Colombian Town Prepares Peace Anniversary
News from Colombia |
on: Thursday, 16 February 2012
Poster for the Anniversary Commemoration
The town of San Vicente del Caguan in Southern Colombia is preparing to mark the 10th anniversary of the end of the 1998-2002 peace negotiations between the FARC and the government of President Andres Pastrana. San Vicente was the capital of the ‘demilitarised zone’ which was granted by the government to the guerrillas during the negotiation period. On the 21st of February, the town will hold an event to commemorate the anniversary and to call for the “construction of peace”. The move has provoked ire in some circles, with pro-government figures accusing the Mayor, Domingo Perez Cuellar, of being linked to the FARC.
Mr Perez is a member of the Democratic Pole opposition party and a local human rights defender, who was elected Mayor with the highest vote in the history of the town. His brother Joel was also a human rights defender. He was killed in 2008. His body was found burned and decapitated. Mr Perez has also been the victim of repeated death threats. Despite the allegations, he remains firm that the event is not a festival or homage to anything. Rather, the event is an “act of historic memory” and a space for the people of the region to demand respect and an end to the stigmatisation and abandonment that they have been subjected to since the end of the demilitarised zone.
According to a local deputy, Eduardo Franco, the region has been forced to go it alone since there is an almost complete absence of the state in the area. The local people are constantly stigmatised as guerrilla sympathisers and the community has been obliged to build its own roads and repair its own buildings in the midst of an armed conflict that has got worse since 2002. According to him, the event is a call to resolve the armed conflict, including civil society in the negotiations since “the construction of peace must begin from civil society, from social organisations and not just sitting down some people so that they disarm or come to some agreements without resolving the social problems that affect the community.”
The Mayor agrees, stating that the town wants a peace process,” but not one like before.” Instead they want the community itself to propose the solutions – peace is understood as a development plan that includes the needs of the people - “the peace we need is one that must satisfy the innumerable basic needs that we have.” The town has invited embassies and foreign dignitaries to return to the region for the anniversary, as well as international NGOs and representatives of the UN.
By holding this event the Mayor is remaining true to the region’s anthem which begins “With your rich lineage, San Vicente, advancing by the paths of peace.”
