Last week, the government of Colombia and the FARC signed a historic peace agreement to formally end the country’s decades-long armed conflict. The peace accord was seen as a major breakthrough in Colombia’s 52-year civil conflict — and lauded by the international community.
National and international celebration of the deal, however, turned out to be short-lived. The peace agreement was rejected by Colombians Sunday in a national vote, by a margin less than 0.5%.
While the peace deal was widely expected to pass, opposition led by former president Alvaro Uribe, widespread concern that FARC fighters would get off too easily, and even poor weather in parts of the country resulted in a 50.21% “no” vote to a 49.78% “yes” vote.
Tellingly, it was Colombia’s border areas, which have been most severely affected by the violence, that voted “yes” to the referendum, while the middle of the country voted “no.”
Amid the conflict, many innocent lives have hung in the balance. Those include small farmers whose properties have been targeted by drug raids and aerially-sprayed pesticides; families displaced by the war; and children conscripted at an early age into the FARC and the Colombian armed forces.
These people and many others are now at the mercy of a potentially violent fallout from an unsuccessful political process that, according to President Juan Manuel Santos, never had a plan B. A cease-fire still remains in place for the FARC and government soldiers, and President Santos could still pass the deal by calling a constitutional convention.
So how did Colombia get here? Here are six critical factors that Global Citizens should know about what Colombia is facing now.
1. Colombia suffers from a majorly unequal distribution of land.
In order to understand the unequal distribution of land in Colombia, we must go back to 1948. Or 1823. Or 1492. Historically and still today, small, subsistence farmers have been pushed off their plots by an elite, ruling class tied closely to the country’s major political parties. This unequal land distribution has been a problem since the colonial era, though there are certain flashpoints that have defined the struggle.
One of those flashpoints is April 9, 1948. The assassination of populist candidate Jorge Eliécer Gaitán outside his office in Bogotá sparked 10 years of conflict known simply as “La Violencia,” or the violence.
An estimated 200K-300K people were killed in those 10 years, in a conflict that took place mostly in the countryside. Although La Violencia technically came to a close in 1958, many of the landless peasants who had fought for land reform fled to the jungles of southern Colombia. They would become communist rebel groups: among them, the FARC, M-19, and ELN.
When the FARC emerged as a legitimate force in the 1960s, it called for subsistence farmers to forcibly take back land from Colombia’s elites. However, despite 60 years of fighting, land distribution continues to be a major issue in Colombia.
USAID reports that 0.4% of the population owns 62% of the country’s most fertile land, and that 68% of the rural population lives below the poverty level. Many of those who have spoken up for land reform have been silenced, including 51 land and environmental activists who have been killed this year.
Experts worried that the commitment to land reform enshrined in the peace deal with the FARC did not go far enough for Colombians whose land was forcibly taken from them during the war.
Since 1917, the government has unsuccessfully attempted to bring about land reform 14 times. Moreover, a lack of confidence in Colombia’s political institutions makes citizens wary of the government’s ability to bring about radical change.
Despite a 2011 Victims and Land Restitution law, the government has resolved just 36,000 of the more than 90,000 land restitution requests. That number could be inflated, according to a report by the University of Antioquia, which claims that fewer than 4% of the restitution claims have been completed.
2. Colombia is the 8th most unequal country in the world.
Inequality is most dramatic in Colombia’s rural communities, but the distribution of wealth in the country on the whole is among the 10 worst in the world. In Colombia the top 10% of the population controls 42% of the wealth, while the bottom 10% has just 1.1% of the wealth.
Poverty is worst in rural areas. Almost half (42%) of rural Colombians fall below the poverty line, compared to less than one third of urban Colombians.
Overall, roughly one third of Colombians live below the poverty line, even though the average income in the country is about $14,000 per year — higher than many of its Latin American neighbors.
3. Violence against women in Colombia remains prevalent.
Originally a male-dominated group, the FARC saw an influx of women fighters joining its ranks in the 1980s; women often took on leadership roles in the organization. According to estimates, roughly 35-45% of FARC fighters are women. The FARC has tried to downplay reports of forced abortions among women soldiers, but more than 150 have testified in court.
Colombia generally is moving toward respecting women’s rights but has a long way to go. This September, more than 500 women convened in Bogotá for the Second National Summit of Women and Peace, which also coincided with the International Day of Peace.
Last July, Colombia passed a law to define femicide as a “distinct and legally defined crime.” According to Reuters, a woman is killed every two days on average in Colombia. One study estimated that in areas affected by the violence in Colombia, nearly 500,000 women were affected by some form of sexual violence between 2001 and 2009.
Women were included in the peace process. A delegation of gender experts was established to speak about women’s roles in the conflict during the peace talks in Havana. But some women in the FARC feared that reintegration into Colombian society would not respect their rights.
4. 6 million people are displaced in Colombia, second in the world only to Syria.
Colombia’s displaced represent a full 13% of the country’s citizens, and according to Amnesty International, “the majority of those forcibly displaced have been peasant farmers, Indigenous People and Afro-descendant communities.”
Forcible displacement puts women at a far higher risk for sexual abuse. It also disrupts educational opportunities for young girls and boys, and increases income inequality. 60% of Colombia’s internally displaced live below the poverty line, according to government figures.
While the rate of internal displacement fell significantly between 2014 and 2015, Insight Crime, an organization that follows crime trends in Latin America and the Caribbean, worries that the negotiations between the FARC and the government may lead to an increase in forced displacements by other criminal elements, even as forced displacements by the FARC decrease.
The failure of the peace deal could push dissatisfied FARC soldiers to join other rebel groups like the ELN that have not negotiated with the government.
5. Landmines are a big problem in Colombia.
Since 1990, more than 11,000 Colombians have been killed or maimed by landmines, according to the Miami Herald, making it second only to Afghanistan.
Landmines pose a unique risk to children, who are often unable to read warning signs and are more likely than adults to pick up the landmine out of curiosity.
It can take up to $1,000 to remove just one landmine, according to UNICEF. Under the terms of the peace accord, Colombia stood to receive $53 million in aid from Norway and the United States with the goal of eliminating all landmines from the country by 2021.
The global demining initiative is part of Peace Colombia, a bilateral agreement between the US and Colombia that would have become law “in the event of a peace accord with the FARC.” Through Peace Colombia, the US had planned to commit $450 million in aid to Colombia in assisting with the country’s transition. This framework may now be in jeopardy.
6. Colombia is lacking in its commitment to education.
Government investment in education in Colombia was just 0.4% in 2009, according to Colombia Reports. This lags well behind other Latin American countries, most of whom dedicate more than 1% of their GDP to education.
El Pais reports that 75% of former FARC fighters who have begun the process of reintegration are illiterate.
In the peace process, the FARC called for access to universal education for rural peasants in Colombia.
In the words of one Colombian law student interviewed by the BBC, the peace deal would have been just the beginning. “To achieve real peace we need health care and education,” he said.