WSJ: Colombia’s Dubious Deal With Terrorists
Why President Santos won’t let voters decide the fate of his FARC peace agreement.
By Mary Anastasia O'Grady
September 27, 2015
The Wall Street Journal
The Vatican’s decision to disown the Cuban human-rights community during Pope Francis’ trip to the island left many Catholics downcast. It was painful to endure images of the pontiff hobnobbing with Fidel and Raúl Castro while at least 140 Cuban dissidents—outcasts who are poor, many of them black—were arrested, some dragged away, by secret police.
What got less attention, but may turn out to be equally damaging to the weak and vulnerable in Latin America, were the pontiff’s remarks on Colombia.
Referring to four years of Colombian government negotiations in Havana with the drug-trafficking terrorist group FARC, Pope Francis said “Please, we do not have the right to allow ourselves yet another failure on this path of peace and reconciliation.” That was pope-speak for “get this done.”
Days later Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos flew to the island, clasped hands with Cuban dictator Raúl Castro and FARC leader Rodrigo Londoño Echeverri, and announced a deal. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry hailed the agreement and this week Mr. Santos is in New York for the U.N. General Assembly and to receive more praise.
Perhaps Mr. Kerry has seen the deal, but Colombians have not. All they know are the bits that Mr. Santos has shared. These read like a list of the FARC’s demands from the start of negotiations four years ago. If what we know so far is any indication, this deal is a surrender to terrorists that will make Colombia more dangerous, less just and poorer.
FARC atrocities will not land the perpetrators in jail. Instead they will go before one of two special tribunals, which will include judges from other countries. What countries, nobody knows. If the accused acknowledge their crimes, their most severe penalties will be confinement to the rural areas where they already live, for five to eight years, and some community service. In the case of crimes against humanity this will violate Colombia’s commitments under the Geneva convention.
The FARC has said it will not turn over its weapons. It owes reparations to victims and the nation, but how it will pay its debts or to whom nobody knows. FARC leaders will enter politics flush with cash acquired in the cocaine and kidnapping trades.
Last year Mr. Santos announced that he wanted to widen the definition of a political crime to include drug trafficking so that the FARC could claim that they are not gangsters but political actors. This was so he could meet their demand of no jail time.
When Colombians objected loudly, he claimed he never said it. He even had his ambassador in Washington write a letter to this newspaper denying that he had said it.
Of course he said it. His words were recorded. Now it is part of his arrangement with the gangsters, which also forbids extradition.
Members of the Colombian military, civilian government and civil society will also be put on trial alongside the terrorists just as the FARC has always wanted.
This will put Colombians who oppose the FARC on par with what is essentially an organized-crime syndicate, thereby supporting the specious claim that this is a civil war in which both sides are equally responsible.
This is a vicious narrative. Convicting the military with false testimony is already a favorite pastime of the Colombian left. Now it will be easier because soldiers will be pressured to confess to crimes they have not committed in order to avoid draconian sentences. This will implicate their superiors, the main targets.
The military has made great sacrifices to pacify Colombia and it’s the country’s most respected institution. Colombians would never agree to this betrayal, if asked. So the president has broken his promise to hold a national referendum on the deal.
I’ve lost count of how many times Mr. Santos told me personally that Colombians would have a chance to vote on whatever was agreed upon in Havana. He repeated that pledge in interviews and numerous speeches to the nation. Yet on a radio show in August he stated categorically “I have never been on board with a referendum.” Now he calls a referendum “suicide.”
Mr. Santos isn’t concerned about the derision he evokes among Colombians with his pathological denials of what he has said when it’s no longer convenient. He’s too busy working on his next deceit: To circumvent the constitution he proposes special commissions in Congress to approve the agreement. And he’s asking Congress to give him the power to rule by decree—a la Hugo Chávez—for 180 days so that he can dictate implementation of the deal.
Colombia is a frail democracy. Mr. Santos, with the help of Raúl Castro, Pope Francis and the Obama administration, is in the process of killing it.
The Vatican’s decision to disown the Cuban human-rights community during Pope Francis’ trip to the island left many Catholics downcast. It was painful to endure images of the pontiff hobnobbing with Fidel and Raúl Castro while at least 140 Cuban dissidents—outcasts who are poor, many of them black—were arrested, some dragged away, by secret police.
What got less attention, but may turn out to be equally damaging to the weak and vulnerable in Latin America, were the pontiff’s remarks on Colombia.
Referring to four years of Colombian government negotiations in Havana with the drug-trafficking terrorist group FARC, Pope Francis said “Please, we do not have the right to allow ourselves yet another failure on this path of peace and reconciliation.” That was pope-speak for “get this done.”
Days later Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos flew to the island, clasped hands with Cuban dictator Raúl Castro and FARC leader Rodrigo Londoño Echeverri, and announced a deal. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry hailed the agreement and this week Mr. Santos is in New York for the U.N. General Assembly and to receive more praise.
Perhaps Mr. Kerry has seen the deal, but Colombians have not. All they know are the bits that Mr. Santos has shared. These read like a list of the FARC’s demands from the start of negotiations four years ago. If what we know so far is any indication, this deal is a surrender to terrorists that will make Colombia more dangerous, less just and poorer.
FARC atrocities will not land the perpetrators in jail. Instead they will go before one of two special tribunals, which will include judges from other countries. What countries, nobody knows. If the accused acknowledge their crimes, their most severe penalties will be confinement to the rural areas where they already live, for five to eight years, and some community service. In the case of crimes against humanity this will violate Colombia’s commitments under the Geneva convention.
The FARC has said it will not turn over its weapons. It owes reparations to victims and the nation, but how it will pay its debts or to whom nobody knows. FARC leaders will enter politics flush with cash acquired in the cocaine and kidnapping trades.
Last year Mr. Santos announced that he wanted to widen the definition of a political crime to include drug trafficking so that the FARC could claim that they are not gangsters but political actors. This was so he could meet their demand of no jail time.
When Colombians objected loudly, he claimed he never said it. He even had his ambassador in Washington write a letter to this newspaper denying that he had said it.
Of course he said it. His words were recorded. Now it is part of his arrangement with the gangsters, which also forbids extradition.
Members of the Colombian military, civilian government and civil society will also be put on trial alongside the terrorists just as the FARC has always wanted.
This will put Colombians who oppose the FARC on par with what is essentially an organized-crime syndicate, thereby supporting the specious claim that this is a civil war in which both sides are equally responsible.
This is a vicious narrative. Convicting the military with false testimony is already a favorite pastime of the Colombian left. Now it will be easier because soldiers will be pressured to confess to crimes they have not committed in order to avoid draconian sentences. This will implicate their superiors, the main targets.
The military has made great sacrifices to pacify Colombia and it’s the country’s most respected institution. Colombians would never agree to this betrayal, if asked. So the president has broken his promise to hold a national referendum on the deal.
I’ve lost count of how many times Mr. Santos told me personally that Colombians would have a chance to vote on whatever was agreed upon in Havana. He repeated that pledge in interviews and numerous speeches to the nation. Yet on a radio show in August he stated categorically “I have never been on board with a referendum.” Now he calls a referendum “suicide.”
Mr. Santos isn’t concerned about the derision he evokes among Colombians with his pathological denials of what he has said when it’s no longer convenient. He’s too busy working on his next deceit: To circumvent the constitution he proposes special commissions in Congress to approve the agreement. And he’s asking Congress to give him the power to rule by decree—a la Hugo Chávez—for 180 days so that he can dictate implementation of the deal.
Colombia is a frail democracy. Mr. Santos, with the help of Raúl Castro, Pope Francis and the Obama administration, is in the process of killing it.
Article Link to the Wall Street Journal:
http://www.wsj.com/article_email/colombias-dubious-deal-with-terrorists-1443386109-lMyQjAxMTE1NTI1OTkyMDk5Wj
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