1999–2002 FARC–Government peace process
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The FARC-Government peace process (1999–2002) (Spanish: Proceso de Paz entre las FARC y el gobierno Pastrana), from January 7, 1999, to February 20, 2002, was a failed peace process between the Government of President Andrés Pastrana Arango and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrilla group in an effort to bring to an end the ongoing Colombian armed conflict.
Prelude
The FARC began their rebel activities in the early 1960s during the National Front years in which bipartisan hegemony controlled and held political power. In an effort to exterminate the armed guerrilla movements the Colombian government aided by the United States launched an attack to destroy the "Marquetalia Republic" a guerrilla enclave in central Colombia. After this attack the FARC guerrilla retreated to isolated or poor government presence areas and began establishing a parallel state governed by them. The guerrillas began extorting and kidnapping landowners and assaulting local agrarian banks (Caja Agrarias).
During the 1980s and 1990s the Colombian drug cartels had increased their power and in some cases had hired the guerrillas such as the
On August 18, 1989, the Medellín Cartel assassinated the liberal presidential candidate Luis Carlos Galán. César Gaviria replaced him and was then elected president of Colombia. Gaviria avenged the death of Galan by dismantling the Medellín Cartel, but the gap left by this organization was quickly filled by the Cali Cartel and the FARC, which began expanding its influence and armed power in the countryside mainly.
During the government of
Without any major adversaries in the drug business other than the growing AUC paramilitary group, the FARC gained control of most of the drug production and trade, as well as financing its political rhetoric and influence over most of the regions in Colombia. With the weakening of the drug cartels the guerrillas became the main issue affecting Colombia. Andrés Pastrana ran for the presidential office again and as a candidate his campaign sustained negotiations with the FARC for a possible peace process.
Peace Process
Pastrana then appointed
On October 8 both sides agreed to create a
On August 7, 1998 Pastrana becomes president of Colombia for the period 1998–2002.[1]
On December 14, 1998, the Pastrana administration and the FARC agreed to begin formal peace talks on January 7, 1999.
Demands and proposals
The FARC demanded and proposed certain issues in order to begin; the following were proposed to quell the armed conflict: vision of the conflict, negotiation criteria, preparation of the negotiation, political legitimacy, security, participation, negotiated political settlement, civilian population, recommendations to the civilian population and rules of behavior regarding the masses. The group also considered fundamental topics: democracy, functioning of the state, the public force, social and economic aspects, agrarian reform, natural resources, sovereignty, drug trafficking,
On the other hand, the government tried to persuade the FARC to leave the
Formal dialogues begin
As planned the formal dialogues began on January 7, 1999, in a ceremony at El Caguan with the presence of President Pastrana, but without the presence of "Tirofijo". The FARC argued that there was a possible threat to assassinate their commander "Tirofijo". FARC negotiator Joaquín Gómez acted on behalf of Tirofijo. President Pastrana said that "the absence of Manuel Marulanda Velez cannot be a reason to not continue with the instalment of the dialogue to agree on an agenda that will conduct us to peace".[3] On January 8, "Tirofijo" showed up and insisted that there had been a possible assassination attempt.
Frozen dialogues
On January 11, guerrilla commander
On February 6 President Pastrana extends the duration of the demilitarized zone and sets it to expire on May 7. Three days later, Pastrana and "Tirofijo" finally met publicly and set a new meeting on February 14 to resume dialogues. The FARC had purportedly frozen the peace talks because of the government's spraying of glyphosate to eradicate illegal crops as stated in the Plan Colombia.[4] Archived 2007-10-22 at the Wayback Machine
Between February 25 and March 11, three American indigenous-rights activists, Terence Freitas, Lahe'ena'e Gay, and Ingrid Washinawatok were abducted by the FARC in
From April 20 to May 1, both parties met unofficially in El Caguan to discuss the paramilitary issue and the FARC's demands to expand the area of the demilitarized zone, which was due to expire on May 7, and to extend the timeframe.
On May 2, President Pastrana travelled to the demilitarized zone and personally met with "Tirofijo" for a second time. Pastrana convinced him to begin formal peace-talks on May 6. It was agreed that the demilitarized area would remain in size, but its expiration would be postponed. Another decision was to form an International Verification Commission to observe the agreements and the FARC's actions in the area.
On May 26,
The
The government then announced that the formal negotiations with the FARC would begin on July 7. But a day before, both parties postponed the peace talks until July 19 alleging that three of FARC's negotiators could not arrive on time to the meeting, the FARC argued that they also needed more time to organize their positions regarding the International Commission, as agreed between "Tirofijo" and President Pastrana.[6]
Between 8–12 July the FARC launched an armed offensive (called by them as "armed strikes" from the
On July 15, 1999 Defense Minister Luis Fernando Ramírez and the Colombian General of the Chief of Staff Fernando Tapias requested US$500 million as aid to fund counter-narcotics and counter-insurgency warfare. The then head of the US Office of National Drug Control Policy Barry McCaffrey called for a billion dollar as supplemental assistance for the war on drugs in South America, half of it to be assigned to Colombia.
External links
- "Peace Initiatives in Colombia: Dialogues with the FARC". Archived from the original on 13 June 2010.
- AP- Pastrana ends peace process
- ideaspaz.org