The Colombian government’s chief negotiator has warned that it might take a full decade for peace to arrive in Colombia, after the signing of an eventual peace agreement with rebel group FARC.
Humberto De la Calle, Colombia’s former vice-president and now the leader of their negotiation team in Havana, Cuba, was speaking ahead of this week’s talks, in which the two parties will continue to discuss the rebel’s political participation, the second point on the five-point agenda.
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“Those involved in the talks in Havana are not under the illusion that we will sign the [peace] agreement and then have peace in Colombia just like that,” De la Calle said. “We have limited ourselves to looking at those points that will allow us to finish with the conflict and enable us to enter the implementation phase, through which we will achieve a lasting peace.”
He described the post-agreement implementation process as the “third phase”, and said that it would take a “very long time, maybe even a decade.”
The FARC and the government have been involved in peace talks since November in order to seek a negotiated end to the 49-year armed conflict.
While an accord has been reached regarding land reform, no agreements have been made on the issue of the FARC’s political participation, drug trafficking, the practicalities of the end of the armed conflict, and the rights of the victims.
