Alfonso Velez Jaramillo
As things are going in political matters, we feel worryingly that we will continue enduring the terrible war that has plagued Colombia for more than half a century, God save us. I feel sorry for my children, my grandchildren and the new generations of Colombians.
Gone are the efforts of the Gustavo Petro government and previous administrations, each with their theory and interests, trying to achieve a solid and lasting peace for our country.
Although they deny it, there are various enemies for any attempt at a peace process, not only with the guerrillas, with Nueva Marquetalia, with drug traffickers, with paramilitaries, with today’s criminal gangs, and among those enemies, there are political leaders, businessmen, military, police and even public officials, even if they deny it, but it is a truth that is felt.
Very terrible. The right to peace, which requires the will and cooperation of all social, political, economic and ideological components, is being disdained by individual interests, especially politicians, to gain electoral returns.
Now, the one who is directly opposed is the Attorney General of the Nation Francisco Barbosa, according to him, because he does not agree that members of criminal gangs are treated as politicians. Who opposes him?, he wields the rule of law and compliance with the constitutional mandate.
It is easy to infer that he is threatening a possible prevarication to any official in the “total peace” process, after pointing out that “collusion with criminals is very serious.”
Prosecutor Barbosa, lawyer, historian and academic, is the author of the books “Justicia Transitional or Impunity?” and “The crossroads of peace in Colombia”, therefore, it is pertinent to remind you that on July 25, 2005, when he left his position as specialized prosecutor, President Álvaro Uribe, sanctioned Law 975 called Justice and Peace, thus formalizing , the peace process with the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, AUC, classified as criminals, but not politicians.
And not only that, for this process with the AUC, the government created a temporary location zone, in Ralito, Tierralta, Córdoba, for the paramilitaries who demobilized and rejoined civilian life.
Three years later, several congressmen who promoted and voted for that law were convicted of conspiring to commit a crime, they were para-politicians who were proven to be members of those criminal organizations.
I defended the peace process of President Juan Manuel Santos with the Farc, and although I viewed the agreement with the Ralito paramilitaries with skepticism, because they had no political vocation and it was full of favors for “paracos”, it must be recognized today that if it was the silence of many rifles was evident later and therefore it is inferred that many deaths were avoided.
I am not justifying the legal recognition of antisocials, much less that they have perks, but, if there is total peace, no actor can be left on the outside as a loose wheel, because the effort of the State is lost and they will continue to kill without mercy.
Mr. Prosecutor Barbosa, during the government of President Iván Duque, you were presidential adviser for Human Rights and International Affairs and as a historian you should know that, in Ralito, there was not even any submission to justice, pure straw.
According to Eduard Cobos, a former demobilized paramilitary, “Colombia was sold that it was a submission process NO. It was a peace process with the Self-Defense Forces, there was a political peace negotiation with representatives of the government, and delegates of the AUC”, although there was no compliance with the agreements, despite the fact that the Auc had territorial, economic, political and social control in certain areas of the country.
Paradoxically, the prosecutor Barbosa, until January 30, 2020, was presidential adviser for Human Rights and International Affairs of the government of Iván Duque, another enemy of the process, and from his statements he gives the impression of being a political contradictor of President Gustavo Petro.
You invoke the regulations, you even expose articles 188 and 251 of the Constitution, which exhaustively establish the functions of the president and the Attorney General of the nation, however, from your tone of voice you can see that the motivation may be another.
In the words of the Nobel Peace Prize winner, Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, “It is important to remember that it is impossible to build a real and participatory democracy based on impunity”, and I would add that this impunity should not be fostered by omission of the State, when it is reluctant to speak with those who they have committed crimes and are organized factors of violence.
Likewise, I do not intend to affirm that the Petro Government must have a letter of marque to legitimize the action of the State with calls for popular mobilizations, illegality is not combated with the call to the masses, a dangerous matter for the democracy of the peoples. Here we vote for a change peacefully and with respect for the institutionality.
The right to peace and the constitutional reforms underway against social inequality are not achieved by calling the masses to the streets, there are popular expressions without education and changes in peace are not achieved with force, often irrational and very dangerous.