Bogota, June 28 (RHC)-- Colombia’s Democratic Center, the party headed by former President Alvaro Uribe, has rejected a request by the United Nations Verification Mission in Colombia urging the country to “remove the obstacles” for the fulfillment of the peace accords.
“The Democratic Center’s legislative bloc, responsible in great part for president-elect Ivan Duque’s victory rejects the U.N. Verification Mission statement and does not accept its demands,” a party press statement affirmed.
According to the legislators, their proposal to adjust the peace agreement between the Colombian government and the former Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) is supported by the majority of Colombians who voted against the agreement in the 2016 referendum and who elected Duque, a staunch detractor of the peace process who has vowed to modify the accords.
The U.N. highlighted that Colombia’s peace process “is notable for the emphasis it places on ensuring that the transition from an armed conflict to peace is accompanied by truth, justice, reparation for the victims and non-repetition.”
One of the mechanisms established for this transition is the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP for its Spanish acronym) charged with trying and sentencing FARC members and state security forces.
The JEP allows exchanging prison sentences for testimony that would be used to clarify all cases of human rights violations.
The JEP was scheduled to begin its work on March 15. The bill for its establishment finally received the approval of the two chambers of the Colombian congress in the early hours of this Thursday, June 28th, and is now pending the approval of outgoing president Juan Manuel Santos.
The bill approved, however, contains two new articles sponsored by the Democratic Center Party on the extradition of former FARC members
Colombia´s Interior Minister, Guillermo Rivera, raised the possibility of taking the new two articles to the country’s constitutional court.
