Colombia - what have you done?

[palanca]

I cannot believe that the Colombian referendum on their peace process has failed - I am so, so sad.

The huge irony is that in the departments which were most hit by the war in the very rural areas, many of them in fact voted for peace when the expectation was that they would be the most hardline against FARC .

So, now what?

[instantly]

I don't know why the government was asking people to vote anyway.

Why can't the government just decide what's right and do that? Bloody referenda

[palanca]

I don't know either why they had a bloody referendum and I cannot understand why the turnout was so low - maybe lots of people just thought it was in the bag?!

[palanca]

only 40% - normally much, much higher for GEs

[LurkingHusband]

I knew very little about Colombia until recently watching "Narcos" and was curious as to how big it was and what sort of terrain (they mentioned disappearing into the jungles). Turned out it's 6 times the size of the UK !!!!

Was fascinated to see the recent news and be able to relate it to the (dramatised) history shown in Narcos - in particular the FARC role.

Apparently the UK was heavily advising on the negotiations (after the NI peace process).

At the risk of making it all about us, when I read of a referendum so close, and so failed, I did wonder if the UKs recent history affected them.

After all, we're now in the Age of Gove; post-expert.

[TwigletsMakeMeViolent]

I don't know either why they had a bloody referendum and I cannot understand why the turnout was so low - maybe lots of people just thought it was in the bag?!

The government released polls saying YES would be a comfortable 70% of the votes. It's thought that a lot of potential voters thought that meant it was in the bag, and didn't bother voting. It's also a very poor country, it's hard to get people to vote in the first place. But I'm also puzzled when it comes down to it, it's such a huge deal for Colombia.

The UK had no effect on it, Colombians know very little about the UK referendum!

People just can't swallow the concessions made to FARC leaders and guerillas. Santos was very arrogant not factoring this in. Now he's forced to go back to the table with Uribe (who apparently he hasn't spoken to in five years).

[LurkingHusband]

People just can't swallow the concessions made to FARC leaders and guerillas

I can't swallow the concessions made to Sinn Fein/pIRA .. but (growing up in London in the 1970s, and now living in Birmingham) I can appreciate the lack of bombs on the streets.

[TwigletsMakeMeViolent]

I can't begin to understand it. I would have voted yes, too. I'm just saying that's what Colombians are having trouble with, and that's that millions of people are still displaced, a hundred thousand people are missing, eight thousand children were recruited as soldiers, thousands tortured ... and Santos was arrogant enough to think that Colombia would be happy with FARC not only going unpunished but being elected to congress.

I also don't think the move of wheeling out some of the more notorious FARC generals to speak about peace before the election did the campaign any favours, either.

[claig]

They had a Colombian politician on the news and she said that the Colombian people are not prepared to let FARC off totally without their leaders etc doing some jail time because it sends the wrong message to terrorists. She said the problem is that there are several other terrorist groups in Colombia, not just FARC, and if FARC are totally let off and end up in government positions then all the other terrorists will think they can get away with the same thing as and when they want to end their opposition.

[TwigletsMakeMeViolent]

Yes, that's true. FARC make up about 10% of the terrorist groups in Colombia, apparently.

[Lweji]

AFAIK, the president said the deal would go ahead anyway.

Neither side comes out smelling of roses, so they might as well start from zero.
If they can have a process similar to South Africa, they could make it work.

[palanca]

Santos has just won the Nobel Peace Prize ....!

[Lweji]

Perhaps prematurely. The process it's not entirely complete and it may still end up badly.
But I can't see any other strong contenders.

[palanca]

Donald Trump was apparently a candidate ....!

I agree re timing but yeah - is it any worse than the signing ceremony the week before the referendum?!