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February 24th, 2016 
Awake Goy 
Christof Lehmann (nsnbc) : Colombia’s opposition, right-wing “Democratic Center” party led by former president Alvaro Uribe will be holding an anti-government march on April 2. The party will be marching separately after a failed attempt to co-opt a march organized by labor unions and social organizations on March 17.
Ex-President Alvaro Uribe addressing anti-Santos protesters (Courtesy Wikipedia)
The Democratic Center party and Uribe announced that they planned an anti-government march on April 2, to protest what the party and Uribe denounce as the government’s far-reaching concessions to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia – Peoples’ Army (FARC-EP).
The guerrilla and the administration of President Juan Manuel Santos have held peace talks in the Cuban capital Havana since 2012. The peace talks, have been sponsored by Argentina, Cuba, Venezuela and Norway. The government and the FARC-EP have implemented a bilateral ceasefire that came into effect on January 1, 2016. The ceasefire has largely been effective. The government and the guerrilla plan to sign a final peace accord this y where after Colombia’s 51-year-long civil war would come to an end. The government and the second largest leftist guerrilla, the ELN are also tentatively negotiating.
The peace talks in Havana have led to several land-mark agreements including an agreement on rural and land reform, political participation of the FARC after it has decommissioned its weapons under the supervision of international observers and its transformation from guerrilla to a political organization, an agreement on fact finding including facts about crimes committed on all sides, compensation for the about 7 million victims of the war, and an agreement on illicit drugs.
Ex-President Alvaro Uribe and the Democratic Center party denounce the administration of Juan Manual Santos of “being soft on the guerrilla” and of making too many concessions. In 2015 Uribe won a second term as President with the direct and indirect support of Colombia’s left-wing parties who described their support of Santos as a “mandate for peace”.
Uribe’s hard-liner stance about the FARC-EP is mostly supported by Colombia’s far-right but “a stronger position with regard to concessions to the FARC-EP” enjoys some popular support. Uribe and the Democratic Center initially planned to hold their anti-government march on March 17, together with labor organizations, farmers organizations, truckers organizations and others who plan a strike on March 17. The organizers of the strike, however, announced that they wanted to have nothing to do with Uribe’s and his party’s anti-government and anti-peace march.
Uribe is well-known for his close ties to networks in and around Colombia’s ultra-right-wing neo-paramilitaries who, according to both the government and the FARC-EP constitute the greatest risk to Colombia’s security and stability. The ex-president was also implicated in several scandals around the now defunct Colombian intelligence service DAS and a wiretapping scandal that could have landed and possibly still can land Uribe behind bars. In 2014 the National Assembly of neighboring Venezuela barred Uribe from entry into the country over Uribe’s alleged involvement in the death of Venezuelan legislator Robert Serra and the support of militant right-wing groups in Venezuela.
CH/L – nsnbc 23.02.2016
Source Article from http://nsnbc.me/2016/02/23/uribe-and-opposition-to-sabotage-colombian-peace-process/
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