After a near-breakdown [10] in Colombia's peace process last month, Colombia's government is scrambling to revive the disarmament and demobilization of the FARC guerillas—under pressure from a citizen mobilization [11]. The popular networks Marcha Patriótica [12] and Congreso de los Pueblos [13] joined on June 1 for a youth demonstration in support of the peace process, with some 600 holding vigil in downtown Bogotá. (El Espectador [14] June 1; Contagio Radio [15], May 31) A new deadline of June 20 has now been set for FARC fighters to turn over all their weapons. UN monitors and the FARC say that 30% of the arms have now been handed over to the UN team overseeing the disarmament. (BBC News [16], June 8; El Espectador [17], May 30)
But there have been numerous reports of violence at the "transitional camps [18]" established for the demobilization process. On May 31, an army captain was wounded in a brief clash that ensued when military troops entered the "Veredal Zone" jointly controlled by the FARC and UN team at Las Colinas, Guaviare department. (El Espectador [19], May 31)
There are also cases in which demobilizing FARC fighters have been targeted for vigilante justice by presumed right-wing paramilitary forces. On June 2, a FARC fighter was found dead of two bullet wounds to his torso at vereda La Esmeralda, Puerto Rico municipality, Caquetá department. The ex-guerilla, named as Rulber Santana, had recently been pardoned and released from prison under the new "transitional justice [20]" program. (Prensa Rural [21], June 2)
The process of restitution of usurped lands [22] is another potential flashpoint. The National Lands Agency [23] says it has established a National Lands Fund of 3 million hectares to redistribute to campesinos usurped of their lands during the armed conflict. (El Colombiano [24], May 30)
Another obstacle to peace are the FARC renegade factions [25] that have refused to lay down arms. When President Juan Manuel Santos arrived at the vereda of Charras, San José del Guaviare, to inaugurate a new "crop substitution" program there, local campesinos complained that fighters of the FARC's renegade 1st Front had threaetened them with reprisals if they abandoned coca cultivation. (El Tiempo [26], May 31)
