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[Teneb]

Yesterday, there was a referendum for the Colombian people to ratify the peace agreement that the Colombian government struck with the FARC, something never before done. The result was, with slightly over 50% of votes, ... no.

The NO campaign was led by colombian ex-president Uribe, and the stated main motivators seem to be a feeling that the terms would "reward criminals" (since guerrilla members who admit their crimes would receive more lenient sentences (unless they've committed crimes against humanity)) and that the FARC would become too strong of a political entity by gaining guaranteed seats on the parliament.

Problem is... the current president outright said before the vote that there was no "Plan B". It was this or nothing.

I, myself, feel that even if the deal was unfair it is better than no deal at all. The conflict has been raging for five decades, and now they've went and threw it all away.

Discuss.

[Reelya]

Saddened, but not surprised. Colombia sucks, about as much as any country that even has elections is possible to suck.

Lol Uribe. He gave a straight-up amnesty to chainsaw-wielding death squads who committed about 80% of the civilian deaths in the civil war when he got elected. Sources:

http://www.prensarural.org/ww20031002.htm
http://www.dw.com/en/colombian-leader-suspected-of-death-squad-ties/a-16355235
Oh right, so we're gonna believe him now that he doesn't want to let FARC off the hook because that would "reward criminals".

For many Colombians, Alvaro Uribe is a hero. The security situation in the country improved dramatically during his presidency from 2002 to 2010. According to estimates by the Colombian military there are only around 8,000 guerrilla fighters left. 12 years ago this figure was more like 18,000.
...
this improvement has come at a price. The guerrillas' retreat was paralleled by the rise of right-wing paramilitaries, private armies originally formed and employed by big landowners. The Colombian judiciary believes that these paramilitaries killed around 150,000 people during the campaign against the guerrillas. They allegedly massacred innocent people with chainsaws, depopulated entire regions, and seized their victims' land and property. The paramilitaries frequently acted in conjunction with the military and the political establishment. This cooperation is something that human rights activists have been denouncing for years, but it took a very long time for a legal reappraisal to get off the ground. Judges and state prosecutors were reluctant to investigate. There was too much political influence involved, and lawyers were afraid of violent retribution.

Recently, however, a series of spectacular trials have taken place. At the end of August the former general Rito Alejo del Rio was sentenced to 26 years in jail. Del Rio was a military commander in the western Uraba region during the mid-1990s. At the same time, according to prosecutors, he was also the leader of the local paramilitary. Del Rio was accused of providing the militias with both infrastructure and personnel. Eye-witnesses reported seeing joint patrols by the army and the militia. During this period, there were a number of massacres among the civilian population of Uraba. At the time del Rio was active there, Alvaro Uribe was the governor of the region. The general is regarded as one of the military leaders who was closest to Uribe.

Oh great, the security situation was so much better after they got rid of those wandering Marxists and replaced them with roving chainsaw hillbilly crackhead clans.

In mid-September, Uribe proposed a law that would in effect grant amnesty to Colombian paramilitaries. It would allow members of the Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) to avoid jail for crimes they have committed if they agree to lay down their arms. This recent proposal would, according to Uribe, compel the leaders of the death squads to admit their crimes, turn over some land, pay some fines and provide community services when they turn in their weapons.

Killed 150,000 people with chainsaws recently? Sounds like you need to do ... community service!

I could probably do 40 posts on all the sick fascist-like shit that went down during Uribe's term.

[TempAcc]

As much as I'm against the whole thing (the FARC isn't anything better than the death squads of yore, responsible for many a murder, arson and rape cases), considering the FARC as terrorists that need to be eliminated, even I have to admit that Uribe is shady as all hell and has no right to say anything on the matter due to the aforementioned reasons.
Doesn't change the fact he's pretty popular and that a huge chunk of the colombian population hates the FARC's guts badly, meaning this sort of polarization was pretty much expected. Even if the peace deal goes through and the FARC becomes a political party, it'll only further increase the political polarization.

How they'll retake negotiations now is a bit of a mystery, but at least the FARC seems to be willing to avoid throwing shit into the fan just yet (which makes sense, given their numbers have dwindled a whole lot in the last years).

[Reelya]

There's actually a pragmatic reason to let the FARC become their own political wing.

Basically every single opposition political group for the last 50 years has been accused of being a political front for the FARC. This included the government sending hitmen against human rights activists, environmentalists, trade union leaders, teachers, the clergy, journalists. You name it, they shot or stabbed or poured acid on someone or blew them up and claimed they were FARC. In fact Colombia one lead the world in trade union leader murders. By "lead the world" I mean literally > 50% of entire worlds trade union murders were in Colombia up until a decade ago. They "solved" their labor disputes by mass murder of activists and claiming people who asked for pay raises or safe working conditions were FARC.

This is a reason they don't want FARC to come out of the shadows. With "ghost FARC" out there it's easy to label the entire left of the political spectrum as secretly FARC, people who want better working conditions or freedom of information? Those guys are FARC too! It's literally the ruling party's most powerful weapon against the opposition parties - we can accuse you of being dirty terrorist commies, then our death squads come for you, what you gonna do then? This effectively keeps Colombia as a One Party Terror State. Santos inherited the party and he wants to make his mark on history by changing that, but the Party Old Guard represented by Uribe doesn't want things to change.

If FARC become an actual political party, then saying "everyone is FARC" which is what they have been doing would be seen for how nonsensical it actually is, as it would be to claim the Tories in England are secretly working for "UKIP".

[nenjin]

Seems like if a government is willing to resort to murder to silence opposition/reform candidates, reasons are pretty arbitrary and easily fabricated.

I don't know enough about the main issue to have a strong opinion. Other than I'm a little surprised at the vote. Not just the No outcome but....did they not learn anything from Brexit? Transparency in a matter like this is good but....going to the entire country to vote with no Plan B seems like a recipe for disappointment and disaster.

[mainiac]

as it would be to claim the Tories in England are secretly working for "UKIP".

That sounds pretty reasonable to me.  It would explain a lot.

[BorkBorkGoesTheCode]

There's actually a pragmatic reason to let the FARC become their own political wing.

Basically every single opposition political group for the last 50 years has been accused of being a political front for the FARC. This included the government sending hitmen against human rights activists, environmentalists, trade union leaders, teachers, the clergy, journalists. You name it, they shot or stabbed or poured acid on someone or blew them up and claimed they were FARC. In fact Colombia one lead the world in trade union leader murders. By "lead the world" I mean literally > 50% of entire worlds trade union murders were in Colombia up until a decade ago. They "solved" their labor disputes by mass murder of activists and claiming people who asked for pay raises or safe working conditions were FARC.

This is a reason they don't want FARC to come out of the shadows. With "ghost FARC" out there it's easy to label the entire left of the political spectrum as secretly FARC, people who want better working conditions or freedom of information? Those guys are FARC too! It's literally the ruling party's most powerful weapon against the opposition parties - we can accuse you of being dirty terrorist commies, then our death squads come for you, what you gonna do then? This effectively keeps Colombia as a One Party Terror State. Santos inherited the party and he wants to make his mark on history by changing that, but the Party Old Guard represented by Uribe doesn't want things to change.

If FARC become an actual political party, then saying "everyone is FARC" which is what they have been doing would be seen for how nonsensical it actually is, as it would be to claim the Tories in England are secretly working for "UKIP".

This would be a perfect crosspost for Conspiracy Corner.