How the International Community Can Help Secure Colombia’s Peace

How the International Community Can Help Secure Colombia’s Peace
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry meets with Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos at the Residence of the Permanent Representative of Colombia to the United Nations, New York City, Oct. 1, 2015 (State Department photo).

On July 20, Colombia’s peace talks with the FARC guerrilla group emerged from what was hopefully their roughest patch. With daily episodes of combat between FARC militants and the Colombian army, June was the most violent month in Colombia since peace talks began in October 2012. Then, in late July, at the strong urging of foreign diplomats accompanying the talks, the FARC declared a new unilateral cease-fire, and both sides said they would dedicate themselves to making it bilateral. The three months since then have been the least violent that Colombia has experienced since 1975.

The July truce and de-escalation plan appeared to sweep away the last shreds of skepticism about the peace talks from Colombia’s key international supporter: the U.S. government. While the Obama administration’s public statements about the talks’ prospects have consistently been supportive, the tone of officials’ private comments shifted from, “I’ll believe it when I see it,” to, “This is going to happen, and we’re thinking about the post-conflict period.”

That sentiment seemed even more fitting after Sept. 23, when President Juan Manuel Santos’ government and the FARC announced their agreement on the outlines of the thorniest issue on their agenda: justice and punishment for both sides’ human rights violators, with the ambitious goal of a final peace accord by March 2016.

Keep reading for free!

Get instant access to the rest of this article by submitting your email address below. You'll also get access to three articles of your choice each month and our free newsletter:

Or, Subscribe now to get full access.

Already a subscriber? Log in here .

What you’ll get with an All-Access subscription to World Politics Review:

A WPR subscription is like no other resource — it’s like having a personal curator and expert analyst of global affairs news. Subscribe now, and you’ll get:

  • Immediate and instant access to the full searchable library of tens of thousands of articles.
  • Daily articles with original analysis, written by leading topic experts, delivered to you every weekday.
  • Regular in-depth articles with deep dives into important issues and countries.
  • The Daily Review email, with our take on the day’s most important news, the latest WPR analysis, what’s on our radar, and more.
  • The Weekly Review email, with quick summaries of the week’s most important coverage, and what’s to come.
  • Completely ad-free reading.

And all of this is available to you when you subscribe today.

More World Politics Review