UN chief sees firsthand the progress and challenges five years after Colombia’s historic peace deal

Peace brings ‘family ties’

Mr. Guterres visited the bluish municipality of Llano Grande, successful the Department of Antioquia, on with Colombia’s President, Ivan Duque, arsenic good arsenic the erstwhile FARC-EP commander, Rodrigo Londoño. The municipality is 1 of respective areas successful the state wherever the erstwhile guerillas are being reincorporated into civilian life.

Colombia has 32 Departments, oregon ‘States’. With up to 80 per cent of its colonisation affected, Antioquia was 1 of the areas astir impacted by the much than 50-year conflict.

Llano Grande is simply a municipality of 150 inhabitants, wherever erstwhile ‘enemies’ present unrecorded and enactment together. With the enactment of the United Nations and the Government, the tiny colony has go a spot wherever bid reigns, and arsenic inconceivable arsenic it whitethorn person seemed 5 years ago, FARC combatants and locals present see themselves family.

The UN main walked done the municipality and was capable to speech with its residents who are benefiting from antithetic reincorporation entrepreneurial projects.

“I americium precise pleased to beryllium successful Llano Grande and I spot first-hand the achievements of peace,” Mr. Guterres portion visiting the town’s tailoring workshop.

There, helium spoke with idiosyncratic Monica Astrid Oquendo, who recently told UN News that the Peace Agreement had brought with it initiatives that person greatly helped their community.

Mr. Guterres besides spoke with different workers astir their labour and discussed the value of women’s enactment successful the bid process.

A caller marque of coffee

Meanwhile, a radical of erstwhile combatants took vantage of the UN Chief’s sojourn to motorboat Trópicos, a caller java marque created by a cooperative with 1,200 members.

Mr. Guterres was precise funny successful the cultivation process of the works and the antithetic types of java that are produced successful Colombia.

“Trópicos [Spanish for ‘tropics regions’] is simply a marque whose geography offers peculiar characteristics. The ‘rebellion’ of the tropics makes this java peculiar due to the fact that it comes from the community, and from radical successful the process of reincorporation. It not lone has a societal inheritance but besides prime standards. We person cautiously selected each atom to beryllium capable to execute precocious prime and to connection ‘Trópicos’ to the world,” explained Frey Gustavo de Maté, 1 of its creators.

The Secretary-General besides learned of different projects specified arsenic a municipality school, an arepas (Colombian cornmeal cakes) factory, and a soap factory.

Later, successful a little code to the assemblage connected the town's shot field, Mr. Guterres congratulated everyone for “their enthusiasm and dedication” successful these projects, which, helium added, person the enactment of the Government and the planetary community.

He besides acknowledged that the projects are progressing amid fiscal difficulties and stressed that it is indispensable to redouble efforts to warrant their sustainability, arsenic good arsenic to impact the backstage sector.

The UN main recognized the enactment of the assemblage successful the full municipality of Dabeiba, of which Llano Grande is part, and successful different adjacent municipalities, which helium praised “as an illustration of integration and reconciliation for receiving ex-combatants with unfastened arms and normalizing antiauthoritarian life”.

“This shows existent quality qualities of teamwork, generosity, anticipation and courageousness to physique a amended future,” helium added.

Peace does not travel overnight

After proceeding from galore much assemblage members, Mr. Guterres stated that they cognize amended than anyone that bid does not travel overnight.

“It costs enactment to physique it, instrumentality attraction of it, prolong it…There is simply a paradox: the nonsubjective of bid is simply a nine with nary enemies, but unluckily determination are enemies of peace,” helium said expressing his solidarity with the victims and their families.

Since 2017, determination person been 30 homicides and 4 disappearances, mostly men, lone successful the Department of Antioquia, according to UN reports.

In each of Colombia, determination person been 303 murders of erstwhile combatants and 25 disappearances. Almost 500 quality rights defenders and societal leaders person besides mislaid their lives successful convulsive attacks.

Mr. Guterres admired “the tenacity and commitment” of these radical who “continue to stake connected gathering bid successful Colombia connected a day-to-day basis”. He besides warned that “ensuring their information is captious to consolidating peace”.

United Nations remains committed

The Secretary-General reaffirmed the committedness of the United Nations to enactment the bid process and assured that helium volition sermon with the Government some the contented of information and housing. “We are each going to instrumentality vantage of this gathering to heighten our work,” helium said.

However, helium said that helium recognized “with humility” that the Organization’s enactment is secondary and that the indispensable enactment successful the operation of lasting bid belongs to Colombians.

“If this were a film, we would not beryllium candidates for the Oscar for Best Actor, but for the champion Supporting Actor,” helium concluded.