Will Colombia force its military to face up to its past human rights abuses?
Never before has it become so clear that we live in societies that are politically democratic but socially fascist. The Podemos wave is a metaphor for every single attempt to find a progressive solution.
Situated far from sites of official peace negotiations, women’s activism, caretaking and community-building is often relegated to the category of service provision, but sustainable peace depends upon it.
The unilateral ceasefire signed by the FARC last December is a historic and positive step towards a permanent peace, but questions remain. From openDemocracy.
The use of international norms coupled with the solidarity of international support has been a successful formula that has meant relative peace for the community for nearly 10 years.
A catalogue of sexual violence has accompanied the armed conflict in Colombia. The peace talks must not brush it under the carpet.
Now that the main potential impediment to a peace deal–a change in government–is out of the picture, it is time to start tackling other threats, not just to securing the agreement, but also to its implementation.
Mientras que a menudo las iniciativas de justicia transicional rehúyen desmantelar los sistemas de macro criminalidad, la ley de Justicia y Paz en Colombia está arrojando luz sobre las raíces políticas y económicas del fenómeno paramilitar, y sus profundas relaciones con el estado. English.
While transitional justice initiatives have traditionally shied away from dismantling the system, Colombia's Justice and Peace Law has taken the first steps towards exposing the political and economic roots of paramilitarism, and the deep state tangled around them. Español.
The third point of agreement reached in the Havana negotiations may finally pave the way for the gradual end to the “war on drugs”, and defuse one of the issues – the drug trade – that has most hindered peace in Colombia.
A new transparancy law guarantees Colombian citizens greater access to information on public spending, but corruption in the defence sector and links to organised crime still remain obscured, and matters of 'national security' are exempt altogether.
Former Swedish deputy foreign minister and UN ambassador Pierre Schori remembers circumstances and characters, including the late prime minister Olof Palme, that linked him to Gabriel García Márquez, in the work they did on Latin America.
