Why Colombia's left and the west welcome a rightwing president
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Version 0 of 1. Juan Manuel Santos's re-election for a second term as president of Colombia will come as a relief to many sections of the Colombian left: a strange twist as Santos heads a centre-right coalition. But perhaps it is a logical one given that the alternative was Óscar Iván Zuluaga, a hard-right militaristic candidate backed by the former president Álvaro Uribe who himself led the country when its human rights violations reached their peak. The election has been viewed by many experts and Colombians as a referendum on the peace process under way between the government and Farc, a Marxist peasant insurgency that has been fighting the government for the best part of 50 years. When Santos was declared victorious he celebrated with crowds who had written paz (peace) on their palms, and he declared: "Colombians have voted for the hope of swapping fear for peace" – a stark contrast to Zuluaga and Uribe, who have been remarkably outspoken in denouncing the peace process as nothing more than impunity for terrorists. The support of Colombian activists, leftwing politicians and trade unionists for the peace process, and the willingness of many to support Santos in order to achieve peace, is testament to how committed the Colombian left has been to bringing an end to the country's civil war, the longest in the world. The election result will also be welcomed by Europe and the US, which have largely been relying on Santos's image as a moderate to justify their continued relationship with Colombia, in spite of the fact that until recently it had the largest number of displaced people in the world (now overtaken only by Syria); the murder of trade unionists is on the rise; it is home to a sizeable number of paramilitary death squads who are rarely convicted of crimes; and its army has been embroiled in numerous scandals, including the "false positives" scandal in which soldiers killed young impoverished boys and dressed their corpses in Farc guerrilla uniforms in order to claim cash rewards from the government. In February Hugh Swire, minister of state at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, said when questioned about Colombia: "It is simply not the case that we turn to one side and avert our gaze [from] what we regard as human rights violations in Colombia." Nevertheless, a trade delegation with Nick Clegg went ahead, during which little was said about Colombia having the worst human rights record in the western hemisphere. Santos bet his political legacy on achieving peace, so now that he has won the election the country can continue with this vital process. But it is important to reject any notion of Santos, who was defence minister for Uribe during some of the country's worst human rights scandals, as some kind of progressive saviour with the best interests of Colombia's much-persecuted activists at heart. In fact, according to Mariela Kohon, director of the NGO Justice for Colombia, "the Patriotic March [Colombia's foremost grassroots social movement] has had 48 activists murdered in less than two years, and many imprisoned on trumped-up charges. Last year, 78 human rights activists were killed." This means that 2013 was the most dangerous year to be a Colombian activist. Moreover, Santos has been remarkably cavalier in smearing large sections of civil society and activists as insidious members of Farc, an action that, according to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, "can lead to violence against them". And it does: I visited the region of Catatumbo in 2013 shortly after Santos declared that its protesters had been infiltrated by Farc guerrillas, leading to the police open firing and killing four farmers. What I found in Catatumbo were ordinary peasant families armed with nothing more than sticks. Indeed, as a March 2014 Amnesty International statement on Colombia noted, despite the peace talks "human rights violations and abuses continue unabated". In a resource-abundant continent defined by leftwing Bolivarian governments, rightwing Colombia will continue to be a vital ally to the US and Europe. To quote Swire again: "Colombia is an increasingly important commercial partner, offering real opportunities for British companies." It is therefore unlikely that US and European governments will sufficiently scrutinise the human rights record of Colombia, lest it impair their ability to trade with the country. So it is important that the international left, and those with an interest in human rights, keep tabs on the fate of Colombian activists, as well as its peasants, many of whose livelihoods have been destroyed by the administration's favouring of transnational mining projects. Santos has a less than perfect record, and history suggests that the international community must demand more than his commitment to the peace process to end Colombia's problems. |