Colombia’s largest trade union confederation, the Central Unitary of Workers (Central Unitaria de Trabajadores, CUT) has released a statement on the peace process. The statement follows the slow rate of implementation of the 2016 peace agreement and the high insecurity that has seen hundreds of social activists, trade unionists and FARC former guerrillas murdered. These issues led a small faction of FARC members led by the peace negotiators Iván Márquez and Jesús Santrich to announce recently they had left the peace process. The full CUT statement is published below.
COLOMBIA DOES NOT ACCEPT MORE WAR, WE WANT PEACE!
Faced with the bad news of the rearmament of a minority sector of the FARC led by Iván Márquez, The CUT
DECLARES:
The decision of our VII Congress held last May was and is to ratify our commitment to a political solution to the armed conflict in Colombia, as well as defend and demand full compliance with the agreements between the government and the FARC signed at the end of 2016.
This peace agreement constitutes a very important advance for the country and we consider its implementation as the best way to build a stable and lasting peace, which will help Colombia to move towards real possibilities of defending sovereignty, labor, production and democracy, as our Central has always proclaimed.
In the country it is necessary to eliminate political violence, civilize the process of differences, comply with the agreements and reject the politique that is done with the issue of peace.
The government of President Iván Duque instead of persisting in his idea of shredding the peace accords, must comply with them and not accept the proposals of Senator Álvaro Uribe Vélez to exclude the agreement of the Political Constitution; This includes the appropriation of the economic resources necessary for this purpose.
Colombia does not require guerrillas or any type of armed groups, which under that rearmament decision immerse us in a new bloodbath that so many victims and displaced people leave in the civilian population.
The CUT ratifies its decision to support the Peace Process and those who have remained in it, complying with the agreement. This is what serves the workers and the country to exercise the political struggle and social mobilization against corruption and all the measures that have plunged Colombia into ruin and misery.
Bogota, 29 August 2019
JOSÉ DIÓGENES ORJUELA GARCIA.
President
EDGAR MOJICA VANEGAS
Secretary General