Colombia’s remaining guerrilla group, the ELN, is finally coming to the negotiating table. But the government is in a very different negotiating position with the ELN than with FARC, a point reflected in the vague, poorly worded negotiation agreement announced March 30th.
The government of President Salvador Sánchez Cerén has launched a new, expansive (and expensive) anti-crime package targeting gang leaders, reforming prisons and establishing renewed police presence in select municipalities. Will it work?
With corruption scandals, popular protests and the revelations in the Panama Papers, it’s easy to think that corruption in Latin America has suddenly increased. It hasn’t, but Latin American institutions are better prepared to deal with the fallout.
Conversations with Colombian security officials reveal concerns that Colombia’s peace agreement, if approved and implemented, may in the short term lead to greater violence, as former FARC members defect to the ELN and join in criminal and violent activities. How should Colombia, the U.S, and the EU prepare?
With less than a month before the deadline to sign the peace accord, the government must do a better job of promoting the agreement and refuting its critics’ dishonest attacks.
For the first time a judicial official has affirmed what many suspected: Alberto Nisman was murdered.
The peace deal with the FARC is not an automatic remedy for the consequences and collateral damage of Colombia’s violent past, but failure to approve it in the popular referendum would be disastrous to the country.
U.S. security policy is not providing security for most of Latin America’s citizens. U.S. policy in the Western Hemisphere should be based on the common interests, which today include peace, security, economic prosperity, diplomatic cooperation, and the right of each country to choose its own inclusive political system–along with all the attendant human and political rights.
Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos is not the only president to have wagered his legacy on the possibility of peace. But securing both his legacy and peace will require avoiding the mistakes of past negotiations.
This week’s stats shot measures equal protection of laws and lack of discrimination across the region. Equal treatment does not improve with increasing development.
