Over the past 15 years, Plan Colombia and other U.S. assistance have helped transform Colombia from a country ravaged by drug cartels and terrorist insurgents to the more prosperous and secure society it is today. It has helped turn Colombians once terrorized by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) into a strong people that have weakened this narco-terrorist organization, and brought it to the negotiating table on its knees. It has helped turn a country with a corrupt and unreliable judiciary into a place with growing confidence that justice will be served for those who violate laws.
Although these realities today may seem like they were inevitable all along, we should never take them for granted nor should we allow these hard-fought gains to be eroded. We should also never forget the Colombian and American military and civilian lives that have been lost along the way.
However, it is too early to declare complete victory. President Juan Manuel Santos, who visited Washington this week, is currently engaged in peace talks with the FARC, a three-year process that is supposed to culminate in an agreement by March 23. At that point, the Colombian people have been promised the final say through a national referendum, which should clearly state all of the terms of the agreement so that Colombians know exactly what has been agreed to by both President Santos and the FARC.
Many Colombians doubt the FARC’s intentions to abide by the terms of any peace agreement, and I share many of their concerns because of the group’s history of criminality, duplicity, broken ceasefires, and terrorism that has rightly earned it a designation by the U.S. government as a Foreign Terrorist Organization.
For example, even at this late stage in the negotiations, it’s unclear whether FARC guerrilla leaders will be allowed to participate in the political process while serving a prison sentence, if they will disarm and surrender their weapons, if they will cease all drug trafficking, and what kind of accountability there will be for human-rights violations. There has also been concerning talk about returning to Colombia FARC officials who are currently in U.S. prisons for their crimes and for the U.S. to stop seeking to bring to justice FARC members who have violated U.S. laws; given President Obama’s penchant for flawed prisoner-exchange deals, I have little confidence in his ability to do the right thing in this case either.