{"id":444,"date":"2017-01-06T17:47:06","date_gmt":"2017-01-06T17:47:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/?p=444"},"modified":"2017-01-06T17:47:06","modified_gmt":"2017-01-06T17:47:06","slug":"un-sacks-peace-observers-in-colombia-for-dancing-with-farc-rebels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/2017\/01\/06\/un-sacks-peace-observers-in-colombia-for-dancing-with-farc-rebels\/","title":{"rendered":"UN sacks peace observers in Colombia for dancing with FARC rebels"},"content":{"rendered":"

The United Nations said Thursday it has sacked four members of its monitoring mission for the Colombian peace process for dancing with FARC rebels at a New Year’s Eve party.<\/h2>\n

<\/p>\n

The UN is overseeing the FARC<\/a>‘s disarmament as part of a peace deal the leftist guerrillas signed with the government to end a more than five-decade conflict.<\/p>\n

But controversy erupted when Colombian media broadcast videos of UN monitors<\/a>, dressed in their pale blue uniform vests, swaying to the tropical beats with FARC fighters in their arms at a camp in northern Colombia <\/a>where the rebels are gathering before laying down their weapons.<\/p>\n

The UN said that after investigating the incident, it had decided to “separate” three monitors and their supervisor from its mission.<\/p>\n

It said their behavior was “inappropriate” and “does not reflect the mission’s values of professionalism and impartiality.”<\/p>\n

“They will no longer work for the UN mission in Colombia<\/a> and will return to their countries of origin,” a spokeswoman told AFP.<\/p>\n

The monitors’ names and nationalities were not given.<\/p>\n

One was Portuguese, the military’s joint staff said in a statement from Lisbon. It said the soldier in question had been recalled over the incident.<\/p>\n

The FARC’s 5,700 fighters are currently gathering near 26 zones where they are due to demobilize over a period of six months.<\/p>\n

The UN has sent 280 monitors to oversee the process, a contingent set to eventually number 450.<\/p>\n

President Juan Manuel Santos<\/a> acknowledged “delays” and “problems” in the process during a visit to Mesetas, in the central department of Meta, which will play host to the largest demobilization zone, with about 650 rebels expected.<\/p>\n

Santos met with senior FARC officials to try to help speed the arrival of the rebels in the demobilization zones.<\/p>\n

Founded in 1964, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) is the largest rebel group in a conflict that has claimed more than 260,000 lives.<\/p>\n

NEWS WIRES<\/p>\n

France24<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The United Nations said Thursday it has sacked four members of its monitoring mission for the Colombian peace process for dancing with FARC rebels at a New Year’s Eve party.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=444"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":445,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444\/revisions\/445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}