As with perhaps the Iranian JPOA deal, this too will fail, even with that baseball game?
HAVANA (Reuters) – Colombia’s leftist FARC rebel leader and U.S. President Barack Obama attended the same baseball game in Cuba on Tuesday, underscoring a message of regional cooperation that Obama took on his historic visit to the Communist-led country.
FARC negotiator Pastor Alape confirmed the attendance of a contingent of 40 members and said the game between the Tampa Bay Rays and a Cuban team was a “symbol of peace.” A Reuters reporter also saw the rebels, who are in Havana for peace talks with the Colombian government. More here from Reuters.
WSJ: The current negotiations do not ensure genuine accountability for FARC members responsible for war crimes and human-rights violations; and that those guilty of kidnapping, murder, forced abortions, armed displacement, indiscriminate attacks on innocent women and children or drug trafficking will be appropriately punished. On the contrary, the so-called peace agreement will serve as a thick mantle of impunity.
The agreements with FARC are clever in the way they disguise impunity. While there will be investigations, trials and sentences for human-rights violations, those who plead guilty will in every case be exempted from prison time. The agreement explicitly grants convicted—and confessed—human-rights violators the right to run for public office, a right that the Colombian Constitution expressly withholds from convicted felons. Think of what will happen: FARC kingpins who ordered massacres, kidnappings, child-soldier recruitment and extortions, will now run for mayors and governors of the regions they victimized.
The agreements also grant total amnesty for drug trafficking. By being labeled a “political crime,” drug trafficking becomes eligible for executive amnesty. There will be no prison in Colombia or extradition to the U.S. for those running the world’s largest cocaine cartel.
To make things worse, the agreement includes no demand for FARC to surrender the billions of dollars worth of illegal assets that it has amassed through the drug traffic. Colombian and American taxpayers—the latter through U.S. foreign aid to Colombia—will carry the entire burden of economic reparations for FARC’s victims.
FARC’s vast illegal fortune will doubtless be used to advance its “political” agenda after it “transitions” into becoming a political party. Given the size of its ill-gotten treasury, FARC will become the wealthiest political organization in the country by far, which will seriously imperil the stability of Colombian democracy.
This photo, posted on Twitter by a member of the FARC delegation in Cuba, shows US Secretary of State John Kerry meeting with FARC peace negotiators.Pastor Alape/FARC
BusinessInsider: Amid the fanfare surrounding President Barack Obama’s landmark visit to Cuba on Monday, a different US diplomatic achievement took place.
As Obama toured Havana, Secretary of State John Kerry sat down for a meeting with members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), a left-wing rebel group that has fought Colombian forces and paramilitaries for more than 50 years.
The meeting was the first one between a US secretary of state and the FARC since the rebels were designated a terrorist group by the US in 1997.
US Secretary of State John Kerry and US Special Envoy for the Colombian Peace Process Bernard Aronson, far left, meet with members of the Colombian government team holding peace talks with rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, FARC, in Havana, March 21, 2016.Colombia’s Peace Commissioner via AP
Even if Colombian and FARC negotiators conclude a peace deal, removal from the terror list could take some time. The United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, a right-wing paramilitary group with extensive ties to Colombian politicians and responsible for many rights abuses, weren’t removed from the list until 2014 — eight years after they officially demobilized.
Other issues remain before a deal is finished. In March, the Colombian congress gave the government power to set up demobilization zones, where government officials won’t be able arrest FARC members.
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A FARC Splinter Group Has Pulled Out of the Colombian Ceasefire Agreement
Time: A splinter group of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebel front said on Wednesday it will not participate in a ceasefire agreement with the government, potentially derailing a resolution to nearly five decades of violent internal conflict in the South American nation.
In a statement, the Armando Rios First Front — a 200-member division of FARC — said it will not lay down arms and will continue its battle against the administration of President Juan Manuel Santos, according to Reuters.
“We have decided not to demobilize, we will continue the fight for the taking of power by the people for the people, independent of the decision taken by the rest of the members of the organization,” the statement said.
The peace deal was announced two weeks ago following more than three years of dialogue between the two sides.
The splinter group said it was calling on other FARC groups to pull out of the deal as well, reports Reuters.
