Farc Comandante Timoleón Jiménez speaks about historic peace accord

[flamingdem]

Fantastic news that this finally happened in Colombia.

http://farc-epeace.org/index.php/communiques/communiques-central-high-command/item/855-words-by-comandante-timoleon-jimenez-about-the-agreement-on-a-special-jurisdiction-for-peace.html

Compatriots and friends of peace in Colombia:

We bring you today, in addition to our fraternal embrace, a report of collective victory: we achieved, with the invaluable help of the Legal Subcommission, to remove many of the obstacles that were making the path of our reconciliation more difficult. We now have a special jurisdiction for peace that, besides ensuring respect for the rights of victims, will be a dynamic factor in the signing of new agreements in this crucial final stretch to reach the end of the conflict.

The current peace process is the only one in the world that has agreed a comprehensive system, which gathers and connects all the elements that are considered by international law as inalienable rights of victims: Truth, Justice, Reparation and Non-Repetition.

We hope that now nothing can stop the flood of a people demanding peace and desiring to merge forever in an embrace of reconciliation; people, who want to feel the unknown benefits of social justice in their own flesh, and feel, with the advent of true democracy, that exclusion and inequality are beginning to be left behind.

With the creation of this special jurisdiction for Peace, we are making a reality what was being reiterated at the Conversation Table regarding the victims of the conflict being at the center of the agreement; the jurisdiction we are talking about will examine the events that occurred during the armed conflict, it will establish responsibilities and punish those involved in serious human rights violations, violations of international humanitarian law and crimes against humanity.

[Judi Lynn]

1. Wonderful statement from Timoleón Jiménez.

Hope this agreement will bind the government to insuring the paramilitaries WILL be shut down permanently. They had agreed to that with the demobilization, but, as everyone knows, they simply reorganized themselves under new names.

Every decent person wants this to work.

May they be allowed to live in peace after the conclusion of the agreement. That much is due them, as everyone knows.

[flamingdem]

2. At the end of the video at the link

the comandante expresses very strongly that no one better even think of getting in the way of the agreement. The tone in his voice was exasperated for a moment, as if he wanted to name names. Such a great step forward that it seems solid.

[Judi Lynn]

3. Almost as soon as the peace talks began, Uribe started trying to fight them.

He backed the presidential candidate who hired a hacker to butt into secret negotiations and try to screw things up, as well. The hacker went to jail, while Uribe and his candidate got off scot-free, of course. Uribe has fought this peace deal like a wild man, tooth and claw.

He has always been connected to the narcotraffickers from the days when he was a mayor or governor, as we know the Pentagon's investigation of him and his dad revealed in the 1990's. The Colombian fascists have clearly believed they could keep this gravy train war going forever, especially when they could keep proving there were so many FARCs by murdering so many civilians and pretending they were FARCs who were fighting against the military. Made it look as if there were a whole lot more FARCs than there were.

I went back and watched the speech after seeing your post. I am very impressed by his manner. I had to find out who both the people were with him. The man to his left was Iván Márquez, and the other one was Pastor Alape, a FARC negotiator.

I got the feeling watching the video that they are very, very tired, too! How long has it been, three years? I think so. Wow.

Sure hope it will come together.

[flamingdem]

4. Thanks for reminding me about who Uribe really is

- I need to catch up on the background to all of this - obviously Cuba is very involved and I'd like to research their take - though for sure it's diplomatic. At least there is hope now! Raul is looking like a transformational figure and I expect the two countries will have closer ties in the future.