A policeman takes pictures of an NGO delegation to verify the implementation of the peace agreement. The picture was taken only minutes before the delegation was attacked by military forces. Credit: Contagio Radio This is one of the closing articles in the current series on ‘confronting authoritarian populism and the rural world’, linked to the Emancipatory Rural Politics Initiative (ERPI). The article opening the series can be read here.
With Alvaro Uribe Velez’s right-wing party winning the March 11, 2018 elections, the authoritarianism that rules Colombia in favour of transnational corporations and national elites has been reaffirmed.
Peace building has become a pivotal project in Colombia in recent years, with agrarian issues central. Given years of war, the 2016 ceasefire with FARC (the Colombian Armed Revolutionary Forces) and the partial truce from October 2017 to January 2018 with ELN (National Liberation Army), together with the first steps of implementing the peace agreement, have been crucial moments.
