Social Organizations Key for Colombia's Second Peace Dialogues

Members of socials organizations and groups from Colombia presented their proposals meant to be included in peace dialogues between the Colombian government and the National Liberation Army, ELN.

RELATED:
Colombia's Cuban-Inspired Guerrilla Group Follows FARC's Path

Both sides began the public phase of negotiations Tuesday, in Cashapamba, Ecuador. Tuesday night the organizations handed over the petitions in a cultural act in Quito. Argentine singer-songwriter Piero and Colombian artists John Harold Davila and Jaime Guevara performed in a concert.

"We are proposing that there be guarantees for participation. We have an agenda for peace, we have regional sectoral dynamics, we have territories of peace, political will, a great national dialogue and the commitment of many organizations to that participation," said Marylen Serna, a spokeswoman for the Social Table for Peace.

The organization includes the Congress of the People, the National Indigenous Organization of Colombia, the Black Communities Process and the Social Movement of Disabilities in Colombia.

One of the concerns of social organizations is to have guarantees for political opposition and that killings of social leaders in Colombia stop.

"Hundreds of leaders, men and women builders of peace have been killed in the framework of this process. Therefore it is for us an imperative that there is a policy of dismantling paramilitarism," said Serna.

RELATED:
10,000 Colombian Families Given Land for Abandoning Coca Crops

For Serna, there must also be "the political will of the government to protect life, human rights in the territories and organizations" and also to "respect the implementation of the agreements signed by the FARC and the Colombian government."

"The success of this negotiation is based on the strength that can influence the participation of the whole society in the process," said Luis Fernando Arias, of the National Indigenous Organization of Colombia.

"This negotiation of the national government, unlike the negotiation with the FARC, has a very important element that is the participation of the Colombian society," said Arias.