Published On: Wed, Apr 10th, 2013

A march for politics not for peace

gaitan

It was a hard decision to make but I chose not to march yesterday. I decided instead to reflect on the death of the people´s president that never was, Jorge Eliécer Gaitán, and pray for the victims of Colombia´s conflict.

The national “march for peace” was organized by the Marcha Patriótica (and Colombians for Peace) with the support of Bogotá Mayor Gustavo Petro, and, at the last minute, President Santos.

If we are to believe Colombia´s defence minister, Juan Carlos Pinzón, the Marcha Patriótica is funded by the FARC and its public face Piedad Cordoba, works directly with the guerrillas.

Disconcerting then, that the overwhelming number of marchers appeared to be Marcha Patriótica supporters, unsettling too to see thousands of MP branded t-shirts and flags among the hordes flocking down the Carrera Septima in Bogotá en route to the Plaza de Bolívar.

These white shirts, presumably funded by the MP, bore the message “bilateral ceasefire” (something the FARC have directly asked for). Not the end of the world perhaps, but these shirts were accompanied by banners demanding an end to “neoliberalism”, for the castigation of ex-president Alvaro Uribe, and for “social justice”. There were those that shouted “Uribe, fascist”.

This was not a peace march. This was a political march.

There is nothing more moving and beautiful than seeing a people march for peace, but when that peace is politicized, when the march has such a clear agenda, it sullies and cheapens the event.

Of course it´s also true that there were plenty of “ordinary” folk who joined in the march. Public workers too were out en masse, having been given the day off.  No one can claim that this march was entirely Marcha Patriótica, but that it was organized by them and that they were there in such huge numbers meant its focus was wrong.

9 April is traditionally a day to remember the victims. It is distasteful and disrespectful to the memory of Colombia´s victims, the murdered, the disappeared, and the kidnapped to turn the date into a day for politics.

On 9 April 1948 the great Liberal Jorge Eliécer Gaitán was murdered sparking a near revolutionary force that ripped apart first Bogotá and later the rest of country. The “Bogotazo” was a unified cry of anguish of hopelessness and despair as the people realized the oligarchs of the state had crushed their hope for change.

Gaitán shone a light on a Colombia in which a true democracy was possible, in which the idea of government by for and of the people was a real possibility. As they extinguished this light, the governing classes unleashed an armed conflict that is still with us today.

The FARC has its origins here, in the exclusion of all political actors not belonging to the Liberal Party or the Conservative Party hegemony; the stitch-up that followed the “Bogotazo” was an agreement which saw both parties alternate power, sharing between them the wealth and bureaucratic jam of the state. This, to the explicit exclusion of all others.

Colombia remains governed by this elite. Look at a list of her top politicians and you´ll see sons, nephews, and grandchildren of those who lead the country during the dark days of the second half of the 20th Century.

Gaitán´s death was in vain, perhaps.

But the FARC´s answer, to seize power by brute force, is not the answer. The problems of democracy are always solved with more, not less democracy.

Clearly no march will bring us peace but perhaps, just perhaps, the peace talks in Havana will lead to Colombia´s largest and most recalcitrant guerrillas to give up the fight.

One day the guerilla will leave us in peace. One day they will stop recruiting children to fight their dirty war. One day they will let their rhetoric, and not the lead of their bullets do the talking.

One day the full truth will also out on the role of the paramilitaries in this conflict.

The simple truth is that the right wing militias and the left wing terrorists have no role to play in Colombian politics. There is nothing democratic about using violence to impose political will.

We are all victims.

I want peace, I want the FARC to demobilize and fight for votes, to exchange the bullet for the ballot box. But equally I believe that any march that even whiffs of the slightest minutest show of support for them – or for any other violent actor in our politics – should be avoided like the plague.

Yesterday the vast majority of Colombians stayed at home. The white shirts of the Marcha Patriótica were hardly seen outside of Bogota. The cities of Manizales, Medellin, Cali and many others reported a pathetically low turnout of people.

Does this mean Colombians don´t want peace? Does this mean Colombians don´t support the peace process? My guess is that the answer to both is no. The reality is that the vast majority of us did not feel it appropriate or right to join a march so obviously political, with such an obvious agenda.

Gaitán would turn in his grave!

This article was written for Colombia Reports

Displaying
Join the debate
  1. estela says:

    good points Tony. In Kevin’s defence, you do need a strong stomach to be a journalist in Colombia, but why try to make a living out of it if you don’t have the stomach, Kevin? This article is deliberately regurgatative rather than investigative.

  2. Tony Regalado says:

    Lets be honest. The Colombian political arena is bunk. On one hand, we have an extremist political identity hell bent on taking control and power over the people of this country- think its las FARC? Nope. What plagues this country is its bilateral stance on issues such as economic growth and education for the poor. Any policy change for the poor- whether “democratic” or not- still fails underneath the protocol of a corrupt government. Am I a revolutionary? I am. Am I part of a revolutionary group- no. Las FARC is a pathetic excuse for a revolutionary group- with misguided principles and no capacity to identify with a suffering Colombian culture. The march for peace should be political. Peace amongst a nation cannot be achieved without accountability in a government. Colombians are starting to beckon the call for change- with extremists liberals like Las FARC and extremist neo-conservatives like Uribe. Do me a favor, me a real journalist and stop writing on behalf of an extremely bipartisan system. You know this country is suffering, and we are tired. We need a change, not a violent one- but an active one.

Join the debate

XHTML: You can use these html tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>


Tweets by @ColPolitics | contact@colombia-politics.com
All Rights Reserved Colombia Politics, 2012