The leadership of the former FARC guerrillas has filed a ‘Right to Petition’ with President Abelardo de la Espriella and the DAPRE Presidential Administration office. The petition asks the government to explain how it will protect signatories to the 2016 peace agreement and how it plans to organise, finance and meet its constitutional duties towards the agreement. The request comes amid continued killings of signatories and concern over the new President’s policy towards peace.
The petition responds to President Abelardo de la Espriella’s threats to make major changes to the institutions of the peace agreement, including eliminating the office of Peace Commissioner and dissolving the Implementation Unit. Because implementation is constitutionally mandated, the petition asks how the government is planning to fulfil its legal duties towards peace while carrying out these reforms. It also requests the publication of any risk assessments, legal studies, draft materials, budget estimates and timeframes that are being considered as part of the proposed changes.
The signatories’ leadership have stated their ‘concern over the lack of clarity’ about the government measures. The petition makes clear they are particularly worried about the Implementation Unit, which is in charge of coordinating the implementation of the Agreement across the state. They ask whether it is being disbanded, merged with another entity or having its functions transferred. The petition asks which institution will coordinate implementation of the agreement in future, how that work will be financed and what status the responsible body will have within the hierarchy of government. It also seeks clarity on the future of the JEP transitional justice framework, the government’s role in the CSIVI monitoring mechanism and its relationship with the international organisations charged with guaranteeing the agreement.
Since 2016, almost 500 former guerrilla signatories to the peace agreement have been killed. According to the INDEPAZ human rights monitor, seven have been killed so far this year, the latest in Cali on 16 August. It is therefore unsurprising that the signatories are requesting information on the government’s plans with regard to physical protection of at-risk people and the specially created Territorial Zones (ETCRs) where many former guerrillas live, as well as the future of the programmes intended to assist in their social and economic reintegration.
They therefore also request information on the fate of key institutions for reintegration such as the National Reconciliation Agency (ARN), which coordinates the reincorporation of former guerrillas to civilian life, and the National Protection Unit (UNP), which evaluates risk and provides protection teams for those under threat.
The petition is an indication of the extent of the uncertainty that surrounds the future of the peace agreement under a president who has called the JEP a system for ‘impunity’, threatened to imprison the leaders of the former FARC and who seems determined to do what he can to disband or disable the architecture of peace despite the legal duty to fulfil the 2016 agreement.