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A12 WORLD NEWS
Saturday 13 July 2019
UN Security Council visits Colombia as peace worries mount

By CHRISTINE ARMARIO meeting with the Security
Associated Press Council Friday, he noted
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) that during the first year of
— Maria del Pilar Hurtado's his presidency, the number
son screamed in anguish of economic development
at the sight of his mother's projects led by ex-rebels
dead body on a dirt road like initiatives to grow cof-
in the poor community in fee and pineapples has
northern Colombia the multiplied, from two to 25.
family called home. In an April report, the Kroc
He kicked his feet on the Institute for International
ground and grasped his Peace Studies at the Univer-
face in his hands. Passersby sity of Notre Dame, which is
stopped and watched the charged with monitoring
boy's agonizing grief but the accord's implementa-
did little to console him. tion, noted that 31 percent
The wrenching scene was of the accord's pledges
caught on a cellphone have not yet begun the first
camera and quickly made steps toward execution.
headlines around Colom- Nonetheless, the institute
bia in June. For many, said Colombia's pace is
the social leader's violent "comparable to other suc-
death was another pains- Peruvian Ambassador Gustavo Meza-Cuadra, the president of UN Security Council, from left, cessful peace processes."
taking reminder that in nu- Colombia's President Ivan Duque, and British Ambassador Jonathan Guy, arrive to deliver a joint Hurtado, a mother of four,
merous parts of the South statement to reporters in Bogota, Colombia, Friday, July 12, 2019. had already fled one home
American nation peace Associated Press after receiving death
remains elusive. ing ex-combatants who a presence in vast remote Colombia over elements of threats, only to settle in a
Now the United Nations Se- genuinely want to leave stretches once controlled the peace deal. He called new area and find herself
curity Council is getting a a life of violence behind by rebels and now in the on the government to en- targeted again, commu-
firsthand look at the chal- but won't tolerate those in- hands of competing illegal sure that any changes to nity groups said.
lenges of peace nearly volved in new crimes. armed groups involved in the accord respect com- As an activist, she had spo-
three years into Colombia's "We should think big and the drug trade. mitments made to rebels ken up for victims and de-
historic accord with leftist look to the future," he said Hurtado's killing marked who laid down arms. nounced crimes like forced
rebels as they visit Friday following a breakfast with one more in an alarming "It's going too slow," Adam disappearances. More
with the nation's president, the Security Council. "And string of deaths of social Isacson, a Colombia expert recently, she was helping
politicians and former reb- construct a peace where leaders and ex-combat- at the Washington Office poor residents who had set-
els at a time of mounting the law is the chief guaran- ants. According to the non- on Latin America, said of tled on lands that did not
concern. tor." profit Somos Defensores, the implementation. "If the belong to them, according
The council ambassadors Colombia's government 155 activists were killed government had taken ad- to local media. She report-
kicked off their trip by ex- signed the accord with in 2018, up from 106 such vantage and gotten more edly made a living by recy-
pressing their steadfast sup- members of the former deaths the year before. of a presence in these ar- cling garbage.
port for the accord ending Revolutionary Armed Forc- Colombia's ombudsman's eas you would not be see- Social leaders in Colombia
Latin America's longest- es of Colombia in 2016 after office says 462 social lead- ing the same levels of vio- are hoping the Security
running conflict, even as four years of negotiations in ers have been killed be- lence." The peace accord Council's visit will help ac-
observers warn that imple- Cuba. Since then, most of tween January 2016 and remains divisive in Colom- celerate implementation
mentation needs to move the 13,000 ex-combatants the beginning of this year. bia, where many still balk and shine a light on deaths
more quickly to avoid have begun the transition "The conflict with the FARC at the sight of former rebels like Hurtado's.
more anguishing scenes of to civilian life. Thousands — or the majority of the serving as legislators in con- "The whole promise of the
death. of weapons used in more FARC — ended," said Cyn- gress. The conflict between peace agreement was
Despite the concerns, Peru- than five decades of con- thia Arnson, director of the leftist rebels, right-wing to do something that had
vian Ambassador Gustavo flict have been melted Latin America program at paramilitaries and the state never been accomplished
Meza Cuadra maintained down and made into a the Woodrow Wilson Inter- left at least 250,000 people in Colombian history, which
that the accord, "Contin- monument in Bogota. The national Center for Schol- dead, 60,000 disappeared was to overcome this sense
ues to be an example not former rebels have formed ars, referring to the acro- and millions displaced. that there were two Colom-
just for Latin America but a political party and now nym used by former rebels. Many have doubted bias," Arnson said. "One of
the entire world." have congress leaders and "But post-war with the FARC Duque's commitment to the big unanswered ques-
President Ivan Duque, senators. is not post-conflict for Co- peace after his election on tions of the peace process
elected last year on a plat- Despite those important lombia." a platform that promised to is why the government was
form promising to change advances, analysts are Secretary-General Antonio change the accord but not so slow and either unwilling
key aspects of the accord, concerned that Colom- Guterres said in a recent "tear it to shreds." Thus far, or incapable of occupying
said his administration bia's government hasn't report that he regrets the he's been unable to push these spaces vacated by
stands committed to help- done enough to establish "polarization and division" in forward his proposals. After the FARC."q

Brazil: Bolsonaro says he may nominate son as US ambassador

Associated Press The president said the nomination "would be the perfect message to
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro says he's consid- Washington."
ering nominating his son Eduardo to be ambassador to the United States. The nomination would have to be confirmed by the Senate, and critics
Bolsonaro said at a news conference Thursday that nominating his son is, are complaining it would violate laws against nepotism.
in his words, "something on my radar. Yes, it's possible." They also argue he's not qualified. Eduardo Bolsonaro currently is a con-
He said Eduardo Bolsonaro is a friend of U.S. President Donald Trump's gressman. The ambassadorship has been vacant since Jan. 1, when Jair
children, speaks English and Spanish and has experience abroad. Bolsonaro took office.q