Is the Farc Becoming Active in Columbia Again

Juan de Diós Quintero is a former insubordinate commander turned farmer. The killings "have generated a lot of anxiety," he says. "We are very worried." John Otis for NPR hibernate caption

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John Otis for NPR

Juan de Diós Quintero is a former rebel commander turned farmer. The killings "have generated a lot of feet," he says. "We are very worried."

John Otis for NPR

On the green slopes of the Andes Mountains in northern Republic of colombia, farmers are raising chickens, goats and cows and tending to corn crops. It's a striking change from their previous occupation: battling government troops equally members of a Marxist guerrilla group known every bit the Revolutionary War machine of Colombia, the FARC.

Thousands of guerrillas laid downward their weapons nether an historic 2016 peace agreement that ended 52 years of fighting. Among its many provisions is one requiring that the government provide protection from reprisals to ex-FARC fighters.

But many former rebels say their postwar lives are anything only peaceful.

Over the past three years, 181 demobilized FARC guerrillas have been killed in suspected reprisals or other score-settling attacks, as drug gangs and others jostle for territory and influence. Twelve of them were farmers who worked at this agricultural cooperative near the Andes town of Santa Lucía, fix past the government to help nigh 100 former rebels transition to noncombatant life.

An agricultural cooperative near the Andes town of Santa Lucía was fix up by the Colombian government to help nigh 100 onetime rebels transition to civilian life. John Otis for NPR hide explanation

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John Otis for NPR

An agricultural cooperative near the Andes town of Santa Lucía was fix up by the Colombian authorities to help near 100 old rebels transition to civilian life.

John Otis for NPR

Juan de Diós Quintero is a one-time rebel commander turned farmer with a trunk and face pocked with bullet scars after 30 years of fighting. Fifty-fifty he is scared.

The killings "have generated a lot of anxiety," Quintero says every bit he leans on a wooden fence while inspecting a herd of goats. "We are very worried."

The death cost and so far in Colombia amounts to a tiny fraction of the 13,000 FARC guerrillas who disarmed, and analysts bespeak out that in countries transitioning from state of war to peace, former fighters are often targeted in revenge killings.

But Carlos Ruíz, who heads a United nations squad monitoring Colombia'due south peace process, warns that such attacks are on the rise and says the government "demand[southward] to do a better task."

In 2017, the kickoff twelvemonth afterward the peace treaty was signed, 31 former rebels were killed. That number more than doubled to 65 in 2018 and jumped to 77 final year.

"2019 was the worst year in terms of violence against ex-combatants," Ruíz tells NPR. "And unfortunately, 2020 is not starting differently." 8 ex-FARC rebels accept been killed so far this yr.

Some killings have been blamed on Colombians biting most the many kidnappings and massacres carried out by FARC guerrillas during a half-century of civil war.

Last calendar month, Colombian authorities arrested a retired army colonel and four soldiers for their declared participation in the 2019 shooting death of Dimar Torres, a one-time FARC guerrilla. The Defense force Ministry initially chosen the shooting an accident, only prove emerged that earlier the shooting, the soldiers had been excavation a cloak-and-dagger grave for Torres.

Manuel Gonzales, a FARC political leader and old FARC commander, hugs a friend at the funeral of his son, former FARC guerrilla Manuel Antonio Gonzalez, in Medellin, Colombia, in December. Gonzales was shot dead near the Territorial Area of Grooming and Reincorporation for ex-FARC guerrillas. Joaquin Sarmiento/AFP via Getty Images hide explanation

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Joaquin Sarmiento/AFP via Getty Images

Manuel Gonzales, a FARC political leader and former FARC commander, hugs a friend at the funeral of his son, former FARC guerrilla Manuel Antonio Gonzalez, in Medellin, Colombia, in December. Gonzales was shot dead well-nigh the Territorial Area of Training and Reincorporation for ex-FARC guerrillas.

Joaquin Sarmiento/AFP via Getty Images

In other cases, authorities blame drug trafficking gangs that have gained control over rural areas that were in one case dominated past guerrillas. These groups try to recruit one-time rebels and sometimes kill those who refuse to join.

"There are old scores to settle. There is contest for territorial control. There may be refusals to be recruited," said Adam Isacson, an annotator at the Washington Role on Latin America recall tank. "The killings don't really follow a pattern, except that they happen in places strategic for the drug trade."

María Victoria Llorente, who heads the Bogotá-based Ideas for Peace Foundation retrieve tank, says since the peace treaty was signed, Colombian regular army and police have provided only a token presence in former war zones where former guerrillas have resettled. Security, she says, is deteriorating.

Divisions amid the former guerrillas are besides driving the violence. Analysts say that about one,500 who initially laid down their weapons take rearmed and are trying to sabotage the peace procedure.

Terminal month, Colombian security forces said they killed two suspects linked to a rearmed FARC faction who were plotting to assassinate Rodrigo Londoño, the FARC'due south erstwhile top commander. Londoño at present heads the FARC'south left-wing political party, founded afterwards the peace accordance was signed. He briefly ran for president terminal yr and continues to strongly support the peace process.

In an interview with NPR, Londoño referred to the failed plot against him past his former comrades as "sad" and "unfortunate." Yet, he pins most of the arraign for the rising death toll on the government for declining to protect onetime rebels.

"We need a authorities that is willing to comply with its promises in the peace accordance," he says. "As long equally they don't do that, things volition be very difficult."

Indeed, critics contend that Colombian President Iván Duque has shown little interest in the peace treaty signed by his predecessor, Juan Manuel Santos, who was awarded the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize.

Just the government insists otherwise. At a recent news conference, Emilio Archila, the main authorities official overseeing the return of onetime guerrillas to civilian life, said at that place should be "no dubiousness" that their prophylactic is a top Duque administration priority.

Regular army and constabulary units guard the 24 regime-sponsored sites around Colombia, including the co-op near Santa Lucia, where one-time guerrillas are reintegrating into civilian life. The authorities also provides bodyguards for high-ranking former rebels. Merely nearly have no official protection and many take been killed later on they ventured exterior the resettlement zones.

At the farm co-op near Santa Lucía, there is a growing sense of dread. Afterwards one of its members, old guerrilla Darío Herrera, was shot expressionless tardily terminal month, the FARC political party and the regime agreed to evacuate nigh of the people living here — ex-guerrillas and family unit members — to a safer area.

Among them is Yerlis Ballesteros. After spending 18 years every bit a FARC guerrilla fighter, she has been raising her two children at the co-op. Now she'southward anxious to get out.

"It's really tough for our family to get to bed at dark," she says, "fearing that some armed group could come afterward us."

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Source: https://www.npr.org/2020/02/06/802764177/colombias-farc-rebels-laid-down-their-weapons-but-a-growing-number-are-being-kil