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News > Latin America

Daughter of Iconic Colombian Leader Blames State for Conflict

  • Photos of missing victims and victims of murder and conflict are displayed as Colombians in favor of peace march through the streets of Medellin, Oct. 7, 2016.

    Photos of missing victims and victims of murder and conflict are displayed as Colombians in favor of peace march through the streets of Medellin, Oct. 7, 2016. | Photo: Reuters

Published 9 October 2016
Opinion

"There is nothing more cruel or inhuman than war. There is nothing more desirable than peace," said Jorge Eliecer Gaitan.

In a letter to President Juan Manuel Santos and FARC-EP leader Rodrigo Londono Echeverri—better known by the nom de guerre Timochenko—the daughter of Colombian politician, Jorge Eliecer Gaitan, whose 1948 assassination sewed the seeds of rebellion, accused the state of fueling the conflict and said that no peace deal could forfeit amnesty for rebel fighters as opponents of the peace deal have demanded.

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Gloria Gaitan was 11-years-old when her father, Liberal Party leader Gaitan, was gunned down in central Bogota during his campaign for president. Gaitan had spoken out against the power of the wealthy elite and condemned state violence against workers, marginalized communities and progressive political movements.

His assassination sparked massive rebellions, known as the “Bogotazo,” and set off the roughly ten-year period known as “La Violencia,” which led to the formation of campesino guerrilla movements—including the FARC-EP—after all peaceful options had been exhausted. It is from this period that the current 52-year-old civil war developed.

In her letter published Sunday, Gaitan expressed concern about calls from both national and international groups for demobilized leaders of the FARC-EP guerrilla army to be sent to jail for their crimes, which she said would “deny their comprehensive amnesty” and effectively block them from participating in the country’s political life.

Gaitan argued that such an approach would make it “impossible to achieve a peace agreement,” because the rebel army “will not lay down the weapons with which they now seek power to transform the current system in exchange for a jail sentence that would end its curve of struggle.”

According to the transitional justice measures in the peace agreement between the government and the FARC-EP— which was narrowly rejected in the Oct. 2 plebiscite—actors in the armed conflict who confess to their crimes will receive reduced sentences and community service aimed at repairing years of damage.

The amnesty system, which excludes crimes against humanity, prioritizes uncovering the truth about the conflict over criminal prosecutions similar to post-apartheid South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation commission. The deal also paves the way for the FARC-EP to reorganize as a political party and participate in elections once they disarm.

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Gaitan called on the government to acknowledge the full extent of the state’s role in fomenting decades of conflict and unleashing a political “genocide” against left-wing forces in the country, beginning even before her father’s murder.

“At the dialogue table, the Colombian government must recognize that the conflict we live was started by the Colombian state in 1946, having unleashed at that precise moment a premeditated, systematic and generalized genocide against Gaitan allies,” she wrote.

The daughter of the historic slain leader, whose death changed the course of Colombian history, has previously commented that the peace agreement was partially an affront to historical memory in the country by focusing solely on the 52 years of conflict with the FARC-EP and not acknowledging other foundations of the conflict, including her father’s assassination. She addressed the letter to Santos and Timochenko, and also sent it to the leader of the National Liberation Army, Nicolas Rodriguez Bautista, also known as Gabino.

In the letter, Gaitan offered “extensive” archival documents to Timochenko and Santos in the interest of preserving historical memory by laying bare what she deemed a “genocide” against the movement of her father’s supporters.

“I put this large collection of documents at the service of the peace talks in order for it to be acknowledged that it was the state that sparked the conflict,” she wrote. “So that the state apologizes for this genocide that has gone unpunished and that the guerrilla commanders are granted comprehensive amnesty for being the result of violence and not its origin.”

“The state, through genocide, broke the normal democratic process,” she continued. “It will be necessary that public opinion understands that the conflict began when the state sought to break down the triumph of the popular will, since it was inevitable with the election of my father as the president of Colombia in the next presidential elections in 1950, representing the arrival of the people to power.”

Jorge Eliecer Gaitan was expected to win the election before his assassination in 1948.

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