This week yet another issue has come up which threatens to unravel Columbia’s 2016 peace deal with FARC. One of FARC’s leaders who had helped to negotiate the peace treaty, Jesus Santrich, was arrested on a US warrant for smuggling massive amounts of cocaine into the US. The complications, however, are due to the current instability of the Columbian peace deal. Even before Santrich’s arrest, many Columbians were already distrustful of FARC as a political party and resentful over the disproportionate number of legislative seats that the party is granted under the peace deal. In fact Santrich was arranged to fill one of these positions in July. But now this scandal will only serve to increase tensions. FARC members are angered, seeing the arrest as a violation of the protections granted to the group under the treaty, while their opposition views FARC’s ties to crime as evidence that they should not be given governmental power and rather be disbanded and arrested where applicable. Due to the escalating tensions and general feeling of unease around the peace deal, it is not likely that the arrangement will last for too much longer. FARC really needs to decide if they are rebels, criminals, or politicians. If they wish to keep their position in government, they need to start acting like a legitimate political party. Only once they can be respected by the general population will they be able to establish a sustainable position in politics.
