Santos: “We have come further in the peace process than ever before”
Santos: “We have come further in the peace process than ever before”
The Colombian president begins his European tour to build support for FARC negotiations
Santos: “Hemos llegado más lejos que nunca en el proceso de paz”
Miguel González / Silvia Blanco Madrid 3 NOV 2014 - 23:12 CET
On Monday, Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos chose Madrid as the first stop on his European tour to build political and financial support for the ongoing peace process taking place in Havana with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). “The process is moving forward and we have come further than ever before,” Santos said during a ceremony where he received an honorary degree. “Making peace is the most urgent task of a leader,” said the head of state, who was elected in June in an electoral campaign where the peace process he advocated was one of the main topics. Now he is looking for the European Union’s commitment to create a fund to finance post-conflict initiatives after five decades of war, which led to nearly six million displaced people and more than 220,000 deaths.
Spanish President Mariano Rajoy sponsored Santos’s selection for this honor, with all its attendant university ceremonies, complete with mortarboard and hymns at the Universidad Camilo José Cela, which was founded in 2000. Rajoy underscored Spain’s support for Colombia and for Santos, and his confidence that the conflict is coming to an end: “We hope the FARC and ELN [National Liberation Army] will know how to take advantage of this historic opportunity that Juan Manuel Santos is giving them. If they disappoint the Colombian people again, they will end up being mere dust in the gutter of history,” he said in the presence of former Spanish prime ministers José María Aznar and José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, among other dignitaries who attended the event.
Santos thanked Spain for its cooperation and friendship, calling it “the mother country.” “Who, if not Spain, could lead the European Union’s proposal to eliminate visas for Colombians?” Santos said, before turning to the thorny issue of the Catalan Independence drive. “We support the constitutional and territorial integrity of Spain,” he said.
Spain has offered to host the donors’ conference to create a fiduciary fund that, through the EU and with the participation of other nations, will finance substitution of coca production with other crops, development projects in the areas most affected by a war that has lasted 50 years, and the return of the displaced. Colombian Senator Roy Barreras, who presides over the congressional peace commission, has estimated post-conflict reconstruction costs to be about 90 billion pesos ($45 billion) and Santos wants to begin the initiatives as soon as the peace treaty is signed to avoid frustration and power vacuums. Germany’s credit bank for reconstruction and development said it will lend $100 million to Colombia to support the peace process.
More:
http://elpais.com/elpais/2014/11/03/inenglish/1415052756_905463.html