Fear has returned to Colombia, two years after the government signed a peace deal with FARC rebels. Real peace remains an illusion, as this week’s bomb attack has shown. Ofelia Harms Arruti reports from Bogota.
Image: picture-alliance/AA/L. Ilhan
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Weeping mothers, wives and children: The scenes outside the General Santander police academy in the Colombian capital were heartbreaking. At least 21 young people died and another 68 were injured in the car bombing in Bogota on Thursday. Most of the victims were aged between 17 and 23.
The bomber is assumed to have been a member of the ELN guerrilla group. The police cadets had just participated in a promotion ceremony when he drove his explosive-laden car into the academy compound and blew it up. The attacker died in the blast, and his motive remains unclear.
Until Thursday, there hadn't been a car bomb in the Colombian capital for ten years. Now the images of the destruction are reviving memories of a war that many had thought was over.
"The aim is to reignite the war, and that is very worrying, no matter who it comes from," says Katherine Torres from the campaign #porunapazcompleta ("For total peace"), which is trying to promote peace talks with the ELN guerrillas. Torres assumes that arranging further talks will now be very difficult. However, she comments that the current government was showing "no desire for peace" even before the car bombing.
President Duque: If the ELN really wants peace, it must show "it has taken concrete action"Image: picture-alliance/Photoshot/J. Paz
Negotiations almost impossible
For others, though, the attack confirms that the ELN are the ones with no real desire for peace. In November 2016, Colombia's former president Juan Manuel Santos successfully concluded a peace accord with the other, better-known guerrilla organization, the FARC.
Talks with the ELN were suspended last August, when Santos — who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts — was still president. However, the guerrillas' chief negotiators remained at the negotiating table in Havana, waiting for the new government under rightist President Ivan Duque, to appoint a negotiating team. That never happened.
Colombian President Santos and FARC leader Timochenko signed a peace deal in late 2016 — but the ELN guerillas are still activeImage: Getty Images/AFP/L. Robayo
Duque demanded that the ELN — which the United States and the European Union also categorize as a terrorist group — must first release all hostages before negotiations could continue. The day after the car bomb, the president announced that the peace talks were over. "If the ELN really wants peace, it has to show the country that it has taken concrete action," Duque said. Meanwhile, Colombia's High Commissioner for Peace, Miguel Ceballos, said that there was "no room any more for a dialogue with the ELN."
Spiral of escalation
As a result, Hubert Gehring, the director of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation in Bogota, believes the ball is now in the guerrillas' court: "Hopefully at some point the ELN will see a bit of sense, so as to be able to resume a serious attempt at negotiation."
Venezuelan refugees face violence in Colombia
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Gehring says Europe has "a false picture of the peace in Colombia," as though the signing of the agreement between the Santos government and the FARC had "solved Colombia's problems."
Meanwhile, Germany's ambassador to Colombia, Peter Ptassek, fears that Thursday's attack could result in a "spiral of escalation" that would "seriously aggravate the country's situation.”
According to Gehring, the international community needs to support Colombia on the most urgent issues. These include regional development, implementing the peace agreement, and aid for the more than a million people who have fled to Colombia from neighboring Venezuela.
"Germany, which has also had to deal with arrival of a million refugees, should be aware of the challenge Colombia is facing — not just on account of the Venezuelans' arrival, but also because of the almost six million internally displaced people."
Colombia's long struggle for peace
Colombia's presidential election is an important milestone towards consolidating the peace accord with FARC guerrillas. It was reached after decades of bloody conflict between the state and the FARC guerrilla groups.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/G. Legaria
Difficult path toward peace
The 2016 signing of the peace accord between the Colombian government and FARC rebels was a major, but not final, step towards ending the decades-long conflict. The deal remains a controversial topic in the country and took center stage during the presidential election.
Image: Kaeufer/Moser
Land owners vs. farmers
The conflict's origins date to the 1920s and a struggle over land ownership, which claimed thousands of lives. The 1948 murder of Jorge Eliecer Gaitan (photo), a liberal politician, threw the country into deep crisis. A result was the formation of a number of resistance groups; the Colombian army launched a campaign against "communist farmers."
Image: Public Domain
FARC and ELN
The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the National Liberation Army (ELN) were founded in 1964. The former wanted to break up the monopoly of land ownership, whereas the ELN formed out of a radical student movement and ideas of liberation theologians such as Camilo Torres (photo). The Colombian government fought both groups with the support the United States.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo
Paramilitary groups
The conflict deepened in the 1980s with the introduction of right-wing paramilitary groups in the service of the landowners against FARC. Both sides were closely linked to drug cartels. Four presidential candidates and countless left-wing politicians were murdered by paramilitaries between 1986 and 1990.
Image: Carlos Villalon/Liaison/Getty Images
Ingrid Betancourt kidnapped
In February 2002, the government cut off peace negotiations with FARC after guerrillas hijacked a domestic flight. Days later, the rebels struck again, kidnapping presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt. Alvaro Uribe went on to win the election that May and escalated military operations against FARC, ruling out further negotiations. He was re-elected in 2007. Betancourt was released in 2008.
Image: AFP/Getty Images
Peace talks begin
Juan Manuel Santos was elected president in 2010. Two years later, a law concerning compensation for victims of violence and the return of land came into effect. Peace talks between the government (photo) and FARC officially began that November.
Image: Reuters
Ceasefire
At midnight on August 29, 2016, the permanent ceasefire came into force. "A new chapter in Colombia's history begins on August 29," Santos wrote on Twitter. "We have silenced the weapons. The war with FARC is over!"
Image: Getty Images/AFP/G. Legaria
Peace deal with FARC
On September 26, 2016, President Santos and FARC leader Rodrigo Londono, a.k.a. Timochenko, signed the peace treaty, ending the 52-year-old conflict. The signing took place in Cartagena and was attended by 2,500 people.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/F. Vergara
Setback
Distrust in FARC manifested itself in a pre-referendum campaign against the peace treaty, led by the conservative ex-president Alvaro Uribe. To the surprise of many observers, a thin majority of Colombians voted to reject the deal on October 2, 2016.
Image: picture alliance/AP Photo/I. Valencia
Peace Prize for Santos
The international community threw its support behind the treaty's supporters. Just five days after it was rejected in a referendum, Santos was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. The ceremony took place in Oslo in December 2016.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/T. Schwarz
Parliamentary ratification
Colombia's parliament ratified the peace treaty on November 30, 2016, following a list of changes to the deal's original language.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/G. Legaria
Disarmament
FARC rebels gave up their weapons in three phases. On June 27, 2017, at the end of the UN-controlled disarmament process, Santos wrote: "For me and all Colombians, today is a special day. It's a day when weapons were exchanged for words."
Image: picture alliance/dpa/A. Piñeros
The new FARC
The now disarmed, former rebel group chose to renew itself as a political party and disavow violence during a convention on August 27, 2017. The guerrilla's founder, Rodrigo Londono (photo), was elected the new party's head. He was unable to run for president, however, due to his poor health.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/F. Vergara
FARC at the polls
For the first time since the end of the armed conflict, FARC put up its members as candidates in the parliamentary election, which took place on March 11, 2018. The party received just 50,000 votes, but secured five seats in the senate and lower house of parliament, respectively, as guaranteed by the peace treaty. The conservative party of former President Uribe won the election.
