Building the Peace in Colombia: Five years after the end of the FARC conflict

Five years after Colombia’s signing of a landmark peace agreement with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the region’s largest guerrilla force has turned its back on war but is struggling to find its place in peaceful public life. Close to 14,000 insurgents laid down their weapons, ending a 52-year insurgency that preached justice for the rural poor yet committed atrocities against civilians and grew embroiled in crime. For the government, the agreement aimed to end conflict and recoup swathes of territory; for the FARC, it would ensure personal safety, long-sought economic and other reforms and a political platform. Transitioning to civilian life, the FARC wished to see their new political party mature into a major progressive movement. They viewed politics as a way to continue their fight by other means.

Yet today, ex-guerrillas are struggling in the face of economic hardship, Bogotá’s sluggish implementation of the accord and the emergence of violent FARC “dissident” factions. Their successor political party, now called Comunes, is fraught with infighting and enjoys limited public support. In the context of these persistent challenges, you are invited to join the Inter-American Dialogue and International Crisis Group in a discussion about the state of the former FARC after a half-decade of peace, and what it spells for Colombia’s persistent rural violence in the future.

Follow this event on Twitter at #PeaceInColombia, @The_Dialogue and @CrisisGroup

Read Crisis Group's report A Fight by Other Means: Keeping the Peace with Colombia’s FARC

Welcome Remarks
Michael Shifter, President, Inter-American Dialogue
Ivan Briscoe, Director, Latin America and the Caribbean Program, International Crisis Group

Speakers
Elizabeth Dickinson, Senior Analyst, Colombia, International Crisis Group
Daniel Palacios, Colombian Minister of Interior
Ricardo Semillas, leader of the Charras ETCR
Bernard Aronson, Inter-American Dialogue

Moderator
Renata Segura, Deputy Director, Latin America and the Caribbean Program, International Crisis Group

Please note that this conversation will be held in English. Simultaneous interpretation will be available in Spanish for those who join the event through the RSVP.

To join, register here.