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Peace Mail - August 06-12, 2019

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Colombia
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Post-conflict presidential adviser Emilio Archila said the Territorial Training and Reincorporation Spaces - ETCRs would remain where they are for at least another year. “Initially we had thought that 13 should be maintained and 11 could be moved, but this is a dynamic process and one of the good things we have found is that all 24 mayors want them to stay in those places,” The ETCRs that the government wanted to relocate are located in former FARC territories in the departments of Nariño, Cauca, Choco, Antioquia, Guaviare, Putumayo, Meta and Arauca. The government wanted to move the ETCRs for legal, logistical and security reasons as many of the sites are located in remote areas. The government and the security forces will now stay in these regions and maintain law and order as they have done since the FARC signed peace with former President Juan Manuel Santos in 2016.

Researchers from the Earlham Institute and the University of Sydney are working with ex-combatants to foster their capability to protect the country's valuable biodiversity. The initiative - part of the GROW Colombia research program at Earlham Institute (EI) - will use the power of nature to drive sustainable development and empower former members of the FARC-EP to become conservationists. The survey of FARC-EP members by the Colombian Agency for the Reincorporation and Normalization indicates that more than 4,000 have environmental conservation skills, more than 7,000 have skills in agriculture, with 10% interested in veterinary science, aquaculture and animal production and 60% interested in agriculture.

According to the congressional report compiled by the opposition and the center right voting block that make up the majority in both houses of Congress, “57% of the standards required for the implementation of the Agreement are still pending.” Regarding reintegration, the report states that, “although the government has approved 223 productive projects, 83% of the ex-combatants are not linked to any.” Another major concern expressed was that of problems with security with the government failing to provide adequate protection to those who laid down their arms. “From August 2018 to July 2019 there have been 56 homicides of former guerrillas and, in total, there have been 138 deaths of these since the agreement was signed,” highlighted the report. The report slammed the president, claiming that his administrations’s approach to implementing the peace deal has been contrary to his claims made abroad.

Fighting in northeastern Colombia puts 300,000 civilians in danger. According to the Human Rights Watch Americas director Jose Miguel Vivanco, fighting between rebels from the National Liberation Army (ELN), dissident fighters from FARC and the Popular Liberation Army (EPL), for control of territory and drug trafficking in Catatumbo region, has exposed civilians to potential rights abuses. People living in the region, including more than 25,000 Venezuelans who have fled the economic and political crisis in their own country, are at risk of murder, forced disappearance, sexual violence, forced recruitment of minors, landmines, displacement and kidnapping.

Indigenous Murders in Colombia continues, after the most recent violent events, the Indigenous Regional Council of Cauca (CRIC) reported that last weekend an armed group shot and killed two indigenous guards in the San Francisco reservation, in the municipality of Toribio. The CRIC condemned the incident, denouncing to the international community 'this violation of the right to life.'6 For its part, the National Indigenous Organization of Colombia (ONIC) declared a humanitarian emergency due to the murders of more than 158 indigenous persons since the signing in 2016 of the Peace Agreement between the State and the former guerrilla force FARC-EP.