what is feasible and what is non-negotiable

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What is feasible and what is non-negotiable in the proposals of political

participation of the FARC

By Juanita Leon

August 8, 2013

Translated for La Silla Vacía by Matilda Villarraga

Yesterday in the celebration of the Battle of Boyacá, President Santos called for a "Second Independence", which will allow the Colombians to

break forever with the yoke of violence building a lasting peace. This peace moves through the dialogues in Havana and through agreements on

the second point of the Agenda, which is the political participation of the guerrillas. La Silla reviewed the ten "minimal proposals of political

participation" that the FARC presented and the second communique where they explain them; it is more evident that everything they ask for is

to be applied to them and not the opposition in general. Based on these proposals, La Silla analyzes what would be negotiable and what non-

viable.



Negotiable La Silla’s Explanation Non-negotiable

Constituent Assembly

The FARC are proposing a Constituent Assembly to

make permanent institutional changes that allow all

the guerrillas, including those who are prisoners,

elect and be elected and to form political parties.

Among these changes, they propose the

"permanent deletion of any prohibition or

impediment that may affect the full exercise of any

such investitures" on the part of the guerrillas.

A Constituent Assembly as such does not

seem feasible. First, because Santos has

made it "a point of honor" and because it

would open the gate, among other things,

for the guerrillas to end up legislating on

everything - including the economic model

and for reforms to be introduced as the

possibility of a second re-election to allow

the return of Alvaro Uribe to power.

It would be necessary to seek other legal

formulas to make a constitutional reform

that will give security to the legalagreements (and them), including the

participation in politics despite having

committed war crimes and crimes against

humanity. For this reason, is precisely the

Framework for Peace (now the FARC say

they don’t like it). This would enable the

majority of the guerrilla (even the

prisoners) to elect and be elected. But

some of the heads would have to pay a

conviction.

Nor is it negotiable the permanent deletion

of any prohibition or impediment to be

chosen because that would mean that the

guerrillas would be immune to the future of

any loss of investiture.

To facilitate their arrival in Congress



The granting of direct seats would be a

toad hard to swallow but it is negotiable,

depending on the number. It would be

easier to allow a constituency for peace

during a time period that lowers the

threshold for the parties arising out of the

signing of the Agreement. This would

imply, almost necessarily, also to lower the

threshold for small parties who are at risk

of disappearing.

The FARC propose to create the conditions for them

to become a legal political party, which would

include the possibility that the party is to have legal

personality only with its registration and regardless

of a threshold. They are requesting that it be

assigned, directly, a number of seats in Congress

and in the assemblies and councils. And in addition,

they intend to create a "special constituency for

peace" to "parties or social and political movements

that arise as a result of the signing of an eventual

peace agreement," which would operate during the

time, with the threshold and with the seats that are

defined in the Final Agreement. It would be

something equivalent to the special constituency for

ethnic minorities.

The proposal to eliminate the threshold

runs counter to the idea of the latestpolitical reforms that are trying to do away

with garage political parties. In addition it

would have large financial implications with

regard to the financing of parties that arise

only with filling out a form and as a result it

would be impractical as it’s presented.

Guarantees for the opposition

The explicit reformulation of the military

doctrine does not seem feasible politically

because the military is opposed and it

would be the perfect battle horse for the

uribismo, whose axis is the security.

However, in practice if the FARC

disappeared the military doctrine would

have to change because it would be gone

the main enemy that sustains them.

The FARC propose a series of guarantees for the

opposition which would include, among others, a

Statute of Opposition and to reformulate the

security policy of the State and the military and

police doctrine "to deprive them of the contents of

the ”cold war”" and "in the design of persecution

and in the fight against the "enemy within" '; the

right of reply when the Government violates the

good name of the opposition; participation in the

shaping of boards and commissions of the Congress;

the last word before the conclusion to the debates

in Congress; participation in the monitoring of

electoral processes; prior consultation on matters of

national concern such as foreign affairs, security

and defense, or justice.

When Germán Vargas was minister of the

Interior proposed a Statute for the

opposition which, three years later has not

materialized with the Democratic Pole,

which shows that it is a difficult subject.

However, that it has already been an

initiative of the government shows that it is

a negotiable item.



Funding for their party

This topic is thorny because part of the

electoral success of a party depends on themoney it can count on. With reason, left-

wing parties such as the Polo could argue

that giving that extra money to the FARC

would put them -that have acted within

the law - at a disadvantage. Particularly if

the FARC do not deliver the moment that

they have illegally obtained and exceeding

2,500 million pesos.

However, there is a ten percent of these

resources that today are not assigned

because the Constitutional Court struck

down the criteria by which they were

distributed. This percentage could be

negotiable with a legal reform and perhaps

if circulated among all the opposition

movements, not only the FARC.

The FARC demand for the party they want to create,

a state funding that complements the one already

that the opposition parties and social movements

have, that would be tantamount to a 10 per cent of

the total public funds allocated for the financing of

political parties and social movements. In 2009, the

State provided almost 25 billion pesos to finance

political parties, according to the information of the

MOE. This money is assigned in proportion to the

number of votes obtained. What the FARC would

like is that, in addition to what they already give

them to all the parties, they were to give them

(FARC) approximately 2,500 million (this figure is

adjusted each year) more.

Seats by their own right

To give them a post in the Advisory

Committee on Foreign Affairs, which is a

consultative body of the President of the

Republic for foreign affairs, would be viable

because outside of being composed of the

presidents, by the vice-president and by 12

congressmen, the President may appoint

two additional members. These two posts

could be for the opposition if so decided by

The FARC propose that the opposition have a seat at

the Advisory Committee on Foreign Affairs and on

the Board of Directors of the Bank of the Republic.

Also that the candidates for President and Vice

President, Governor and Mayor, who belong to the

parties or movements declared in opposition, and

follow on votes those who are elected in these

positions, will occupy a seat in the Senate,

Territorial Chamber, assembly and Municipal

The proposal to have a seat in different

instances is similar to the one made by the

Polo to Vargas Lleras when they discussed

the status of opposition and it’s in large

part the reason for braking the discussion.

Especially the seat in the Bank of the

Republic does not seem to be negotiable

because the idea of the Constitution was to

make it totally independent of the political



the president. Council, respectively, during the period for which it

was the corresponding election. They also propose

having a representative of the FARC in the National

Electoral Council that they expect to be popularly

elected.

game, and it is difficult to argue that they

took up arms not to participate there.

In theory, in the National Electoral Council

the opposition already has a post. But in

practice the large parties make so one of

them reaches it as was the case with the

PIN, which is the one that occupies that

seat today, in spite of the fact it votes

always with National Unity. However, to

negotiate that one of these 8 posts in the

CNE go directly to the FARC would surely be

rejected by the other small parties.

Access to Media

To finance programs to the FARC in

regional stations where they have a

presence, or even national news, as

happened when the M-19 demobilized, or

ensuring that the number of minutes per

month on television, as currently have all

the parties, might be negotiable.

Beyond the access to the media that already have

all the political parties, the FARC demand for the

movement that they believe as a result of the Peace

Agreement, the State fund a printed journal, a

magazine of political analysis, a radio station and a

TV channel with national coverage. That's in

addition to participation in the programming of the

public media state.

That the State finance a magazine, a radio

station and a TV channel with national

coverage is an unfeasible proposal for how

much each one of these media costs(To

give only an idea, sustain an operation as

small as La Silla Vacía costs more than 600

million pesos a year). In addition, the

guerrillas did not leave for the mountains

for lack of have their own media and many

demobilized have columns in the traditional

media.

Reparation to the UP



After the ruling of the Council of State,

which recently returned them the legal

personality, it is a viable return to the UP

five seats in the Senate (less than five

percent of the total number of seats) and

nine in the Camera. That is why the

discussion is about who would occupy

these seats, which would be the procedure

for choosing them and which interference

the FARC would have in that.

The FARC demand a law that expressly

acknowledges the State responsibility for the

extermination of this party emerged from the failed

agreements of peace with the FARC in 1985 and the

return of their seats at the time of greaterrepresentation in the legislative branch at all levels.

In 1986, when electorally, it did its best the UP

reached to have 5 senators, 9 representatives, 14

deputies, 351 councilors and 23 mayors.

Away with the black hand

The dismount of the "black hand" is an

imperative of the State, a need for the

Colombians and something that Santos is

committed with the Colombians to do from

the very beginning, peace or no peace

process signed.

Already a Truth Commission about all the

crimes committed in the conflict is

complicated because there is a lot of

reticence in all sectors to establish thetruth of the facts. On the part of the

military there is resistance, as seen in the

defense of the Palace of Justice that was

made by Rafael Nieto in the Cidh; on the

part of the business and political sectors

that financed and supported the

paramilitary; and on the part, even, of the

same guerrilla, who committed so many

The FARC propose the real dismount of the

paramilitary structures "and any illegal practice of

counterinsurgency that prevent the free exercise of

the right and the guarantees of social and political

opposition". For this, they ask for a criminal policy

aimed to remove such practices and a Commission

on the historical truth for the clarification of their

crimes, with the participation of representatives of

the social and political opposition and the

movement of victims and composed of Colombiansand foreigners. They propose that this committee

study the violence from the 40s and that to do this,

review the files of the intelligence agencies and the

minutes of the Council of Ministers since that time.

The Truth Commission would be un-

negotiable if it is only on "State terrorism"

as the FARC want.



atrocities that they probably do not want

to come out if they aspire to someday be

elected with some vote.

However, a Truth Commission for all the

atrocities is negotiable and it’s usually a

frequent outcome in many peace

processes.

what is feasible and what is non-negotiable

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