
Published 04/02/2025 16:53 | Edited 04/02/2025 17:17
“The total peace defended by the Government of Change (Gobierno del Exchange) appeals to the human being as a society involved with the environment, for the benefit of all sectors of humanity, fauna and flora. And the Colombian government has been clear: it is necessary to end illegal mining exploitation and drug trafficking. This point is crucial, but has been boycotted by armed groups, who sabotage the signing of a specific agreement, paying attention to life to take advantage of their own. ”
The warning was given in an exclusive interview with the People’s Hora (HP) by the Reverend Luis Fernando Sanmiguel, from the Hope Community Church, Bogota, coordinator of the Communities of Faith Teusaquillo Territory Program, “positioning itself as a faith-inspired Christian Jesus and justice, ”in the face of the growth of conflicts in the north of the country and in Catatumbo – border with Venezuela – between the National Liberation Army (ELN) and dissidents of the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC) that did not depress the weapons.
The confrontation has already shown the displacement of more than 40,000 people, whole families who migrated to Venezuela amid forced recruitments and more than 80 murders by Eln, six selectively only for signing the peace agreement with the government.
“Total peace, integral peace, positive peace”
“I believe our commitment is to fight collectively to erect the Kingdom of Christ among us, hence the relevance of our participation in the construction of the peace process,” said Reverend, supporting the consolidation of “one of the first approved proposals, the peace Total, called by the communities of Faith Integral Peace and in the thought of Norwegian sociologist Johan Galtung – main founder of the discipline of Peace and Conflict Studies – Positive Peace. ”
Although the initiative is commendable, he said, “there is an inconvenience.” “I believe the methodology was not the most suitable because if you wanted to negotiate with all sectors at the same time, with a harsh consequence: armed groups, regardless of their ideological stance, want to maintain a peace that allows them to negotiate with an illegal economy, which is fundamentally drug trafficking and irrational mineral exploitation, with serious developments in the political environment, which is corruption, ”he ordered.
Sanmiguel pointed out that the first aspect to be taken into account is that after centuries of exploitation, “we have an alternative president, which is called the Government of Change, as its campaign was called.” “I believe this is its purpose and it is worth it, but that in four years it cannot be consolidated,” he said, quoting obstacles in various sectors, from Parliament, the media, to the church portions. “Protestant Catholic and evangelical churches are majority and we have others who are minority, such as Jews and Muslims. Regrettably, by tradition, Catholics have always been conservative, no secret. But the evangelical Protestant has opted for right -wing parties, ”he acknowledged.
“Government committed to negotiations”
“It seems to me that the Petro government has excellent intentions, because it is not only negotiating, but striving to build integral peace for the internal armed conflict, with relevant measures for the consolidation of the process such as agrarian reform and advances in health public, among other sensitive changes, ”he added. “From the communities of faith, what we want is a fair, equitable, non -violent proposal, a negotiation with much dialogue, which was not achieved. But our understanding is that the kingdom of God is now and is among us, ”he said.
“Despite government initiatives,” the archbishop explained, “most of the House and Senate oppose the transformations, which worries us a lot as no project or proposal is approved, because they come to some extent and are barred.”
“More than one million hectares have already been delivered to the peasants”
Agrarian reform is a project proposed since the 1970s-80s, but its implementation has been very complex and turbulent, it clarified. “Now, in negotiations with the FARC, an agreement was signed that would be granted to the peasants three million hectares of cultivable lands. Among the governments of Presidents Juan Manuel Santos (2010-2018), who signed peace with the FARC, and that of Iván Duque (2018-2022), added, were delivered approximately 30 thousand hectares of land, while over the Petro government It’s already over one million hectares, ”said Sanmiguel.
Remember, highlighted the Reverend, that “land for farmers is the number one point of agrarian reform: that the peasant has where to plant and be cultivable, with agricultural technical support, with funding to produce.”
However, he denounced Sanmiguel, there is a Trojan horse to be fought, “because, for lack of qualification, the government has been forced to resort to technical staff of the opposition, sharpening the contradiction, people who sabotage the process from inside.” “They are representatives of a rich and powerful political and business sector who really doesn’t accept any change,” he protested.
“Make true and equitable to political and economic justice”
Regarding Trump’s current statements about immigrants, Reverend considered that “Colombia is in the heart of America and the world, a supreme country bathed in mineral and plant riches” and how any people and nation deserve to be respected. Without quoting names, he reiterated that “anyone who does not act to make political and economic justice true and equitable against the construction of the Kingdom of God.”
“The issue of migration will be radicalized around the world and will be a characteristic of the 21st century, because the search for opportunities is a natural state of humanity. Retirees and pensioners of the richest countries will be able to live very well, as pooly as they may be in any country in Latin America. So how do you not allow migration by labor, looking for academic qualifications? ”He asked.
“What has prevented is the elimination otherwise: in political, economic, cultural, social, in all areas. What we have seen is the permanent cultivation of power by power, the unacceptable logic of the eye by eye, tooth for a tooth. This does not apply to human security, which must be of dialogue, respect, concertation, consensus, agreements and that we can all live well, building together. The unified body must recognize the different functions of different members, ”concluded Sanmiguel.
Source: vermelho.org.br