Peace Timeline 2013

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December 21, 2013

A Washington Post investigative report details how assistance from the United States,

especially the CIA and Joint Special Operations Command, helped Colombia’s armed

forces to target and kill several top FARC leaders, largely through the use of

precision-guided munitions. A FARC statement calls Colombia’s army “a pawn in the

CIA’s chess game.”

December 20, 2013

The 18th round of talks between the Colombian government and the FARC, focused

on the drug policy agenda item, concludes in Havana. The parties are to meet again on

January 13. A joint communiqué indicates that the negotiators heard the views of

several drug-policy experts and civil society leaders.

“Peace is possible, let’s prepare for peace,” says chief government negotiator

Humberto de la Calle.

December 16, 2013

Colombian government and FARC negotiators begin a brief 18th round of talks in

Havana. The subject is the agenda point of “solutions to the problem of illicit drugs.”

A FARC statement alleges that the government’s past drug policies have done more

harm to poor communities than to the drug trade itself. “We’re not in Havana,” the

communiqué adds, “negotiating a transition to turn in weapons in exchange for some

votes.”

A report from Colombia’s Peace and Reconciliation Foundation think-tank finds no

decrease in the frequency of FARC armed actions in 2013, and estimates the guerrilla

group’s strength at 11,000 members, higher than the government estimate of 7,000–

8,000.

December 15, 2013

The FARC begins its one-month unilateral cease-fire. Though the group largely

complies with it, an attack in Anorí, Antioquia, attributed to the FARC’s 36th Front,

injures five people on December 16.

December 12, 2013

President Santos tells a military audience to remain on the offensive until an accord is

reached, “because if we let our guard down beforehand, these accords will be in

danger.”

December 9, 2013

Colombia’s inspector general (procurador), Alejandro Ordóñez, orders the firing of

Bogotá’s mayor, Gustavo Petro. The mayor, who demobilized from the M–19

guerrilla movement in a 1990 peace process and was elected in 2011, is banned from

participating in politics for 15 years. Ordóñez, a deeply conservative official and a

vocal critic of the FARC peace talks, cites Petro’s handling of an effort to de-privatize

garbage collection. The firing has a cooling effect on the peace talks, as it casts doubt

on former guerrillas’ ability to participate in politics. The FARC issues a statement

supporting Petro and citing Ordóñez’s move as a justification for their abandonment

of the peaceful political process.

Asked about Petro’s firing at his December 11 confirmation hearing, U.S.

Ambassador-Designate Kevin Whitaker says, “Colombia is now committed to this

important effort to figure out how to end the internal conflict. And it isn’t by accident

that the second point of discussion is about political pluralism, about how to integrate

individuals from the left in the democratic process. If these individuals come to the

conclusion, based on this fact or any other, that this space does not exist, then the

basic conditions for peace will in some ways erode.”

Whitaker also sounds a word of caution about the possibility that a peace accord

might bring an end to the U.S.-backed use of aerially sprayed herbicides to eradicate

illicit crops. “A matter which has come up with respect to counternarcotics is the

FARC’s insistence–this is a public insistence, we don’t know what they’re saying at

the table–but publicly, they’re insisting on the elimination of the aerial eradication

program, which in our view would be a great mistake.”

December 8, 2013

A day after a bomb attack on a police station leaves 9 dead in Inzá, Cauca, the FARC

announces that it will carry out a unilateral one-month cease-fire starting on

December 15th. “We will continue with our offensive [against the Farc], [we will] not

give them a minute’s rest,” says President Santos.

The 17th round of government-FARC talks concludes in Havana. The parties release

a detailed “Second Joint Report from the Conversations Table,” providing a rather

thorough overview of the contents of the second accord on the “Political

Participation” agenda item. They also produce a joint report on their efforts to

communicate with the public and encourage outside participation.

December 5, 2013

President Santos says he is more optimistic about the FARC talks than he was a year

earlier.

December 4, 2013

In a statement, the FARC renews its call for a truth commission to begin work while

talks are still proceeding.

December 3, 2013

President Santos visits U.S. President Barack Obama at the White House. President

Obama says:

“I congratulated President Santos on his bold and brave efforts to bring about a lasting and

just peace inside of Colombia in his negotiations with the FARC. Obviously, this has been a

longstanding conflict within Colombia. It is not easy; there are many challenges ahead. But

the fact that he has taken this step I think is right, because it sends a signal to the people of

Colombia that it is possible to unleash the enormous potential if we can move beyond this

conflict. But obviously, there are going to be some very challenging questions moving

forward. I’m pleased to see the President’s strong commitment on that front. The United

States is supportive of those efforts.”

“The security assistance package was always designed to be phased out over time

based on how conditions were improving on the ground in Colombia,“ a ”senior

administration official“ tells reporters. ”And in fact, conditions have been improving

on the ground and so every year, year on year, the security assistance package is most

likely going to be declining over time."

December 2, 2013

“I am still cautiously optimistic,” President Santos says of the FARC talks in a speech

at the University of Miami. “I believe the conditions are in place.”

December 1, 2013

On the eve of President Santos’s visit to Washington, Colombia’s new ambassador to

the United States, former peace negotiator Luis Carlos Villegas, says peace “will be

an important point in the meeting” between Santos and President Obama, “and I hope

that the support that has been made public will be reiterated with this visit.”

November 29, 2013

FARC and government negotiators issue a joint communique acknowledging receipt

of proposals from the two September public forums on the “drug policy” agenda

topic.

November 28, 2013

Colombian government and FARC negotiators begin a 17th round of talks in Havana.

“Solution to the problem of illicit drugs” is the topic on the agenda.

“We want a countryside without coca,” says chief government negotiator Humberto

de la Calle.

November 26, 2013

President Santos names two women to the government’s negotiating team in Havana.

María Paulina Riveros, the director for human rights in the Interior Ministry, becomes

one of the principal five (“plenipotentiary”) negotiators, the first woman to hold this

post. She replaces business-sector representative Luis Carlos Villegas, who goes to

Washington to serve as Colombia’s ambassador to the United States. Nigeria Rentería

Lozano, the Colombian Presidency’s high commissioner for women’s equity, goes to

Havana as the third woman to be named to the government’s team of alternate

negotiators.

“I will not allow, and nobody will allow that there will be a situation in which there

are some members of the military accused and condemned to 40 years [in prison] and

the opposite side free and doing what it pleases. This is not going to happen,”

President Santos says in a speech before the armed forces.

A “Colombia Opina” poll finds support for the FARC talks at 79 percent among the

wealthiest Colombians, and at 60 percent among the poorest.

November 25, 2013

President Santos meets with Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa, who says that “only

psychopaths could try to boycott a historic deed” like Colombia’s peace process.

November 20, 2013

President Santos announces that he will seek re-election in May 2014. He cites the

peace process as a key reason: “I’m doing it because when you see a light at the end

of the tunnel, you don’t turn back.”

November 19, 2013

On the first anniversary of the official launch of peace talks with the FARC, chief

government negotiator Humberto de la Calle says, “We believe the opportunity to end

the conflict is here and now.”

November 17, 2013

Government and FARC negotiators announce a 10-day postponement, to November

28, of the start of the next round of talks. A joint statement says that the two sides

need extra time to “refine visions, exchange documents and analyze the various

proposals received from different sectors of society.”

November 12, 2013

The FARC, Defense Minister Juan Carlos Pinzón announces, have a plan to

assassinate ex-President Álvaro Uribe and Prosecutor-General Eduardo Montealegre.

Pinzón bases his assertion on military intelligence sources. If carried out, “An attempt

of this kind would destroy the viability of the peace process,” lead negotiator

Humberto de la Calle says. The presidential candidate of Uribe’s party, Oscar Iván

Zuluaga, calls for a suspension of peace talks. On November 18, President Santos

appears to downplay the allegation, saying the intelligence upon which it is based is

“old.” Chief FARC negotiator Iván Márquez denies that such a plot exists.

Maximum FARC leader Timoleón Jiménez issues a lengthy statement blaming the

United States and Colombia’s elites for the country’s problems with drug production,

insisting that the FARC only collects taxes from coca growers, and indicating that the

guerrillas would be willing to consider drug legalization.

A Gallup poll finds 41.5 percent of Colombians in favor of maintaining negotiations

during the upcoming presidential election campaign, 19.1 percent favoring a pause in

talks during the campaign, and 33.9 percent calling for an end to the negotiations.

November 11, 2013

In a statement, the ELN says it “agrees with” the political participation agreement

arrived at by the FARC and the government, but goes on to express doubt that

Colombia’s ruling class will actually implement it.

November 10, 2013

“I think this time we will reach an agreement, and we will have peace,” President

Santos tells the Washington Post. “We have never even been close to what we have

already achieved…. We’re trying to give our enemies, in this case the FARC, a bridge

to a dignified way out–lay down their arms and enter the political arena.” On the

upcoming drug policy agenda item, Santos says of the FARC, “If they become our

allies in order to destroy and eradicate these coca fields and destroy the corridors, can

you imagine, not only for Colombia but for the whole world, what this means?”

Asked how the FARC plan to provide reparations to their victims, negotiator and

Secretariat member Pablo Catatumbo tells El Espectador, “I don’t have the formula.

This is an issue that we will take up at the negotiating table in due time. The only

thing I want to say is that we are neither insensitive nor cynical about this.” Asked

whether kidnappings were an error, he says, “I think prolonging them over time was

an error.”

A Centro Nacional de Consultoría poll finds 64 percent of respondents in agreement

with President Santos’s decision not to suspend peace talks during the 2014 election

campaign. 34 percent disagree. 42 percent say that the second accord, on political

participation, has given them more faith that the process might succeed; 53 percent

say this accord had no impact on their expectations.

November 7, 2013

President Santos announces that he has no intention to suspend peace talks during the

2014 election campaign.

“To see the señores of terrorist groups like the FARC yesterday saying they believe in

the way of practicing politics is nothing more than the victory of Colombia’s heroes,

the military defeat of those organizations,” says Defense Minister Juan Carlos Pinzón.

An Americas Barometer poll, taken in August and September, finds 53.7 percent of

respondents, and 59.1 percent of respondents in conflict zones, supporting the peace

talks with the FARC. 71 percent, and 65 percent in conflict zones, oppose allowing

the FARC to form a political party.

November 6, 2013

Negotiators in Havana complete the 16th round of talks and announce agreement on

the second agenda point, “Political Participation.” It includes several commitments

under the sub-headings of (1) security guarantees for those who exercise peaceful

political opposition, (2) measures to strengthen citizen participation and

accountability over politicians, and (3) reforms to ease the formation and participation

of new political movements and parties. The latter topic foresees a number of special

legislative districts representing historically conflictive areas, in which ex-guerrilla

candidates would be assumed to have some political base.

Statement from chief government negotiator Humberto de la Calle

Statement from President Juan Manuel Santos

Statement from FARC negotiators

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro congratulates President Santos.

Statement of support from UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon

Statement of U.S. Rep. Jim Mcgovern (D-Massachusetts)

November 5, 2013

Colombia’s Congress passes the “peace referendum” bill making it possible for

Colombians to vote to ratify peace accords at the same time as they vote in another

election. This would all but guarantee the voter participation necessary for a

referendum to pass. The bill goes to Colombia’s Constitutional Court for review.

November 4, 2013

Government and FARC negotiators extend the 16th round of talks for a second time,

as they endeavor to reach a long-awaited agreement on the “political participation”

agenda item.

October 31, 2013

Government and FARC negotiators announce that, as they seek agreement on the

second agenda point, “political participation,” they are extending the 16th round of

talks in Havana, scheduled to end on November 2, until November 4.

White House Spokesman Jay Carney announces that President Obama will receive

President Santos in Washington on December 3. “The visit will highlight our

longstanding partnership with Colombia and our continuing support for the Santos

administration’s efforts to achieve peace and to build a more democratic society,”

Carney says.

Defense Minister Juan Carlos Pinzón says that Colombia’s military, and its defense

budget, should not be reduced if a peace accord is reached. “It would be a big

mistake, because even if the terrorist organization disappears, it doesn’t mean many of

its crimes disappear,” he tells Reuters.

October 27, 2013

The FARC frees U.S. citizen Kevin Scott Sutay, whom they had been holding since

capturing him in Guaviare department in June, to the International Committee of the

Red Cross. “The United States played a decisive role in making this liberation

possible,” reads a FARC statement. The U.S. Department of State releases a statement

thanking the ICRC and the governments of Colombia, Norway, and (perhaps

surprisingly) Cuba.

FARC lead negotiator Iván Márquez tells reporters that the amount of agreed-upon

accords so far adds up to “more than 30 pages.”

in a statement, the FARC calls on President Santos to moderate the language of his

speeches ordering the military to intensify its anti-guerrilla offensives.

In an interview with El Tiempo, Antonio García, one of five members of the ELN

Central Command, says that the guerrilla group is willing to negotiate peace, but that

the government “lacks political will.”

October 26, 2013

President Santos calls on the FARC to “step on the gas to keep advancing toward

accords.”

October 23, 2013

Government and FARC negotiators begin a 16th round of talks in Havana on the

second agenda item, “political participation.” According to Colombian media reports,

President Santos made clear to government negotiators that he expects this round to

end with an accord that finalizes this agenda item. “We have received precise

instructions from the President,” says chief government negotiator Humberto de la

Calle.

October 21, 2013

Maximum FARC leader Timoleón Jiménez issues a statement attacking “neoliberal”

critics of the peace talks.

October 19, 2013

The FARC peace talks “have advanced, but not at the speed I would have liked,”

President Santos says at the Ibero-American summit in Panama City. “I thought that

in one year we could have finished the agenda points we agreed upon, but that hasn’t

happened.”

October 13, 2013

Government and FARC negotiators end a 15th round of talks in Havana with no

agreement reached on the second agenda item, “political participation.”

Declaration of chief government negotiator Humberto de la Calle

FARC statement on end of 15th round

“The result of these negotiations is moving too slowly,” President Santos says. “What

was agreed was a series of points to bring the conflict to an end, and not to make a

revolution by decree, which is what the FARC are now intending.”

“We inform the country and the international community that the ELN delegation for

exploratory dialogues with the government remains chosen and ready,” reads a

statement from the guerrilla group.

October 8, 2013

With an eye to the upcoming campaign for the May 25, 2014 presidential elections,

President Santos tells members of the “La ‘U’” political party that he sees three

scenarios: negotiating with the FARC during the campaign, suspending the dialogues

and restarting them after the elections, or canceling the peace process. FARC

negotiator Andres París says the guerrillas might be open to a suspension of the talks.

President Santos tells a gathering of victims that the talks risk losing credibility if the

FARC does not “accelerate” their pace.

October 7, 2013

The FARC publishes a lengthy interview with Kevin Scott Sutay, the U.S. citizen

whom they captured in June in rural Guaviare, and whom they have offered to release.

The interview appears to indicate that the guerrillas have grown fond of their captive.

October 3, 2013

Colombian government and FARC negotiators begin a 15th round of talks in Havana.

FARC negotiators release a “first report” on the dialogues. “While more than 25

pages of partial accords have been reached, their extent is modest,” the document

reads. It also states, however, “We recognize the government’s will to advance in the

dialogues, and we trust that solutions will be found for essential issues for rural

transformation, which remain unresolved.”

October 2, 2013

Regarding his government’s proposed referendum, President Santos clarifies, “I

repeat, this is not the referendum of peace. That referendum has to be negotiated with

the counterpart. And we’re going to see if that is possible in the coming days. The law

that is being approved in Congress at this momeng is simply insurance so that if there

is a referendum, it can ensure that it take place on the same day as congressional or

presidential elections.”

October 1, 2013

“I think it is possible to advance toward a Colombia without coca, if there is a

willingness to substitute [the crops] and to help the farmers,” says FARC commander

Pablo Catatumbo in an interview with Bogotá’s Canal Capital, in Havana.

“If I were [Venezuelan President Nicolás] Maduro or one of the Castro brothers [in

Cuba], or one of the São Paulo Group,” says former President Álvaro Uribe, “I’d tell

the FARC to negotiate. You’ll never in the world find anyone who will give you what

Santos is offering: impunity and political eligibility.”

October 1-3, 2013

The UN Development Program and Colombia’s National University host a forum in

San José del Guaviare, in southern Colombia, to gather proposals for the peace talks’

“drug policy” agenda item. Participants overwhelmingly call for an end to aerial

herbicide fumigation of coca.

September 30, 2013

The ELN releases a statement making clear that any negotiation with the government

will have to cover “large economic, political, and social problems,” and rejecting time

limits.

September 27, 2013

U.S. civil rights leader Jesse Jackson meets with FARC negotiators during a visit to

Havana. The FARC ask him for help in arranging the handover of captive U.S. citizen

Kevin Scott Sutay. Jackson indicates that he is willing to go to Colombia and help

free Sutay.

Meanwhile former Senator Piedad Córdoba, whom the FARC had requested to be on

the committee receiving Sutay — and whose presence was rejected by President

Santos — sent a letter to the Farc declining to participate.

President Santos rejects Jackson’s participation, reiterating on Twitter his call for no

“media spectacle” surrounding the guerrillas’ promised release. Santos later calls on

the FARC to release Sutay “as soon as possible,” “without any type of conditions,”

and without “all kinds of media shows.”

On September 28, a FARC statement “calls on President Santos to reflect and, instead

of unfairly prolonging Kevin’s stay in the jungle, to proceed to design with the ICRC

the security protocol that this type of case requires.”

“The American is free, but he cannot be retrieved, so he indeed is not free,” Jackson

said on September 30. “He’s no longer being held by FARC. He’s being held by a

lack of access.”

“There is much speculation,” President Santos says. “Some say: crisis in the process.

Others say that Mr. Timochenko said something, said another thing, or that the

President himself said something or said another thing. Don’t pay attention to what is

said outside the [negotiating] table. The important thing is what is being negotiated at

the table. We’re getting there. I wish we could go faster, but we’re getting there. And

we’re going in the right direction.”

FARC leader and negotiator Pablo Catatumbo tells an interviewer that the first agenda

item, land and rural development, is not fully “closed.” On the issue of whether the

FARC will continue to insist on a constitutional convention, Catatumbo responds that

the FARC “don’t have ‘red lines’ or immovable positions.”

September 25, 2013

Angered by President Santos’s words in New York, maximum FARC leader

Timoleón Jiménez issues a letter rejecting calls to negotiate faster, and criticizing as

“unilateral impositions” the Legal Framework for Peace and the bill to hold a

referendum to ratify an eventual peace accord. Jiménez calls on the FARC negotiating

team to prepare a “report to the Colombian people” revealing what has been

happening at the dialogues. This is viewed as a call to break the guerrillas’ pledge to

maintain the talks’ confidentiality.

In a statement the next day, chief government negotiator Humberto de la Calle recalls

the FARC’s confidentiality pledge and says that the government will not accept “any

kind of threats,” but concludes that Jiménez’s move is “frankly incomprehensible”

because the government has nothing to hide.

On September 27th, Jiménez issues another statement clarifying that the call to

produce a “report” was not intended to be a break with the talks’ confidentiality.

“Venezuela and Cuba are helping us, they are saying, ‘Get rid of warfare; today it’s

an anachronism,'” President Santos says at a September 25 event at Harvard

University. “They know that through armed struggle they will not achieve anything.

They will not achieve power.”

September 24, 2013

President Santos speaks at length about the peace process in his speech before the

68th UN General Assembly in New York: “We have already been talking for one year

and we have reached agreements on just one of the six items of the agenda. I’m still

optimistic, but the patience of the Colombian people is not infinite. The guerrillas will

have to decide whether they opt for an honorable and long-lasting peace, or whether

they will insist on the war. From this venue, I call upon them to understand that

history has led us to this determining moment. The time for decisions has come.”

On the issue of international standards for transitional justice, Santos says: “And I

want to be clear: there will be NO impunity for crimes against humanity or

systematically committed war crimes. … Hence, the purpose is not to sacrifice justice

to achieve peace, but how to achieve peace with maximum justice.”

September 24-26, 2013

As foreseen in an August communiqué from the FARC and government negotiators,

the UN Development Program and Colombia’s National University host a forum in

Bogotá to gather proposals for the peace talks’ “drug policy” agenda item.

September 23, 2013

President Santos meets in New York with Uruguayan President Pepe Mujica. He

thanks Mujica for offering Uruguayan territory as a possible venue for talks with the

ELN, “when the moment to converse with those guerrillas arrives.”

September 22, 2013

Speaking at the LaGuardia Institute in New York, President Santos refers to the

conflict with the FARC as “that dead mule, that dead cow, in the road, that is blocking

our development.”

September 20, 2013

In an interview with Colombia’s RCN Radio, President Santos says that “the

government’s patience has its limits, as does that of the Colombian people. And that is

what we are telling the counterpart: we can’t keep slipping along here without

advancing. But we have advanced in the way the conversations are being carried out.”

Asked whether an accord can be reached before March, Santos answers, “I still

believe that it is possible, yes there is a will to reach some accords before the month

of March.” Of the FARC, Santos says, “I have more confidence in their will to make

peace. I believe that they are increasingly realizing that they have no alternative. …

And logically they’re wanting to gain more space and try to win at the negotiations.

That is normal, it is a conversation between opponents.”

September 19, 2013

Colombian government and FARC negotiators complete their fourteenth round of

talks in Havana, the fifth covering the second agenda item, “political participation.”

“The parties continued moving forward on building agreements, in the drafting

commission,” reads the parties’ joint communiqué.

“We have advanced and we have important achievements,” reads the government

communiqué read by chief negotiator Humberto de la Calle. “But they are not

enough. We must show Colombians more results to meet their expectations. …

Another thing is the [FARC’s] excess of rhetoric about the most varied aspects of

national life, which have nothing to do with the agenda or with the work in Havana.

… However, speaking frankly, we maintain faith in a good outcome for the process.”

The FARC’s communiqué criticizes the Framework for Peace constitutional reform as

“an enormous impediment” to peace, as the guerrillas were not consulted in drafting it

before its mid-2012 passage. The FARC also repeats its insistence on a constitutional

convention to cement in place the commitments of an eventual peace accord.

FARC communiqué reiterating rejection of Legal Framework for Peace constitutional

reform

September 18, 2013

The FARC reiterates its call for a commission to complement the work of the

government’s Historical Memory Commission.

September 17, 2013

The FARC releases the ninth of ten “minimal proposals for political participation.”

September 16, 2013

“It might be wishful thinking, but I am optimistic that we will reach an agreement

before the [May presidential] elections,” President Santos says in an interview with

Bloomberg News.

September 13, 2013

“I refuse to conceive of an international justice system that blocks the way of a nation

that seeks, without neglecting victims nor the right to truth, to end a half-centry

conflict,” says President Santos.

September 11, 2013

The FARC releases the eighth of ten “minimal proposals for political participation.”

September 10, 2013

In a scathing column in the Washington daily The Hill, former President Uribe

sharply criticizes his successor’s effort to negotiate peace. “President Santos has

welcomed the prospect of FARC becoming a political party and its members, many

responsible for crimes against humanity, participating in politics rather than serving

jail time, an idea 72 percent of Colombians oppose. Such impunity would be absurd,

as if the United States allowed al-Qaeda members to run for office.”

The FARC releases the seventh of ten “minimal proposals for political participation.”

September 9, 2013

The Colombian government and the FARC begin a 14th round of talks in Havana.

“Solutions for the poorest cannot keep being postponed,” reads a FARC communiqué,

“while the costs of war increase and Juan Carlos Pinzón — a big talker who satanizes

protest and orders the army to smash them with blood and fire — is ratified as

minister of Defense.” The next day, Pinzón replies that the FARC “should talk less

and dedicate themselves to advancing in the process so that they turn in their arms and

reach the peace that the Colombian people want.”

Vice-President Angelino Garzón expresses high optimism about the imminence of

talks with the ELN guerrillas. “It is intended to dialogue within the next few days with

the guerrillas of the National Liberation Army, at a site different from Havana. The

government has made the decision not to mix pears and apples, that the dialogues

with these guerrillas will be separate from that of the FARC.”

September 8, 2013

The day before a new round of talks, lead government negotiator de la Calle says, “I

believe that the moment to make decisions is coming. We believe that this is a special

moment in the phase of conversations of the government and guerrillas in Havana.”

President Santos says that FARC members would be allowed to keep their weapons

until a peace agreement is ratified. According to the BBC, “Mr. Santos said no one

could expect the rebels to give up their weapons before a peace accord had been given

final approval in a referendum.”

September 4, 2013

Faced with the possibility that members of the Colombian Congress from several

parties might visit Havana and meet with FARC negotiators, President Santos says

that “in principle,” he is not opposed.

In a statement, the FARC rejects the Santos administration’s proposed referendum

law as “unilateral” and “for electoral use.”

September 3, 2013

“We are currently in a critical moment of negotiations, I think that in the next months

we will know if this is going to work or not because we are beginning on essential

issues,” Colombian government High Commissioner for Peace Sergio Jaramillo tells a

congressional hearing. At the same hearing, chief negotiator de la Calle explains that

a referendum on peace should take place simultaneously with presidential or

congressional elections in order to guarantee the high turnout that its approval would

require. “If there is not enough turnout, we might achieve an accord that could die

from the idleness of citizen participation.”

September 4, 2013

An Invamer-Gallup poll [PDF] shows President Santos’s approval rating tumbling to

21 percent at the end of August, from 48 percent in June. The slide owes principally

to Santos’s handling of rural protests occurring at the time. A majority continues to

support peace talks. Of those polled, 57 percent say that dialogue is the best option to

end the conflict; 38 percent favor miliary action. Sixty-two percent are in favor of the

current peace process. However, only 36 percent believe that the process will lead to

the end of the conflict, and 60 percent doubt it.

National Internal Affairs chief (Procurador General) Alejandro Ordóñez, a

conservative critic of the peace process, criticizes the idea of a referendum to ratify an

eventual peace accord with the FARC. He says it would be “an armed referendum,

with the pistol pointed at citizens’ temples.”

September 2, 2013

In the wake of mass protests in rural areas and in Bogotá, President Santos requires all

16 cabinet members to submit their resignations. Within a few days, he accepts the

resignations of five, including the ministers of interior and agriculture.

Chief government negotiator de la Calle explains the dynamic of the current

negotiating agenda topic: “The simplistic focus that we’re in a confrontation between

a constitutional convention versus a referendum is incorrect. We’re trying to work at

the table on a complex mechanism that takes up elements that may be novel, that will

allow the accords to be guaranteed, that will allow a fast means of implementation of

the accords, above all in the legal area.”

August 29, 2013

Thousands of protesters expressing solidarity with Colombia’s striking farmers

assemble in central Bogotá. Some of them clash with police and carry out acts of

vandalism. Authorities impose curfews and deploy the Army to patrol some of the

capital’s neighborhoods.

August 28, 2013

Colombian government and FARC negotiators end a 13th round of talks in Havana.

“We want a Colombia without coca. It would be a gigantic step for the country and

the world,” says chief government negotiator Humberto de la Calle. “And to get the

FARC to collaborate in this purpose would be a very important element of these

conversations in Havana.”

FARC statement upon conclusion of 13th round of talks

The FARC reiterates a proposal for a “Commission of Review and Clarification of the

Truth of the History of the Colombian Internal Conflict.”

By a 7 to 2 vote, Colombia’s Constitutional Court upholds nearly all of the Legal

Framework for Peace, a constitutional reform passed in June 2012. The Framework is

controversial because, as written, it holds out the possibility that an eventual enabling

law could allow amnesties for those who commit crimes against humanity. The

Court’s president insists that serious war crimes will not go unpunished.

August 27, 2013

The ELN guerrillas release Jernoc Wobert, the Canadian mining company geologist

who spent seven months as a hostage.

A day later, President Santos says, “The government is ready to start dialogues with

the ELN.” But the newsmagazine Semana warns, “As far as we can confirm, the

parties have not defined the place where preliminary conversations ‘to discuss what to

discuss’ might occur (possibilities range from Costa Rica to Uruguay to Cuba to

Venezuela), and not even the composition of both delegations [of negotiators].”

The FARC releases the sixth of ten “minimal proposals for political participation.”

August 26, 2013

Dialogues between the government and the FARC resume in Havana, three days after

the FARC called a pause. The guerrillas had placed talks on hold to express

dissatisfaction with the government’s introduction, without consulting the guerrillas,

of legislation for a referendum to approve an eventual peace accord.

Both sides issue a joint communiqué announcing two public forums to gather civil-

society input on the talks’ fourth agenda item, drug policy. One will occur in late

September in Bogotá, and the other will take place in the southern Colombian

provincial capital of San José del Guaviare.

The FARC publishes “reflections” criticizing government actions it views as

unilateral.

August 23, 2013

FARC negotiators in Havana announce a temporary “pause” in talks with the

government. The guerrillas say they need to “analyze” the legislation, introduced a

day earlier by the Santos administration, to hold a referendum to approve an eventual

peace accord. The FARC insists on a constitutional convention instead of a

referendum.

President Santos recalls the government negotiating team to Bogotá to discuss the

situation.

“The government continues at the dialogue table,” says chief government negotiator

Humberto de la Calle. “The dialogue has not been broken. It is expected that the time

the FARC will dedicate to studying this legislation will be brief in order to take up the

conversations again soon.” De la Calle adds that the legislation itself would not

convene a referendum, it would merely allow one to take place concurrent with 2014

congressional or presidential elections. “The eventual creation of this or any other

mechanism depends on what the delegations agree to in Havana.”

August 22, 2013

President Santos sends legislation to Colombia’s Congress that would schedule a

referendum to approve the contents of an eventual peace agreement — a mechanism

that FARC negotiators oppose. The legislation would make it possible for such a

referendum to coincide with March 2014 congressional elections or May 2014

presidential elections. “If we reach agreements and reach them by the end of the year

as we all want, and don’t have any way to have a referendum, it would be gravely

irresponsible to not have foreseen this possibility,” the president said.

The foreign minister of Uruguay, Luis Almagro, said his government was willing “to

collaborate, sometimes from humble positions, providing or exchanging information

between the parties, being a transmission belt” for Colombia’s peace process.

August 20, 2013

In a statement, the FARC softened somewhat its position regarding its responsibility

toward the guerrillas’ victims. “Without a doubt there has also been cruelty and pain

provoked by our forces. … We must all recognize the need to take on the issue of

victims, their identity and reparation with total loyalty to the cause of peace and

reconciliation.”

August 19, 2013

Government and FARC negotiators begin a 13th round of talks in Havana, Cuba.

Farmers block roads and stage protests in several parts of Colombia to protest

economic conditions and free trade policies. Over the next several days, the “agrarian

strike” will grow rapidly in Colombia, with frequent clashes between protestors and

riot police.

August 18, 2013

The ELN announces that it will release Jernoc Wobert, a Canadian mining company

geologist whom the guerrillas abducted in January. As a condition of Wobert’s

release, the ELN had demanded that his company, Braeval Mining, renounce mining

titles that the guerrillas claimed were obtained without communities’ approval.

Braeval announced that it would pull entirely out of Colombia and Wobert was freed.

“I celebrate that ELN decision,” said President Santos. “This is a decision that I

consider a correct step, in the right direction, to start dialogues in order to seek peace

in this country.”

August 17, 2013

President Santos inaugurates a new military high command, four days after requesting

the resignations of the chiefs of all military branches. The new armed forces chief is

Army Gen. Leonardo Barrero. Sources in Colombia’s Presidency tell the El Tiempo

newspaper that the new leadership is “the high command for peace and the post-

conflict.”

August is not the usual time for a change in military command. According to some

news reports, the outgoing chief of the Army, Gen. Sergio Mantilla — who was likely

in line to be armed forces chief — was an opponent of the Santos government’s peace

negotiations. Unnamed sources told the Semana newsmagazine “that in a security

meeting in [the central city of] Bucaramanga … Mantilla verbally attacked the

minister of Defense, Juan Carlos Pinzón, showing a lack of respect that was the last

straw.”

“Some say that in our armed forces, they basically are not interested in peace,” said

President Santos at the change of command ceremony. “And I tell them how wrong

they are. All soldiers in the world and our soldiers here in Colombia, on land, sea, and

air, are the first ones interested in peace, because it is they who must make the effort,

who make up the victims, who make up the dead.”

August 15, 2013

Speaking before Colombia’s governors, President Santos criticizes those “who rend

their garments” over the possibility that former guerrillas “may someday practice

politics from within the state.” But “that is what peace is about,” the President says.

August 14, 2013

Maximum FARC leader Timoleón Jiménez releases a statement about the

“difficulties” the group faces at the negotiating table, as it wants more radical changes

than the government is prepared to concede.

August 13, 2013

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry visits Colombia. He voices strong support for the

peace process and indicates that the Obama administration is willing to assist the post-

conflict.

“I was particularly pleased this morning to be able to meet with Colombia’s – the

Government of Colombia’s peace negotiators and also to be able to speak with President

Santos about peace efforts. The Santos Administration has undertaken a very courageous and

very necessary and very imaginative effort to seek a political solution to one of the world’s

longest conflicts, and any negotiation that can help to strengthen Colombia’s democracy, that

promotes respect for rule of law and human rights, and achieves an enduring peace that the

people of Colombia can share in is a welcome development, and the United States of

America will support that peace. …

“I can guarantee you, having done this for these last many years, the United States is not

going to suddenly stop being engaged or walk away from this peace process. As I mentioned

in my opening comments, we are deeply supportive of what President Santos is trying to

achieve. I know this began in earnest with President Uribe a number of years ago, and for a

number of years the main focus was on security alone. But we believe, as does President

Santos, that Colombia has reached a point now where in its development, in its security, in its

trade, in its governing capacity, that it is important for them to try to look to what is

sustainable for the long term, and that means finding peace.

“So the United States will support the peace process. No, there is not a specific delineated set

of figures with respect to a budget because there is not yet a specific agreement around which

to build that plan. But we will remain completely supportive of Colombia’s efforts to achieve

the peace. I believe it’s a courageous path that the President has put Colombia on, and we

will continue to support it. …

“As a friend of Colombia, President Obama wants the people of this country to know that

when you achieve that peace the United States of America will do everything in our power to

help respect it and to help you to be able to implement it. And obviously, at that point in time,

we will have discussions about what else may be necessary in order to guarantee its success

and sustainability over the long term.”

August 10, 2013

Government and FARC negotiators complete a twelfth round of talks in Havana. “We

have started to build agreements on Rights and Guarantees for exercising political

opposition in general, and in particular for the new movements that may arise after the

signature of the Final Agreement. Access to mass media,” reads a joint communiqué.

“Never before has anyone come this far” in negotiations with the FARC, chief

government negotiator de la Calle tells reporters.

FARC statement upon closure of 12th round of talks.

August 9, 2013

The FARC releases the fifth of ten “minimal proposals for political participation.”

August 8, 2013

In an interview with Reuters, President Santos said that if a peace agreement is not

reached, the FARC’s negotiators in Cuba “would have to return to Colombia and face

the destiny of all other FARC leaders who ended up in the grave or in prison.”

Guerrilla negotiator Iván Márquez, responded that Santos’s comments were

“unfortunate” and did little to promote “a reasonable environment for the

development and progress in working out a peace accord.”

August 7, 2013

The FARC releases the fourth of ten “minimal proposals for political participation.”

August 6, 2013

The FARC releases a statement criticizing the “Framework for Peace” constitutional

reform, which was passed in June 2012 and is being reviewed by Colombia’s

Constitutional Court. “That unilateral government initiative that the Constitutional

Court is debating today will play no positice role in the peace process to which the

FARC-EP has committed.” Said FARC leader Pablo Catatumbo, “Our counterpart in

the confrontation never took into account the insurgency’s proposals on the issue of

legality or the parameters of the so-called transition” to a post-conflict situation.

August 5, 2013

A poll commissioned by Colombia’s Caracol radio network, taken in five cities, finds:

47 percent in favor of a referendum to ratify peace accords, and 53 percent opposed.

31 percent in favor of a constitutional convention to ratify peace accords, and 69

percent opposed.

23 percent in favor of a deal for the FARC similar to what paramilitaries received in

the 2000s (no prison for rank-and-file fighters, and 5-to-8-year terms for top leaders),

and 77 percent opposed.

22 percent in favor of allowing top FARC leaders to participate in elections, and 78

percent opposed.

20 percent in favor of allowing the FARC to keep its weapons in a post-conflict

situation, and 80 percent opposed.

13 percent in favor of allowing suspended prison sentences for FARC leaders, and

87% opposed.

11 percent in favor of allowing automatic congressional seats, with no prison, for

FARC leaders, and 89% opposed.

In a statement referencing the recently released report of the Colombian government’s

Historical Memory Commission, the FARC proposes “a commission with national

and foreign members, which would study the history of the confrontation, from the

beginning of the violence, in order to prepare the materials required to complete Point

Five of the Dialogues’ Agenda, referring to victims.”

“If in November we haven’t finished entirely, we’ll see where we are, and if we have

to prolong the talks a couple of months, we’ll extend them,” President Santos tells

Colombia’s Caracol Radio network. “Deadlines in these processes are totally

counterproductive.”

August 4, 2013

President Santos tells Colombia’s El Tiempo that his government has held preliminary

talks with with the ELN guerrillas and “is very close to starting the negotiations.”

August 2, 2013

The FARC releases the third of ten “minimal proposals for political participation.”

August 1, 2013

“This issue of victims is a special point,” says FARC negotiator Jesús Santrich,

indicating that the guerrillas are beginning to think about their post-conflict

responsibility to their victims. “We’ve said that we feel all of the victims’ pain, all the

pains of the war that the state imposed and has degraded into terrorism. We cannot

submit ourselves to the spectacle of ‘pragmatic pardon’ that many sometimes use just

to satisfy a requirement. Of course, we are going to open ourselves to the discussion,

to open our minds and hearts so that reconciliation may be without spectacle, so that

pardon isn’t taken as an instrument to demonize one’s contradictor.”

A Uruguayan newspaper reveals that the country’s left-of center president, Pepe

Mujica, met with FARC negotiators Iván Márquez and Jesús Santrich while on a July

24-28 visit to Cuba. “The most important thing happening in Latin America is the

attempt to build peace in Colombia,” says Mujica. “It is one of the most important

things of the past few decades, and we must try to help to the extent that we can.”

July 30, 2013

The FARC reiterates its demand that ex-Senator Piedad Córdoba be among those

present when it hands over U.S. citizen Kevin Scott Sutay, whom the group has been

holding since June. “We have put the ball in the government’s court,” says FARC

negotiator Rodrigo Granda.

July 29, 2013

The FARC releases the second of ten “minimal proposals for political participation.”

After meeting with President Santos, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter says, “This

terrible plague that Colombia has lived with for so many years now has a very good

opportunity to come to an end.”

July 28, 2013

The Colombian government and FARC guerrillas begin a twelfth round of

negotiations in Havana, Cuba.

In reference to the July 20 FARC attacks on military targets, chief government

negotiator Humberto de la Calle says, “Many Colombians do not understand why we

are dialoguing while the armed groups’ attacks continue,” adding, “The guerrillas will

have to respond for everything that has occurred amid the conflict.” With regard to

the FARC’s demands that the government guarantee the political opposition’s

security, de la Calle says that “it is also up to the FARC to provide them

[guarantees].”

FARC spokesman Andrés París says, “It’s worth nothing to talk in Havana about

limiting landholding” if the government “maintains and deepens the causes of

confrontation” with its response to the peasant protests in Catatumbo and elsewhere.

FARC statement upon launch of 12th round of talks.

July 26, 2013

In a four-page letter to the president of Colombia’s Constitutional Court, the

prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Fatou Bensouda, warns against

approving suspended sentences for the worst violators of human rights as part of any

peace deal: “I have come to the conclusion that a punishment that is grossly or

manifestly inadequate … would invalidate the authenticity of the national judicial

process. … The suspension of sentences would go against the ends and purposes of

the Rome Statute, given that it would impede, in practice, punishment of those who

have committed the most serious crimes.”

July 25, 2013

Colombia’s Constitutional Court holds a 12-hour session to hear arguments for and

against the “Legal Framework for Peace,” a constitutional amendment approved in

mid-2012 that would set the limits of an eventual transitional justice arrangement.

Some human rights defenders criticize the measure for holding out the possibility that

military and guerrilla human rights abusers might be amnestied. “In this case the cure

could end up being worse than the disease,” says a principal litigator in the case,

Gustavo Gallón of the Colombian Commission of Jurists. “It’s not about sacrificing

justice to reach peace but how to achieve peace with the most justice,” responds

President Santos. The dilemma, says Rodrigo Uprimny of the think-tank DeJuSticia,

is that while “a peace process that destroys victims’ rights isn’t viable, but neither is a

conception of victims’ rights that makes the peace process inviable.”

July 24, 2013

The Colombian government’s Center for Historical Memory, an autonomous body

made up of scholars and researchers, releases Enough Already! Colombia: Memories

of War and Dignity, the product of six years of research into the causes and the extent

of Colombia’s conflict. At a ceremony commemorating the report’s launch, President

Santos says, “There is an issue here which is another of those ‘uncomfortable’ truths

that are also being faced. I refer to cases of state agencies’ collusion with illegal

armed groups, and the security forces’ acts of omission at some stages of the internal

armed conflict, which the Center for Historical Memory’s reports also reflect. The

state must investigate and punish this conduct in order to comply with the victims’

rights to truth and justice.”

July 22, 2013

The presidents of Colombia and Venezuela meet in Puerto Ayacucho, Venezuela.

Nicolás Maduro pledges Venezuela’s continuing support for the FARC peace process,

indicating that the late May-early June rift in bilateral relations has been patched up.

“We are at your orders to contribute, even modestly, so Colombia can celebrate peace

sooner than later,” Maduro said.

President Santos says he will not allow Senator Córdoba to participate in a FARC

handover of U.S. captive Kevin Scott Sutay. He demands that the release occur

quietly with no media benefit to the FARC: “These gentlemen of the FARC, violating

in a flagrant way the commitment they made at the start of peace talks, are holding

hostage a North American citizen … Now they want to free him amid a media show

and want the whole country and the world to thank them for their humanitarian

gesture.”

July 21, 2013

In a statement, the FARC’s Magdalena Medio Bloc criticizes the government

response to peasant protests in the Catatumbo region of northeastern Colombia, which

have been raging, at times with violence, for over six weeks. The statement

controversially offers “our arms and our combatants” in support of the protesters.

July 20, 2013

On Colombia’s Independence Day, the FARC carries out its largest attack on a

military target of the entire peace process period. Fifteen members of an army column

protecting an oil pipeline in Fortul, Arauca, are killed in a guerrilla attack. Some of

those killed, according to witnesses, were disarmed and defenseless. Elsewhere, in

Doncello, Caquetá, a FARC attack kills four more soldiers. “I have instructed our

forces not to stop shooting until the conflict is over,” says President Santos.

The peace process is a principal theme of President Santos’s speech before the

opening of a new session of Colombia’s Congress. He uses the word “peace” 33

times.

July 19, 2013

In a statement, the FARC Secretariat announces that the group is holding a U.S.

citizen. Kevin Scott Sutay, a U.S. military veteran who sought to walk for 300 miles

through Colombia’s southern jungles, fell into FARC hands in June. The guerrillas

announced their intention to free Sutay as a goodwill gesture, to a commission made

up of the International Committee of the Red Cross, the Vatican Sant’Egidio

Community, and former Senator Piedad Córdoba.

July 18, 2013

The Colombian government and FARC announce a six-day delay, from July 22 to

July 28, in the start of the twelfth round of negotiations.

On a visit to Bogotá, Argentine President Cristina Fernández congratulates President

Santos for pursuing peace. “Only idiots, those who do not love their country, can

apply barriers or be against Colombia being one Colombia for all Colombians,” she

said.

July 15, 2013

“We are certain that the five-decade long Colombian armed conflict is nearing an

end,” FARC negotiator Iván Márquez tells Colombia’s RCN television. “It is possible

[to reach an agreement by November]. But to achieve peace you need time. A bad

peace deal is worse than war.”

In an open letter to the Episcopal Conference of Colombia’s Catholic Church, the

ELN expresses disagreement with the bishops’ call on the guerrilla group to disarm as

a precondition for starting negotiations.

July 11, 2013

In letters to President Santos and the Colombians for Peace civil-society group, the

ELN reiterates its refusal to release Canadian mining company manager Jernoc

Wobert, whom the group kidnapped from the northern department of Bolívar in

January. The ELN continues to insist that Wobert’s company first renounce four

mining titles that the guerrillas claim were obtained illegally.

July 9, 2013

The eleventh round of FARC-government talks ends in Havana. The joint

communiqué offers no sign of agreement, or even notable progress, on the “political

participation” agenda item. “Each side presented its general vision on political

participation, beginning with the issue of security guarantees for the opposition, as an

essential element to build a final accord,” it reads. “We have had a very rich

discussion,” FARC negotiator Iván Márquez tells reporters.

In a statement, the FARC repeats its insistence on a constitutional convention

following a peace accord, saying that the holding of an assembly to rewrite

Colombia’s constitution is “the key to peace.” The Colombian government, which

strongly opposes a constitutional convention, issues no statement. Inspector-General

(Procurador) Alejandro Ordóñez, a conservative figure who heads a branch of

government separate from the executive, recommends that the Colombian government

get up from the negotiating table if the FARC should continue to insist on a

constitutional convention.

The State Council, Colombia’s top administrative tribunal, reinstates the legal status

of the Patriotic Union party. Founded during a failed mid-1980s peace process and at

least initially linked to the FARC, the Patriotic Union saw about 3,000 of its

members, candidates, and officeholders murdered in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

The party lost its legal charter when it failed to present candidates in the 2002

elections. The State Council ruled that this should not have happened because the

party had been illegally forced to the margins by violence.

July 8, 2013

At a conference of his “Democratic Center” political party, former President Álvaro

Uribe, a fierce critic of the FARC peace talks, appears to soften his position slightly.

“If one of our party arrives in the Presidency [in 2014] and things with the FARC are

the way they are now, what to do? My respectful suggestion is not to talk about

canceling the process, but about a conditional suspension of the dialogues until there

is a cessation of criminal activities.”

In a letter to President Santos, maximum FARC leader Timoleón Jiménez says

“Colombian democracy is an embarrassment; we are going to change it.”

July 7, 2013

FARC negotiator Andrés París appears to show new flexibility on the guerrillas’

demand for a constitutional convention following a peace accord. He tells Colombia’s

Caracol news network, “Neither this point nor any other has to become an unmovable

obstacle that impedes the progress of the process.” París “said that a constitutional

convention is not the only way to legalize the peace process,” according to Medellín’s

El Colombiano newspaper.

París also argues that Colombia’s army should be reduced after a peace accord. “The

state should have a proposal ready regarding the arms of the 500,000 men who won’t

need them in a country that is living in peace. Objectively, if there is no conflict why

would such a large army be needed?”

A weeks-old protest begun by small farmers escalates into violent incidents in the

Catatumbo region of Norte de Santander department, in northeastern Colombia near

the Venezuelan border. The thousands of protesters are demanding an end to aerial

herbicide fumigation in coca-growing areas, the establishment of a “peasant reserve

zone” to limit the size of landholdings, and more state services. Some Colombian

government officials, like Interior Minister Fernando Carrillo, accuse the FARC and

other armed groups of “seeking to influence the process in Havana, and that is

something we are not going to permit.” In a July 8 statement, the FARC negotiators in

Havana express support for the Catatumbo protesters and deny that they have

infiltrated them.

July 4, 2013

In Fortul, Arauca department, the ELN releases to a humanitarian commission an

army corporal, Carlos Fabián Huertas, whom it had captured in mid-May. President

Santos calls the release “a gesture in the right direction.” The guerrilla group

continues to hold a Canadian mining company employee kidnapped in Bolívar in

January.

July 3, 2013

“If there is sufficient political will, we can achieve an agreement by the end of the

year … as long as there is a wish to advance,” President Santos says while on a visit

to Geneva.

July 1, 2013

An eleventh round of talks between the government and the FARC begins in Havana.

Negotiators return to the second agenda topic, “political participation.”

Lead government negotiator De la Calle reiterates that the government refuses to

discuss topics that are not on the negotiating agenda.

The FARC and ELN release two joint communiqués indicating that the guerrilla

groups’ top leaders held a “summit” somewhere in Colombia. At this meeting, these

statements report, the two groups agreed to put behind past disputes and work for

“unity of all political and social forces working to carry out profound changes in

society.” The groups say that “a political solution to the social and armed conflict” is

part of their “strategic horizon.” The ELN appears to endorse the FARC’s call for a

constitutional convention.

Speaking to reporters in Havana, FARC negotiator Pablo Catatumbo says, “We will

do everything we can so that talks between our sister organization and the government

begin.”

June 27, 2013

“We will keep supporting [the peace talks] in any way that we can be of use,” says the

foreign minister of Chile, Alfredo Moreno, during a meeting with Colombian Foreign

Minister Holguín.

June 23, 2013

Speaking before a march of conflict victims at El Carmen, Bolívar department,

President Santos addresses the FARC. “Keep your word! Negotiate over those [agreed

agenda] points, play clean, don’t start asking for the impossible, don’t start asking for

things that nobody is going to concede, things that aren’t in the accords.” Santos

continues, “Now we see that maybe they won’t turn in their weapons. One of the

agenda points is precisely that they turn in their weapons because if not, why are we

talking?” The President concludes reminding the FARC that “the Colombian people’s

patience is not unlimited.”

“It would be a historic crime to deny Colombia the opportunity to reconcile,” says

Roy Chaderton, Venezuela’s envoy to the peace talks.

June 21, 2013

Just 3 days after the negotiating teams end their separate consultations and begin

meeting together, the 10th round of dialogues come to a close.

The government and FARC issue a joint communiqué indicating that they “have

stated their general view of the topic” of political participation.

They also release a 2,400-word report on the dialogues’ activities so far.

June 19, 2013

The FARC releases a document laying out “10 minimal proposals” for the political

participation agenda topic. These include “a restructuring of the state” and a

“constitutional convention.” The guerrillas propose to do away with the presidential

system, change the House of Representatives into a “territorial” body, restructure the

armed forces, and much else. Luis Eduardo Garzón, the Colombian government’s

presidential advisor for social dialogue, tells El Tiempo that the document is positive

because it shows that “the FARC today is more on the offensive politically than

militarily, and that is very positive for the search for peace.”

June 16, 2013

Lead government negotiator De la Calle publishes a column in Colombia’s most-

circulated newsmagazine, Semana, laying out the government’s case against the

FARC’s proposal for a constitutional convention. “This is neither the optimal

mechanism, nor the most practical, as it is more burdensome than other tools and

doesn’t produce the desired effects.”

In an interview published in the same issue of Semana, FARC negotiator Andrés París

insists on the constitutional convention as “the key to peace.”

Interviewed in Cali’s El País newspaper, Paris signals the FARC’s reluctance to

disarm immediately after an accord is signed. “[We are interested in following] the

Irish model because principles were established and, for example, they did not turn in

weapons.” París adds that the guerrillas have “repeatedly” told the government that

“they will never have” a photo of a ceremony in which guerrillas symbolically turn in

weapons.

June 12, 2013

Venezuela’s envoy to the peace talks, OAS Ambassador Roy Chaderton, returns to

Havana after being called back to Caracas for “consultations.” The FARC posts an

account and photo of Chaderton’s meeting with the guerrilla negotiators.

June 11, 2013

A tenth round of FARC-government talks begins in Havana. The new agenda topic is

political participation: the guerrillas’ eventual transformation into a political party,

security and access guarantees for the political opposition, electoral rules and similar

issues. As difficult as the land and rural development agenda topic was, notes

Colombia’s Semana newsmagazine, “the political participation issue may be even

thornier.” The two negotiating parties agree to spend the first week working

separately.

In a statement, the FARC proposes delaying for one year Colombia’s March 2014

legislative elections and May 2014 presidential election. The guerrillas make this

proposal as part of a larger call for a constitutional convention in which elected

representatives rewrite Colombia’s constitution. Lead government negotiator De la

Calle rejects both proposals: “That [the election delay] won’t happen, a constitutional

convention won’t happen.”

June 7, 2013

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry “expressed his enormous respect for the peace

process in Colombia and highlighted the advances of the country, the work and

leadership of President Santos to achieve a much safer and prosperous country,”

according to a Colombian Foreign Ministry readout of a meeting, at the OAS General

Assembly in Guatemala, between Kerry and Colombian Foreign Minister María

Ángela Holguín.

According to a FARC statement, the dialogues are “in limbo” because of troubled

Colombia-Venezuela relations following President Santos’s May 29 meeting in

Bogotá with the leader of Venezuela’s political opposition.

June 6, 2013

UK Prime Minister David Cameron expressed “great support for the peace process

and said that we must persevere, because it is not easy,” said President Santos after

meeting with Cameron in London. “I congratulated the President on progress in the

peace talks with the FARC and looked forward to seeing more progress on this, and

on human rights concerns, in the future,” read a statement from UK Foreign Minister

William Hague.

June 4, 2013

In a sign that tensions with Colombia are diminishing, Venezuelan Foreign Minister

Elías Jaua says, “The Colombian armed conflict remains, and we are dedicated,

beyond our differences, beyond the current conjuncture, to bring the eradication of

this last focus of violence.”

June 2, 2013

Referring to a threat, attributed to the FARC, received by leaders of Colombia’s

politically moderate CGT trade union, President Santos says “If that turns out to be

true and they carry it out, it could endanger the peace process because it would be

absolutely unacceptable.” The FARC deny issuing the threat, saying it is a setup by

figures on Colombia’s right wing.

May 29, 2013

President Santos agrees to meet in Bogotá with the head of Venezuela’s political

opposition, Henrique Capriles, who narrowly lost Venezuela’s April 14 presidential

elections and refuses to recognize the victory of President Nicolás Maduro. The

Maduro government responds angrily. “I made efforts with the Colombian guerrillas

to achieve peace in Colombia. Now they’re going to pay us like this, with betrayal,”

Maduro says. Venezuela recalls its envoy to the talks for “consultations” in Caracas.

FARC negotiators declare themselves to be “worried, very worried.” By the first week

of June, tensions seem to be diminishing.

May 28, 2013

U.S. State Department Acting Deputy Spokesperson Patrick Ventrell says, “The

agreement on land reform is the first ever between the Colombian Government and

the FARC, and as such the terms of its – and in terms of its substance it’s a highly

positive step forward in the peace negotiation. So we’ve long given our strong support

for President Santos and the Colombian Government as they pursue lasting peace and

security that the Colombian people deserve.”

May 27, 2013

U.S. Vice-President Joe Biden, on a May 26-27 visit to Colombia, praises the land

accord and the FARC-government process, which he calls “serious and well

designed.” Biden added in a joint appearance with President Santos, “Just as we

supported Colombia’s leaders on the battlefield, we support them fully at the

negotiating table.”

U.S. Ambassador to Colombia Peter Michael McKinley calls the accord “an advance

that encourages the possibility that these negotiations are going to end the conflict in

Colombia.”

UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon welcomed the agreement: “This is a significant

achievement and an important step forward,” read a statement from his spokesman.

“This is a positive step in the process to achieve peace in Colombia,” says OAS

Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza.

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro calls the FARC-government land agreement

“historic” and “the best peace message that the Bolivarian peoples could receive.”

The government of Chile says it “constitutes a very relevant achievement, which has

required flexibility and moderation from both sides.”

European Union High Representative Catherine Ashton expressed “hopes that this

crucial, albeit partial, agreement will add fresh impetus to the Havana negotiations,

with a view to the rapid conclusion of a final peace agreement.”

“Terrorist Farc kills our soldiers and policemen and the Santos government rewards

them with a land agreement,” tweets former president Alvaro Uribe.

May 26, 2013

At the conclusion of the ninth round of talks, the Colombian government and FARC

guerrillas make a weighty announcement: that they have reached agreement on land

and rural development, the first of five points on the negotiating agenda. This is the

first time the government and FARC have agreed on a substantive topic in four

different negotiating attempts over the previous 30 years. While the agreement’s text

remains secret under the principle that “nothing is agreed until everything is agreed,”

the two sides’ joint statement (English – Spanish) indicates that it covers the

following:

Land access and use. Unproductive lands. Formalization of property. Agricultural

frontier and protection of reserve zones.

Development programs with a territorial focus.

Infrastructure and land improvements.

Social development: health, education, housing, eradication of poverty.

Stimulus for agrarian production and a solidarity-based, cooperative economy.

Technical assistance. Subsidies. Credit. Income generation. Labor formalization.

Food and nutrition policies.

Declaration of lead government negotiator Humberto de la Calle

May 25, 2013

In an interview with Semana magazine journalist María Jimena Duzán, FARC

Secretariat member and negotiator Pablo Catatumbo repeats that the guerrillas “don’t

want an ‘express process.'”

May 19, 2013

In an op-ed in Colombia’s El Tiempo newspaper, lead government negotiator

Humberto de la Calle discusses transitional justice. Instead of being a “toad we must

swallow” by leaving past abuses unpunished, he writes, transitional justice “extends

to recognition of victims, reconciliation, and reinforcement of justice and the rule of

law.”

May 15, 2013

A ninth round of FARC-government talks begins in Havana.

A FARC statement says the group has “full expectation and desire to take up the

second [agenda] point very soon,” but goes on to voice concerns about land tenure

and rural development, the first topic.

Asked about the peace process while on a visit to Cartagena, former U.S. President

Bill Clinton says, “The risk of failure is not an argument for not trying. It is preferable

to try and fail than not to try for fear of failure.”

May 14, 2013

President Santos defends the decision to keep secret the text of partial, draft peace

accords: “partial accords can easily be manipulated or wrongly interpreted to poison

the process.” He repeats the oft-used phrase, “Nothing is agreed until everything is

agreed.”

May 13, 2013

In Rome, President Santos discusses the peace process with Pope Francis, who offers

expressions of support.

Santos tells a Vatican newspaper that Colombians are not “totally optimistic” about

the FARC talks, but that “a moderate optimism exists.”

May 10, 2013

On a visit to Colombia, German President Joachim Gaück says that his government is

“content” with the steps achieved so far in the peace process.

May 9, 2013

“Today, Colombia’s pursuing a historic peace effort with the FARC,” says U.S. Vice-

President Joe Biden, announcing that he will visit Colombia at the end of the month.

“And just as we have supported Colombia’s leaders in the battlefield, we’ll fully

support their efforts to end the conflict at the negotiating table.”

Before a military audience, President Santos reiterates that the future of Colombia’s

armed forces is not up for discussion at the Havana dialogues. He adds that if a

transitional justice mechanism offers leniency to FARC human rights violators, it will

offer something similar to military human rights violators.

If the ELN wishes to begin talks, Santos adds, the guerrilla group “has to free its

kidnap victims, above all the Canadian [mining company employee Jernoc Wobert] it

is holding.” On May 8, the ELN said it would not release Wobert, in captivity since

January 18, until his company cedes mining rights to local communities in Bolívar

department.

In a speech (Spanish)(English) at Bogotá’s Universidad Externado, High

Commissioner for Peace Sergio Jaramillo portrays an eventual peace accord not as the

end of a peace process, but as the beginning of a larger, rather ambitious transition in

Colombia’s historically conflictive territories. He defends the idea of a transitional

justice framework that allows some impunity for past human rights abuses, as long as

victims’ needs are met.

At the same Bogotá university event, the heads of two branches of Colombia’s

government debate the question of impunity in a future transitional justice process.

Prosecutor-General Eduadro Montealegre defends the peace framework law passed in

mid-2012, which holds out the possibility of amnesty for all but the most serious

human rights violators. Montealegre proposes that those accused of crimes against

humanity be banned from politics, though they may receive suspended sentences.

Inspector-General Alejandro Ordóñez challenges the validity of the framework law,

opposing an arrangement that allows FARC rights violators to stay out of prison.

Ordoñez holds out the possibility that extrajudicial executions committed by the

armed forces might not count as “crimes against humanity.”

Interior Minister Fernando Carrillo predicts that the FARC and government will sign

an accord “in November or December.” Senate President Roy Barreras says Colombia

should prepare “for a longer peace process than has previously been announced.”

May 8, 2013

Fifty-six U.S. and Colombian faith leaders sign two letters to President Obama,

Secretary of State Kerry, and President Santos supporting the peace process and

“calling for a U.S. policy that prioritizes peace and human rights in Colombia.”

A poll from the Centro Nacional de Consultoría finds 69 percent of Colombian

respondents supporting the dialogues with the FARC. This is two percentage points

higher than the same poll found in April. An Invamer Gallup poll taken in late April

found support for the dialogues at 67 percent, up five points from February. The

polling firm attributed the peace talks as a key reason why President Santos’s

popularity rose to 47 percent, from 44 percent in February.

May 6, 2013

The Peace Committee of Colombia’s Congress launches its second round of Regional

Peace Tables, a series of 11 meetings with civil-society representatives in several

zones of Colombia. The topic is victims’ rights and participation.

May 3, 2013

FARC and Colombian government negotiators in Havana conclude their eighth round

of talks. Their joint communiqué indicates that they have a draft agreement on the

first agenda item, land tenure and rural development.

“The pace of the conversations has been insufficient, inconstant,” lead government

negotiator De la Calle tells reporters. “We could have progressed much more.” Lead

FARC negotiator Iván Márquez says, “We’re advancing. The peace delegation of the

FARC feels satisfied with the gains we are making.”

In a statement, the FARC react angrily to the idea of having to apologize for abuses

that guerrillas have committed. The guerrillas reject the idea of facing Colombian

justice after a peace process concludes: “The assassins and their tribunals have no

moral authority to judge us,” it reads.

May 2, 2013

At the conclusion of a lengthy visit to the United States, Defense Minister Pinzón says

that “in my Washington meetings I have found a desire to support President Santos’s

process and a will to strengthen the armed forces to accelerate it.”

April 29, 2013

On a visit to Bogotá, the administrator of the U.S. Agency for International

Development (USAID), Rajiv Shah, says, “On behalf of the United States and of

President Obama, we want to reaffirm our commitment for economic support, and to

be one of the principal allies for Colombia in its peace process. … As we discussed

with the President [Santos], in the government of the United States we are very

optimistic that the process is going to be very fruitful, and we are going to continue

lending our support. … We are going to respond to all requests that President Santos

makes to help and develop this process.” Shah also gives an interview to Colombia’s

Semana magazine.

April 28-30, 2013

Colombia’s National University and the UN Development Program host a public

forum in Bogotá on the topic of the FARC-government dialogues’ second agenda

item, “political participation.” 1,265 participants present about 400 proposals for the

negotiating teams’ consideration. Topics include electoral reforms, guarantees for

opposition parties’ security, women’s participation in politics, and similar issues.

“Everything is possible once peace is signed,” the president of Uruguay, José Mujica,

says to the forum participants in a recorded video message.

Declaration of lead Colombian government negotiator Humberto de la Calle

Declaration of FARC negotiating team

April 28, 2013

FARC negotiator Andrés Paris tells reporters that a peace accord could bring “an

eventual drastic reduction of the official military forces of Colombia,” adding that this

is an issue “that we will surely bring up” in the peace talks.

April 24, 2013

Colombia’s human rights record comes under scrutiny at a Universal Periodic Review

of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. Participating countries praise the

Colombian government’s decision to seek to end the conflict through negotiations.

April 30 FARC negotiating team declaration about Universal Periodic Review

FARC issues a document entitled “Four Minimal Proposals for Reform of the State

and Democratic and Participative Institutionality.”

April 23, 2013

An eighth round of talks between FARC and Colombian government negotiators

begins in Havana.

“We want results. That is the instruction that we have received from President

Santos,” says lead government negotiator Humberto de la Calle. “This is a process

that cannot be prolonged indefinitely.”

Statement from FARC negotiators

April 22, 2013

Colombia’s La FM radio network reports that the Colombian government may launch

dialogues with the ELN guerrillas during the second week of May.

An Ipsos Napoleón Franco poll commissioned by several prominent Colombian news

outlets finds 63 percent of Colombians favoring the peace process, up from 57 percent

in November. 37 percent disapprove. 52 percent still believe that the process won’t

succeed, while 45 believe that an accord and a demobilization from the FARC will

result. 69 percent oppose an arrangement in which FARC do not go to prison. 67

percent oppose allowing the FARC to participate in politics after a peace accord.

Pro-peace organizations from around Colombia meet in Bogotá for a “Congress of the

People.” They call for a new social movement within which civil-society

organizations develop “a peace agenda.”

FARC message to Congress of the People

ELN video message to Congress of the People

April 21, 2013

President Santos issues, then quickly withdraws, a proposal to run for a second term

of only two years (instead of four) to allow his government to complete peace talks

and begin the post-conflict phase. FARC negotiator Pablo Catatumbo criticizes the

episode as leaving “a flavor of improvisation.”

April 19, 2013

The Episcopal Peace Council of the Colombian Catholic Church Episcopal

Conference issues a statement (PDF) in support of the peace dialogues with the FARC

and possible future talks with the ELN.

April 18, 2013

62 members of the U.S. House of Representatives send a letter to Secretary of State

John Kerry expressing support for the Colombian government’s peace talks with the

FARC, urging a greater role for victims, and encouraging the U.S. government to take

steps to support the talks and a possible post-conflict transition.

April 25 letter from FARC negotiators to the congressional letter’s signers. This letter

is the first time that the FARC mention the possibility of a truth commission to

investigate human rights abuses, including their own “kidnapping, forced

disappearance, recruitment, use of explosives of all kinds.”

A joint communiqué announces that the next round of government-FARC dialogues

will begin on April 23.

April 9, 2013

Pro-peace and victims’ groups, the “Marcha Patriótica” political movement, and the

mayor of Bogotá convene a large march in Bogotá in support of the peace process.

Estimates of participants range from 200,000 to over a million.

President Santos speaks before a military audience and then joins the marchers. “We

are not going to diminish the presence of our forces in any corner of our territory”

after a peace accord, Santos assures the officers in attendance. “To the contrary, we

will need more presence.”

FARC negotiators issue a declaration in support of the march.

The FARC’s Southern Bloc, which some Colombian analysts speculated was perhaps

the guerrilla unit most reluctant to negotiate peace, issues a statement denying that

any divisions exist within the FARC, and affirming that it will comply “with the

letter” of any accords that are signed.

April 8, 2013

Two more FARC negotiators (Laura Villa and Sergio Ibáñez) arrive in Havana after

being extracted from a zone in Meta department, in south-central Colombia. This

required a temporary suspension of Colombian military activity in this zone.

Before the pickup is to happen, former President Álvaro Uribe, a constant critic of the

peace talks, posts the coordinates of the zone to his Twitter account. It is believed that

this information, known only to a small number of officials, was leaked to Uribe by a

member of Colombia’s armed forces. This individual remains unidentified.

Speech given by President Santos on the National Day of Memory and Solidarity with

Victims of the Armed Conflict

April 7, 2013

Pablo Catatumbo, chief of the FARC’s Alfonso Cano (Western) Bloc, arrives in

Havana to join the guerrillas’ negotiating team. He is the second member of the

group’s seven-person Secretariat, in addition to Iván Márquez, among the negotiators.

Analysts speculate that Catatumbo’s addition to the negotiating team may speed the

FARC’s decision-making, and may reflect a decision to give greater representation to

the guerrilla group’s field commanders. Several other members of the guerrilla

negotiators’ support team (Victoria Sandino Palmera, Freddy González, Lucas

Carvajal, and others) travel to Cuba as part of the same operation, which required a

temporary military pullout from two zones.

Declaration of support for the peace process from mayors of the capital cities of

Colombia’s departments

April 5, 2013

A letter from Colombia’s departmental governors calls the Havana talks “an

opportunity toward peace” and calls on Colombians “to participate constructively so

that the Havana dialogues advance and conclude successfully.”

April 2, 2013

“We haven’t fought our entire lives for peace with social justice and the dignity of

Colombians only to end up locked up in the victimizers’ jails,” says lead FARC

negotiator Iván Márquez.

March 31, 2013

In a statement, the FARC denies that recently seized drug shipments belong to the

guerrilla group, “nor are we narcotraffickers.”

March 30, 2013

Government and FARC negotiators announce that the beginning of the next round of

talks, scheduled for April 2, is postponed until the third week of April.

March 25, 2013

“We will do everything we have to do, and beyond, to help Colombia to a process of

peace, of reconciliation,” says Nicolás Maduro, Venezuela’s acting president and

ruling-party candidate for April 14 presidential elections.

“For us, the peace dialogues in Colombia are fundamental because they present us

with new potential scenarios, for which we must be prepared,” says Ecuador’s defense

minister, María Fernanda Espinosa.

March 24, 2013

The Colombian daily El Espectador publishes an interview with Nicolás Rodríguez

Bautista, maximum leader of the ELN guerrilla group. “A process is going forward

between the *compañeros of the FARC and the government, and we’re not even in

exploratory dialogues, so it is not possible to talk about a single table. We are willing

to accept that reality of two separate tables, valuing the importance of converging

down the road.”

March 23, 2013

In a video directed to a gathering of “Campesino Reserve Zone” representatives in

southern Colombia, chief FARC negotiator Iván Márquez says, “We add ourselves to

the chorus that demands the formalization of the 9.5 million hectares of land that

comprise the new processes of formation of Campesino Reserve Zones.”

March 21, 2013

The seventh round of dialogues concludes in Havana.

Given the advanced stage of discussions of the first agenda point (land tenue and rural

development), the joint declaration reads, “the delegations asked the UN office in

Colombia and the National University Center of Thought for Peace to begin preparing

a new public forum about the next point on the agenda, ‘political participation,’ to be

carried out at the end of next month.”

“We continue to advance in the construction of accords within the first agenda point,

although there are still several disagreements remaining,” says chief government

negotiator Humberto de la Calle.

According to media reports, one of the principal areas of disagreement is the future

extent of “Campesino Reserve Zones,” areas where landholdings are limited in size

and cannot easily be bought or sold, and where residents seek a degree of

administrative autonomy. Six such zones legally exist in Colombia, covering 831,000

hectares of land. In the negotiations, the FARC are reportedly seeking 9.5 million

hectares of campesino reserve zones. (Colombia’s entire land area is 113 million

hectares.)

March 19, 2013

“If peace is achieved, this country has no limits,” says U.S. Ambassador Peter

Michael McKinley. “The fact is, the U.S. government supports every effort to

negotiate an end to the Colombian internal conflict.”

March 17, 2013

An operation in Cauca department dismantles what Colombia’s army calls one of the

FARC’s principal cocaine processing centers. FARC negotiator Rodrigo Granda

denies that the site belonged to the guerrillas. “Those are inventions. We are a serious,

responsible political-military organization. … We aren’t a cartel of narcotraffickers.”

Colombian Defense Minister Juan Carlos Pinzón responds, “It is ridiculous to doubt

that the FARC are narcotraffickers.” On March 19, lead FARC negotiator Iván

Márquez calls Pinzón a “sharpshooter” against peace efforts.

March 15, 2013

“He told us that there are already accords, including some signed, which means that

the process is going very positively,” construction executive Pedro Gómez tells

reporters following a meeting between President Santos and business leaders.

At an event hosted by the U.S. Institute of Peace in Washington, Colombian

Congressman Iván Cepeda — part of the group of legislators that visited Havana on

March 3 — “conveyed a sense of optimism that the negotiators had reached

preliminary agreement on agrarian development policy–the first and largest point of

the six-point agenda under discussion—and were preparing to move on to the next

agenda item–political participation.”

March 13, 2013

Lead FARC negotiator Iván Márquez tells reporters that the guerrillas will do

“everything possible” to reach a peace accord before the end of the year.

“I believe that if the pace of the last few weeks is maintained, and that’s what the

negotiators tell me, it is perfectly possible to finish the work in months,” says

President Santos.

March 11, 2013

The seventh round of peace talks between FARC and government negotiators begins

in Havana.

March 6, 2013

Several national organizations of conflict victims present a document “to the peace

dialogues, to achieve an express commitment, both from the state and from the armed

opposition groups, to take actions for truth, justice, reparations and non-repetition

guarantees for serious human rights violations, crimes against humanity, genocide and

war crimes that for decades have beaten down millions and millions of Colombians.”

March 5, 2013

The death of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, who played an important behind-

the-scenes role in convincing FARC leaders to participate in the talks, adds

uncertainty about Venezuela’s future role as an “accompanying country” in the

process.

March 4, 2013

FARC negotiator Rodrigo Granda tells reporters that following a successful peace

process, FARC leaders would not run for office, at least not under the current

“electoral regime,” which in his view is stacked against leftist candidates.

March 3, 2013

The president of Colombia’s Senate and members of both houses’ peace committees

begin a two-day visit to Havana to speak with negotiators, including FARC

representatives. “After hearing Colombians’ concerns throughout the country, we

decided it was time to transmit these doubts and concerns about the timeframe of the

process to the negotiators on both sides of the table,” says Senate President Roy

Barreras.

March 1, 2013

Government and FARC negotiators complete the sixth round of talks. “We have

advanced in the construction of an accord on the following issues: land access and

use; unproductive lands; formalization of property; agricultural frontier; and

protection of [smallholder] reserve zones,” reads a joint communiqué.

“We know we are in a key moment of the dialogues where results are required, this is,

accords on the agrarian issue that allow us to continue with the discussion of the other

points of the agreed agenda,” says chief government negotiator De la Calle in a

generally upbeat statement.

February 28, 2013

Despite a sour national mood on the talks, reports the Colombian daily El Espectador,

in Havana “The news, to the extent known, is good: there is now a basic document,

written jointly by the two negotiating teams, with about five pages on which accords

have been reached.”

“The FARC guerrillas still have an ethical and moral debt, not to the government but

to the population’s right to live in peace,” Vice-President Angelino Garzón tells the

Spanish daily El País. “The guerrillas are conspiring against peace and shooting at

peace. They cannot keep asking impossible things of the government in a negotiation,

like asking for a bilateral cease-fire or that the government allow them to kidnap

soldiers and police.”

February 26, 2013

FARC negotiators read a statement from the guerrillas’ General Staff (Estado Mayor

Central) that says, “It is surprising to hear that if there are no advances in Havana the

government will get up from the table, when the FARC have presented more than 40

proposals to speed the process.” The document ends with a call on the government not

to “kick aside” (patear) the negotiating table.

February 25, 2013

The latest edition of Colombia’s bimonthly Gallup poll brings bad news on public

opinion. The percentage of Colombian respondents supporting the FARC talks falls to

62, from 71 in December. The percentage believing that these talks will end the

conflict with the FARC falls to 36, from 43 in December. President Santos’s

favorability rating falls to 44 percent, from 53 percent in December.

“We’re going in a good direction, though I would like it to be faster. So far, things are

going well,” President Santos tells the French daily Le Figaro. “I don’t want to give a

date, but a process like this cannot last several years. We have advanced in Cuba.”

February 24, 2013

“We’ve put together at least two or more pages of an agreement, and this is an

advance that had not been achieved in previous processes,” lead FARC negotiator

Iván Márquez tells Semana magazine columnist María Jimena Duzán.

“We support President Santos and his government in the search for peace to finally

reach a solution to that terrible conflict with the FARC,” says France’s foreign

minister, Laurent Fabius, on a visit to Bogotá.

Interview with FARC negotiator Rodrigo Granda in the Medellín daily El

Colombiano.

February 23, 2013

“[T]he people should understand that we are conversing in the midst of conflict, that

that is difficult, often contradictory, but that is the route that we deliberately chose,”

says President Santos. “At this moment I would have no problem getting up from the

table and saying that this is over. But I’m going to make every possible effort so that

this doesn’t happen, because just imagine Colombia without that conflict.”

The FARC posts a statement laying out “ten minimum proposals” for a rural cadaster.

“There is a mix of optimism, fortitude and mistrust,” FARC negotiator Rubén Zamora

tells Semana magazine journalist Marta Ruiz, who asked him how rank-and-file

guerrillas are viewing the talks. “Optimism over a possible end of the war, fortitude to

remain in the jungle if this attempt fails, and fear of being betrayed by the state if they

lay down their arms,” Ruiz explains.

February 22, 2013

Maximum FARC leader Timoleón Jiménez issues a statement responding to President

Santos’s February 20 event distributing lands recovered from the FARC in San

Vicente del Caguán, Caquetá. While alias “Timochenko” recognizes the possibility

that the FARC displaced some peasants and must give some land back, he complains

that President Santos’s statements in San Vicente — part of the zone that hosted peace

talks that failed eleven years earlier that same day — make no mention of the current

peace process. “While it’s true that the dialogues have made some important advances

toward accords, official attitudes… threaten to mire it in a swamp,” reads the

statement. “Let’s get it out of there now, Santos. This narrow and calculated

conception of the process threatens to drown it. Let’s save it.”

Those who have the peace process stuck are the FARC with their kidnappings and

attacks,” responds Interior Minister Fernando Carrillo.

February 18, 2013

Government and FARC negotiators begin a sixth round of talks in Havana on the first

agenda item, land and rural development.

A Datexco poll shows 67.34% of Colombians surveyed believing that the current

peace process with the FARC will not be successful. 20.25% say that they believe it

will be successful. 52.87% disapprove of President Santos’s management of the

dialogues.

The FARC posts a statement laying out “ten minimum proposals” for food security.

“Those who are conspiring the most against peace are the FARC guerrillas

themselves,” Vice President Angelino Garzón tells the Associated Press. “Amid so

many terrorist actions against Colombia’s civilian population, it can’t be built. It is a

counter-revolutionary way to face peace.”

February 17, 2013

In a statement on the eve of the sixth round of talks, lead government negotiator

Humberto de la Calle says, “We hope to bring good news from Havana. Without

generating false expectations, we really believe that there is an opportunity.” De la

Calle also acknowledges the difficulty of negotiating while fighting and other acts of

violence make headlines, and reiterates the government insistence on sticking to the

agreed agenda: “These are not dialogues about all issues that occur to the guerrillas.”

February 15, 2013

The FARC releases Víctor Alfonso González and Cristian Camilo Yate, the two

police officers captured on January 25 in Valle del Cauca, to a humanitarian

commission of the International Committee of the Red Cross and Colombians for

Peace.

President Santos thanks the visiting president of the European Parliament, Martín

Schulz, for his support of the peace process.

February 12, 2013

Lead FARC negotiator Iván Márquez sends a letter to Cardinal Rubén Salazar, the

maximum authority of the Catholic church in Colombia, inviting him and top bishops

to Havana to discuss the peace process. Cardinal Salazar turns down the invitation.

February 11, 2013

Speaking before a Colombian military audience, President Santos says, “We have to

persevere until peace is achieved, one way or another. One way [peace], we’ll take

less time, and I hope it can be done.” He adds that the frequency of FARC attacks has

not increased, although “there has been more noise in the media.”

February 10, 2013

The fifth round of talks on the first agenda item, land and rural development,

concludes in Havana. In a joint communiqué, negotiators from both sides say that

there have been “convergences” following an “exhaustive analysis.” The fifth round is

to begin on February 18.

FARC spokesman Rodrigo Granda says the talks are moving forward “at the speed of

a bullet train.”

“One thing is what the FARC say in public as part of their platform, which they will

be able to defend within democracy if they reintegrate into civilian life. And another

thing is what is discussed at the table. We are sticking strictly to the agenda agreed in

the General Accord,” says chief government negotiator De la Calle. “We hope that the

FARC frees the kidnapped policemen and soldier through a quick process,” he adds.

“Once again, we vehemently reject kidnapping. Every act like this is a direct attack on

the peace process.”

February 9, 2013

The FARC posts a statement laying out “ten minimum proposals” for political

recognition of peasant rights and the definition of landholdings.

February 6, 2013

The FARC posts a statement laying out “eight minimum proposals” for territorial

ordering of agricultural land. These include a proposal for “Legal marijuana, poppy

and coca-leaf crops and substitution of illegal crops.”

February 5, 2013

“If there is will, I have faith that this year we will achieve peace in this country,” says

President Santos. “Making war is harder than making peace.”

The FARC sets off two car bombs in Caloto, Cauca department, killing two people

and wounding several more.

February 3, 2013

In a statement, the FARC high command condemns what it characterizes as “the ultra-

right wing’s campaign against the Havana peace process.” The statement insists, “The

conversations at the table are proceeding normally, nobody has gotten up or formally

threatened to leave. To the contrary, the two sides are working in search of points of

convergence on the agrarian issue.”

President Santos authorizes Colombia’s Defense Ministry to coordinate the release of

the FARC’s two police captives, as well as that of a soldier also captured the previous

week.

February 2, 2013

The FARC announce that they will release two policemen whom they took captive on

January 25 to the International Committee of the Red Cross and Colombians for

Peace, a non-governmental group.

In a separate statement, the guerrillas attack former President Álvaro Uribe, who has

been a vocal critic of the peace talks, as a “pure-blooded paramilitary.” The

Colombian government responds with a demand that the FARC “respect the dignity”

of Uribe.

January 31, 2013

A fifth round of talks between government and FARC representatives begins in

Havana.

“If the FARC believe that through kidnappings, which they promised that they

wouldn’t carry out, they’re going to try to pressure the government to agree to what

they aspire to, a cease-fire within the dialogue process, then they’re wrong! To the

contrary!” says President Santos.

FARC guerrillas free three civilian oil workers whom they had kidnapped in Cauca a

day earlier.

January 30, 2013

Lead government negotiator De la Calle says, “Things must be called by their names:

a kidnapping is a kidnapping, it doesn’t matter whom the victim is. The FARC will

have to respond for this act [the capture of two police on January 25], as with all of

the thousands of kidnappings they have committed. But they also err radically if they

think that with this type of actions, they can obligate the government to agree to a

bilateral cease-fire. … We’re going to Havana to end the conflict, which is what we

agreed. And if that is not the case, they should tell us at once, so as not to waste the

government’s and the Colombian people’s time.”

January 26, 2013

At a summit meeting in Chile, President Santos and Venezuelan Vice-President

Nicolás Maduro discuss the FARC peace process.

January 25, 2013

The FARC captures two policemen in Valle del Cauca department. On January 29,

the guerrillas issue a statement affirming their claim to have abandoned kidnapping

for ransom, but reiterating their intention to continue holding security-force members

whom they capture as “prisoners of war.” The policemen’s capture sends the talks

into their most serious crisis to date.

January 24, 2013

Government and FARC negotiators conclude the fourth round of talks, which began

on January 14th. In a joint statement, negotiators say there have been aproximaciones

(movement toward agreement) on some aspects of the land and rural development

issue.

“We believe there are concrete results in these advances in the land reform proposal,”

says FARC negotiator Jesús Santrich. “We believe this is a mambo rhythm. It’s

subdued but accelerated.”

Chief government negotiator Humberto de la Calle says that there have been areas of

agreement, but also much distance remaining, on the land issue. He reiterates the

government’s rejection of a cease-fire.

FARC negotiators issue a communiqué laying out their eighth through tenth of ten

proposals for land and rural development.

January 23, 2013

In an interview with the Communist newspaper Voz, maximum FARC leader

Timoleón Jiménez rejects speculation that internal divisions exist within the guerrillas

on the subject of peace.

FARC negotiators issue a communiqué laying out their sixth and seventh of ten

proposals for land and rural development.

In a press statement (video, chief FARC negotiator Iván Márquez reiterates the

guerrillas’ call for a bilateral cease-fire.

January 22, 2013

FARC negotiators issue a communiqué laying out their fourth and fifth of ten

proposals for land and rural development. These include a proposal to legalize

cultivation of coca for “medical, therapeutic, or cultural” use.

January 21, 2013

FARC negotiator Rodrigo Granda says that while the guerrillas have abandoned their

2-month unilateral cease-fire, they do not plan an all-out offensive as some

Colombian security authorities had warned.

January 20, 2013

The FARC’s two-month unilateral cease-fire ends on this day with attacks on a

pipeline in Putumayo department and a police station in Norte de Santander

department. Chief guerrilla negotiator Iván Márquez confirmed on January 9 that the

FARC would not prolong the truce. “The unilateral cease-fire … ends on January 20.

That’s it,” Márquez again informs reporters on January 14.

“The truth is that there was an important reduction in this organization’s number of

actions, there was a very important reduction in the number of our soldiers and police

killed or wounded. With that we can conclude that there was compliance [with the

cease-fire]. But a relative compliance, because there were also actions,” says

President Santos.

Colombia’s human rights ombudsman said that the FARC carried out 57 attacks

during the truce. The Corporación Nuevo Arco Iris think-tank counted 7 to 15

possible attacks.

In a statement, FARC negotiators reiterate their call for a constitutional convention to

lock any eventual peace accord commitments into permanent law.

January 19, 2013

FARC negotiators issue a communiqué laying out their second and third of ten

proposals for land and rural development.

January 18, 2013

FARC negotiators issue a communiqué critical of Agriculture Minister Restrepo and

the role of foreign agribusiness.

After kidnapping five mining workers in Bolívar department, the ELN releases a

video in which maximum leader Nicolás Rodríguez alias “Gabino” asks, “Why aren’t

we at the [negotiating] table? That’s a question for President Santos.”

January 16, 2013

FARC negotiator Jesús Santrich says that any peace accord achieved in Havana

should be approved by a new constitutional assembly in order to give it “dynamism,

construction and legitimacy.” President Santos rejects the constitutional assembly

idea, but suggests that an eventual accord could be put up for popular consideration

through a referendum.

An Ecuadorian border-zone general says he has seen an increase in FARC arms-

trafficking activity since the process started. FARC negotiator Rodrigo Granda denies

it, saying the FARC are instead arming themselves with “much patience and many

arguments” for the talks, and blaming “the extreme right in the continent taking shots

at the peace process.” Granda also denies rumors that the FARC are internally

divided, and says that he hopes the talks can be concluded by November 2013.

In a letter [PDF] to Agriculture Minister Juan Camilo Restrepo, FARC negotiators ask

that pending legislation regarding land and rural development — the current topic of

the talks — be halted.

January 14, 2013

A fourth round of talks, focused on the first agenda item, land and rural development,

begins in Havana, Cuba.

The FARC issue a communiqué echoing the government’s call for a faster pace in the

dialogues, and laying out what they say is the first of ten proposals for land and rural

development, the current negotiating topic.

January 13, 2013

President Santos meets with the government negotiating team in Bogotá, a day before

the fourth round of talks is to begin in Havana. Lead negotiator de la Calle gives a

mostly upbeat address (video). “We are in deep, concrete discussions” about the rural

development agenda topic, he says. “President Santos hopes,” he adds, “that now that

we are inaugurating the conversations in this new year, that they take place at a new

pace. We need a faster pace (necesitamos más ritmo).”

January 12, 2013

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter visits Bogotá to discuss the peace process with

President Santos. “I’m sure that my government and many of its leaders support the

current process,” says Carter. Santos adds that in addition to peace, they discussed the

need to “revise and seek alternatives to what has been called the ‘war on drugs.'”

January 9, 2013

The United Nations delivers to FARC and government negotiators 11 volumes

containing 546 proposals on the issue of land and rural development. The proposals

came from the 1,300 participants in a December 17-19 forum, held in Bogotá, to

facilitate civil-society participation in the peace process.