International Commission in Colombia: New Hope for Peace?

 
In an effort to restart the stalled Colombian peace negotiations, President Andrés Pastrana and FARC leader Manuel Marulanda met in the town of Los Pozos in San Vicente del Caguán on February 9. In the points agreed to at that meeting, known as the Los Pozos Accord, the two parties extended an invitation to the international community to visit Colombia for a report on the negotiations and to lend support to the peace process.

Accordingly, a month later-on March 8 and 9-28 delegates from several different countries and international organizations visited Los Pozos. The group included Jan Egeland, the UN's special envoy to Colombia; Venezuelan Foreign Minister Luis Alfonso Dávila; Papal Nuncio Monsignor Beniamino Stella, who represented the Vatican; and an envoy of the European Commission, Ramón Mestres.

Part of the visit's significance was the FARC's apparent reversal of its previous stance against international involvement in the peace talks. For some analysts and observers, The New York Times reported, this gesture of acceptance by the FARC suggested that the guerrillas may be willing to consider the possibility of international participation in the peace process. As Colombia's former peace commissioner, Daniel García-Peña, told the newspaper, "little by little, the idea of international participation is gaining strength among this group. I think it's been a big step in the process. Don't forget that the FARC has a rural base that is very nationalistic," he added. "For them, the UN is an organization directed by 'yankees.'"

In an interview with Colombia's El Tiempo newspaper, Marulanda argued that the FARC had accepted the presence of the international community at the negotiating table "because they have the will and the desire to help by naming facilitators who will coordinate with us. That's the reason we've accepted them, but it doesn't mean that we've accepted any type of verification; that could happen in the future, but not for now."

At the end of the international delegation's visit, the Mexican ambassador to Colombia, Angel Luis Ortíz Monasterio, held a press conference at which he read a declaration establishing a permanent international commission in Colombia. The commission will be composed of representatives from Sweden, Norway, France, Switzerland, Spain, Italy, Cuba, Venezuela, Mexico and Canada. Its purpose is to serve as a "moral, political, economic and technical" complement to the peace process. It will have an executive coordinator elected on a rotating basis among the members, who will meet every six months. Besides addressing the conflict itself, the commission will make recommendations about such topics as alternatives to illicit crop production and in the future could provide financial backing to this and other programs.

According to a FARC spokesman known by the alias "Andrés París," the commission will be "a type of auxiliary to the dialogue and negotiations." It was openly invited by the guerrillas to participate in discussions about illicit crop substitution, the external debt and agricultural policy, he claimed.

The United States was not represented in Los Pozos, but the assistant secretary of state for the Western Hemisphere, Peter Romero, told the press that the administration has not ruled out the possibility of "participating eventually" in the peace talks. He argued that "the process still lacks the critical mass that would merit our participation. There is a long history of broken promises and commitments by the FARC; until the negotiations show some real progress I don't think that we will consider participating directly."

Phil Chicola, who heads the Andean section at the State Department, was much more critical of the process. Only when the guerrillas account for the murder of US indigenous activists several years ago will the US reconsider its participation, he said.

The beginning of international participation in the Colombian peace process is a positive step, but public opinion in Colombia is understandably skeptical of this latest development. The FARC has all too often failed to comply with other commitments it has made during the two years of talks. This time there may be a tiny ray of hope, however. As the UN's Jan Egeland pointed out, "now we will have international mechanisms to follow up on the peace process in Colombia."