Modern European History and Culture
Modern European History and Culture
Given the success of the operation from the Colombian Army in which 15 hostages were released. Should the Colombian Government still consider an agreement with FARC and give them the area that they asked for in order to start the negotiations for the peace??
Assignment
Executive Summary
The second of July 2008 the Colombian army released from the hands of Farc fifteen hostages including three North Americans and the half French Ingrid Betancourt. In many opportunities the government of Colombia has shown its willingness to talk to Farc in order to make an agreement of peace. Nevertheless to the actual government to give the first big step in a negotiated peace has been hard, since the revolutionary group has a first request which consist in the demilitarization of Florida and Pradera, two towns in the south west of Colombia. Once these places are demilitarized the legislative body of Farc will go there to talk about a ‘prisoner’s exchange’ and Colombian peace.On the other hand the president of Colombia Alvaro Uribe, who is especially famous for his ‘inflexibility’ against Farc, has a list of ‘immovable facts’ including the no demilitarization of the two mentioned towns. What Uribe calls ‘the immovable’ became also immovable for Farc reducing the possibility of a negotiated peace as well as the ‘prisoner’s exchange’. This policy paper addresses only one question. Should Colombian government reconsider the demilitarization of Florida and Pradera to give the first step to the process of peace? In the first part the paper will give a historical background about the appearance of Farc. The second part will provide information about the process of peace under the government of President Pastrana, the third will describe the changes under the government of Uribe and will analyze the pros and the cons of having a demilitarize zone. At the end the policy recommendation is to maintain the immovable. I. Historical Background
Given the success of the operation from the Colombian Army in which 15 hostages were released. Should the Colombian Government still consider an agreement with FARC and give them the area that they asked for in order to start the negotiations for the peace??
Assignment
Executive Summary
The second of July 2008 the Colombian army released from the hands of Farc fifteen hostages including three North Americans and the half French Ingrid Betancourt. In many opportunities the government of Colombia has shown its willingness to talk to Farc in order to make an agreement of peace. Nevertheless to the actual government to give the first big step in a negotiated peace has been hard, since the revolutionary group has a first request which consist in the demilitarization of Florida and Pradera, two towns in the south west of Colombia. Once these places are demilitarized the legislative body of Farc will go there to talk about a ‘prisoner’s exchange’ and Colombian peace.On the other hand the president of Colombia Alvaro Uribe, who is especially famous for his ‘inflexibility’ against Farc, has a list of ‘immovable facts’ including the no demilitarization of the two mentioned towns. What Uribe calls ‘the immovable’ became also immovable for Farc reducing the possibility of a negotiated peace as well as the ‘prisoner’s exchange’. This policy paper addresses only one question. Should Colombian government reconsider the demilitarization of Florida and Pradera to give the first step to the process of peace? In the first part the paper will give a historical background about the appearance of Farc. The second part will provide information about the process of peace under the government of President Pastrana, the third will describe the changes under the government of Uribe and will analyze the pros and the cons of having a demilitarize zone. At the end the policy recommendation is to maintain the immovable. I. Historical Background
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