Peace At Any Price?

It was recently announced that Colombia’s government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) have signed a framework for peace talks, to be held next month in Norway before concluding, curiously, in Havana. Brokering peace with Latin America’s longest-running Marxist insurgency is a rather large order, and Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos is already being assailed for his wishful thinking by former president Álvaro Uribe, even as Hugo Chavez applauds the decision.

“I hope they don’t fail in their commitment to reach peace. It’s enough of war, of 60 years of war,” Chavez said. “This doesn’t have a military solution, I’ve said it before. It needs a political solution at a discussion table looking for agreement points so the guerilla fighters can lay down their weapons, hopefully with the guarantee and respect of a political life.”