"Some would say that we've never been at peace," said Andrei Gomez-Suarez, associate researcher at the Centre for Criminology (Oxford) and lecturer on transitional justice at the University of Los Andes (Bogota). He made his remarks during a presentation at the School of Public Policy at Central European University on March 10.
Gomez-Suarez explained that there has been ongoing armed conflict in Colombia – between government forces and left-wing guerrilla groups (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia or FARC) since 1964. It is the longest-running civil conflict in Latin America. The conflict intensified in the 1980s with the proliferation of paramilitary groups and the involvement of drug cartels. The National Centre for Historical Memory, a government institution, estimates that more than 220,000 people have died, and more than six million civilians have been displaced during the last 60 years.
Previous attempts to end the armed conflict in Colombia have failed. Gomez-Suarez explained that few of those efforts involved a negotiated settlement. He went on to observe that this was one of the reasons that he was optimistic that the current effort, which dates back to November 2012, will be successful. There are other reasons for his optimism: the involvement of outside parties including Cuba and Norway, as guarantors, and Venezuela and Chile, as "accompanying parties." He pointed also to the fact that negotiators addressed the issue of victims by establishing the Historical Commission of the Conflict and its Victims and the Gender Commission. Another factor that Gomez-Suarez thinks bodes well for the success of these negotiations is the strong involvement of civil society.
Quite a few civil society organizations are actively engaged in supporting the Colombian peace process – organizations like International Alert, Plan Perdon, and Rodeemos el Diálogo. Gomez-Suarez is a founder and member of Rodeemos el Diálogo (ReD), a transnational network that was established in London in September 2012 to support the peace talks between the government of President Juan Manuel Santos and FARC. "We welcome not just Colombians, but also friends of Colombia – everyone who wants to support the development of a culture of dialogue in Colombia," he said.
Gomez-Suarez acknowledged that many Colombians were skeptical of the current peace process. "They cannot imagine FARC as a negotiating partner," he said. In order for the peace process to succeed, there must be changes at the negotiating table, and among the Colombian people. "That is where civil society comes in," said Gomez-Suarez. He explained that ReD had launched a number of initiatives to bring people together: peace breakfasts, literary discussions, and what he called "non-workshops." Gomez-Suarez said that they are called "non-workshops" because "we want people to discover on their own, not to be told, the impact that armed conflict has had on their lives." Another goal: is "for us to learn to listen, to recognize the power of dialogue." These events are organized based on four principles: solidarity, generosity, honesty, and respect.
One of the interesting features of these events is that they target the middle class. "The members of the middle class are often the ones who are most disaffected," explained Gomez-Suarez. They are often also the least polarized and fragmented. "We are coming from the middle. We are a middle-class organization," he said.
Gomez-Suarez agreed with Associate Dean Julia Buxton, who moderated the March 10 discussion, that the real challenge will be to transition from negative to positive peace. He noted also that even negative peace would be welcome in Colombia.