARC in recent days have made an effort to show their commitment to peace is real. Twice this week leaders of the group traveled to areas hard hit by the violence to apologize for massacres committed by their troops in the course of the conflict and discuss with communities how they can compensate victims.

"All of us in life have committed mistakes, some with consequences more serious than others," FARC leader Ivan Marquez said Friday at a ceremony in the northern Colombian town where rebels in 1994 disrupted a street party with gunfire, killing 35. "There's nothing to lose in recognizing it. Speaking the pure and clean truth heals the soul's wounds, no matter how deep they are."

On Saturday, in the presence of United Nations observers, they voluntarily destroyed 620 kilograms of grenades and light explosives. They also said they would compensate victims with financial resources and land holdings accumulated during the war.

Although Santos wasn't required to call for a vote ratifying the accord — some of his advisers and the FARC itself opposed the idea — the outcome will be binding. Only if it is ratified will the FARC's roughly 7,000 fighters begin moving to 27 concentration zones where over six months they will gradually turn over their weapons to U.N. observers and prepare for their reintegration into civilian life.

Tearful reunions as Colombia rebels embrace peace

By Rodrigo Almonacid, Alina Dieste
El Diamante, Colombia (AFP)
Sept 27, 2016

Miriam Vanegas had not seen her son for 10 years after FARC rebels took him away into the Colombian wilderness. Now the fighters have signed a peace deal, and she has him back.

As the FARC -- the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia -- prepared to approve a historic peace deal signed on Monday, Miriam spotted Pablo Esteban in images filmed at a conference held by the force.

"He left when he was 13. They took him away," she said. "I searched heaven and earth for him until last week, when I saw him on television in the conference."

Dressed in a black dress with a blue and pink flower design, she can scarcely contain her tears as she recalls the reunion.

"I traveled six hours on a motorbike to get here," she said of her journey along a remote path through the heat and humidity to the FARC's base in El Diamante, western Colombia.

There, a female FARC member recognized the boy in the photo Miriam held in her hand. She led Miriam to a camp where she found him, transformed into a young man.

"I hugged him and I cried," she said, her voice trembling. "You do not know how happy I am."

- Second chance -

In this remote base in the grassy plains, hundreds of FARC fighters gathered on Monday to watch the signing ceremony on big screens.

They applauded when their leader Timoleon "Timochenko" Jimenez signed the accord and made a speech hailing the FARC's transition to politics.

The agreement formally ends a conflict Colombian authorities estimate has killed 260,000 people, left 45,000 missing and uprooted 6.9 million.

After watching the signing, FARC members mounted a stage, dressed all in white, and sang the FARC anthem and the "Ode to Joy."

"At last, we have a second chance on Earth," a top commander, Carlos Antonio Lozada, told the gathering.

- Peace and football -

FARC fighter David Preciado celebrated the signing by playing football with his comrades in the camp.

He ran around on a mud pitch with bamboo goalposts, getting dirty, happy as a child.

He lost his left arm after he was shot in an ambush by the army. That slowed him down a bit on the pitch -- as did the lack of practice.

Normally "we are not allowed to play for reasons of public order," he said.

Now in his thirties, David says he joined the FARC when he was 19 because he liked guns.

He had not played football for a decade -- the last time was when the rebels and the government last tried, unsuccessfully, to make peace, from 1999-2002.

"Playing football is one of the ways of celebrating the triumph we have achieved," he said.

"The government did not defeat us, and we did not defeat them. Our 52 years of war were not in vain," he added.

"We are aware that we have to move forward together, united... to finally achieve victory, giving power to the people by political means."

- Resistance -

The FARC's 7,000 fighters must come out of their jungle camps and disarm.

The peace deal grants an amnesty for "political crimes" committed during the conflict, but not for the worst atrocities, such as massacres, torture and rape.

Colombians will vote in a referendum on October 2 on whether to ratify the peace accord.

Two polls published Monday indicated the "Yes" vote would win by a strong margin of around 20 percent, with about 35 percent of voters against the deal.

Some Colombians resent the concessions made to the FARC in the accord.

"The Americans would not grant impunity to Osama Bin Laden," former president Alvaro Uribe said.

"Why should we Colombians grant total impunity to terrorists?"

- 'We are human' -

Ahead of the FARC conference last week during which it approved the peace accord, members welcomed journalists and other outside visitors to their camp.

They spruced it up for the occasion with special huts and bathroom facilities. They played football with visitors.

"We want to show people that we are not the monsters they say we are," said one 32-year old FARC fighter, who identified herself as Patricia.

"We are human beings."

Source: Space War.
Link: http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Tearful_reunions_as_Colombia_rebels_embrace_peace_999.html.

Colombia to sign historic peace deal on ending long conflict

September 26, 2016

CARTAGENA, Colombia (AP) — Colombia will take a big step toward emerging from its long nightmare of bloody violence Monday when the government and the country's largest rebel movement sign a peace accord that emerged from four hard years of negotiations.

The significance of the deal can't be overstated: Colombia's five-decade conflict, partly fueled by the nation's cocaine trade, has killed more than 220,000 people and driven 8 million from their homes.

Underlining the importance of the day, the pact is being signed by Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos and by the top commander of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, a rebel fighter known by the alias Timochenko. Fifteen Latin American presidents, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry are scheduled to witness the signing in the colonial Caribbean city of Cartagena.

The ceremony late Monday afternoon will be charged with symbolism. The more than 2,500 guests have been invited to wear white as a sign of peace, and Santos will put his signature on the 297-page accord with a pen made from a recycled shell used in combat.

The signing won't close the deal, though. Colombians are being given the final say on endorsing or rejecting the accord in an Oct. 2 referendum. Opinion polls point to an almost-certain victory for the "yes" vote, but some analysts warn that a closer-than-expected finish or low voter turnout could bode poorly for the many challenges the country faces implementing the ambitious accord.

Among the biggest and most controversial steps will be judging the war crimes of guerrillas as well as state actors. Under terms of the accord, rebels who lay down their weapons and confess their abuses will be spared jail time and allowed to provide reparations to their victims by carrying out development work in areas hit hard by the conflict.

The government has also committed itself to addressing unequal land distribution, which has been a longstanding FARC demand harkening back to its roots as a peasant army in 1964, and the administration agreed to work with the guerrillas to provide alternative development to tens of thousands of families that depend on the cocaine trade.

Only if the accord passes the referendum will the FARC's roughly 7,000 fighters begin moving to 28 designated zones where over the next six months they are to turn over their weapons to U.N.-sponsored observers.

The rebels were forced to the negotiating table after being pushed to the edge of Colombia's vast jungles by a decade-long, U.S.-backed military campaign that claimed the lives of a number of its top commanders.

Negotiations, which had been expected to take a few months, stretched over more than four years and had to overcome a number of crises, from the military's killing of the FARC's then top commander, known as Alfonso Cano, shortly after he authorized a secret backchannel with the government to the rebels' capture of an army general who until a few months ago would have been a trophy prisoner.

"What's good about the fact that it lasted four years is that it was a very thorough process," Norwegian Foreign Minister Borge Brende told The Associated Press in an interview ahead of the ceremony. Norway and Cuba were co-sponsors of the negotiation that began in Oslo in 2012 and then shifted to Havana.

"The mindset of everyone has changed," Brende said. "I feel very genuinely that President Santos and Commander Timochenko want this to work and not go into the blame game."

Wounds heal slowly in Colombian town engulfed by rebels

September 23, 2016

PUERTO RICO, Colombia (AP) — It's a sweltering afternoon and two young women cool off with a juice at a bright green-painted store and watering hole as a few mules relax in the shade. The peaceful scene typical of any tropical village in Colombia makes it hard to imagine this as the site of one of the most-remembered massacres in the country's bloody civil conflict.

At around 2:40 p.m. on May 24, 2005, members of an elite guerrilla platoon swept silently into town by boat, hopped on the back of a red pickup truck and drove a few blocks through a small police barrier to a house where a town hall meeting was taking place. They burst in with a machine gun spraying bullets and in less than 10 minutes killed seven people, including four city council members.

"They entered without God or law and started firing in every direction," remembers Maria Luisa Celis, who survived the attack on her fellow council members by hiding in the kitchen. As President Juan Manuel Santos prepares to sign a historic peace deal with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, those who for years who were besieged by guerrillas operating nearby are uneasy about the future. While opinion is divided in this town ahead of an Oct. 2 referendum on the accord, even supporters resent seeing guerrilla commanders who terrorized their town for years now touting themselves as peacemakers and being rewarded with a political future.

FARC leaders on Friday gave their unanimous support to the peace agreement at their final conference as a guerrilla army, taking place in a vast savannah one town away. "The war is over," said rebel leader known by his alias Ivan Marquez.

"Tell Mauricio Babilonia that he can let loose the yellow butterflies," said Marquez, referring to a fictional character in Nobel prize-winning novelist Gabriel Garcia Marquez's "100 Hundred Years of Solitude."

The FARC has apologized and met with victims of other emblematic killings, but has never said it's sorry or explained its motives for the attack in the town of Puerto Rico. But local residents believe it may have had to do with the community's close association with the Turbay family, a local political dynasty whose prominent members were all wiped out by the guerrillas.

"The FARC wanted to annihilate the Turbay family," said Wilmar Castro, an official who now works for the city council. The province of Caqueta, where Puerto Rico is located, has long been a FARC stronghold. Marquez, the chief rebel negotiator, was born in Caqueta. Two of his comrades on the seven-member secretariat, the group's top decision-making body, have deep roots in the province.

It's also the base of operations for one of the FARC's most-violent units, the Teofilo Forero mobile column, which carried out the attack on Puerto Rico as well as the kidnapping of former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt and the bombing of an elite social club in Bogota that left 36 dead.

The 2005 massacre was neither the town's first nor its last brush with political violence. Two other council members had been killed earlier in 2005 and the remaining seven, including Celis, fled the town with their families after the attack. Some 200 residents reportedly took up exile in Canada. Three of the town's mayors were also killed by the FARC between 2001 and 2009.

The number of violent attacks on the town has declined in recent years as the U.S.-backed military offensive over the past decade pushed the rebels deeper into the jungle. Residents say they're no longer afraid to speak freely against the warlords and the last major security incident, when police found a vehicle carrying almost a ton of explosives near the town, occurred over a year ago.

But the FARC's presence is still felt. Castro, who arrived in the town in 2008, says that a few weeks ago guerrillas told shopkeepers in a rural area that they needed to fork up cash to the FARC in the form of "peace contributions." In July, the FARC's maximum commander, alias Timochenko, ordered his troops to stop extorting all businesses in areas where it is dominant.

"Even those selling hot dogs had to pay vaccines," Castro said, using a popular slang term to describe extortion payments collected by the FARC. "The guerrillas are used to mocking the state and society."

Resentment is also directed toward the government. Celis said she's seen no assistance despite having to uproot her family. She and others have sued the state for neglecting its duty to provide protection for city officials.

On the day of the attack, there was no sign of police even though because of security concerns the town hall meeting had been moved a block away from the police station to the house that is now being used as a store. The government agency that attends to needs of the conflict's millions of victims did not immediately return a request for comment.

Whether or not the town endorses the peace deal in the referendum, residents say they don't believe the FARC will change. Gildardo Martinez, a barber and brother of a council member killed before the 2005 attack, said he still doesn't know how he'll vote.

"God says we have to forgive and I'm very faithful," said Martinez during a short conversation between two haircuts. "But I'll never forget how they assassinated my sister."

AP Writer Libardo Cardona contributed to this report from Bogota, Colombia.

Colombia rebels unanimously approve peace accord with govt

September 23, 2016

YARI PLAINS, Colombia (AP) — Leaders of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia gave their unanimous support on Friday to a peace agreement reached last month with the government. The rebel leader known by the alias Ivan Marquez made the announcement Friday at the conclusion of a week of deliberations by the guerrillas in a remote rural area of southern Colombia. It was the FARC's last conference as a rebel army and was supposed to provide a roadmap of how the group would compete electorally once it turns over its weapons to United Nations-sponsored observers over the next six months.

But in a brief press conference, Marquez didn't provide details about the new political movement being formed. He didn't take questions from reporters. President Juan Manuel Santos and FARC leader alias Timochenko are expected to sign the agreement Monday in the Caribbean city of Cartagena in an event that will be attended by more than a dozen regional heads of state, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry.