The recent election of President Gustavo Petro has brought new hope for the possibility of peace in Colombia. Petro, himself a former rebel, has committed to a policy of Total Peace which aims to dismantle active armed groups, remove violence and focus on the protection of civilians, building sustainable peace. The government is moving forward with peace negotiations with the National Liberation Army (ELN) rebel group in an attempt to end decades of armed conflict, the second round of peace talks in Mexico City have just concluded and the two parties are working towards a ceasefire.
We recently spoke with one of our long term associates in Colombia, Rosa Emilia Salamanca, Executive Director of Corporación de Investigación y Acción Social y Económica (CIASE). CIASE is an organisation working for peace, human rights and democracy from a feminist perspective in Colombia. We spoke about what CIASE are doing and how they are working with the Petro government, the importance of bringing a feminist perspective into peacebuilding, as well as her hopes for the future of Colombia.
Can you explain a little about your work as a peacebuilder and more about CIASE?
“CIASE have been working in peacebuilding for the last 17 years, mainly with grassroot organisations and women all over the country.”
“In our Feminism and Peacebuilding programme we try to implement the spirit of the United Nation Security Council’s Resolution 1325. How do women transform the idea of security and the idea of peace? We are trying to bring new concepts to transform democracy so that it is substantial for peacebuilding and so that it is designed with a feminist perspective.”
“Peace is not just making arms silent. We know that peace is much more than that, this is what we have always talked about with Conciliation Resources. Peace is about changing power relations, you don’t only see these power relations in political and armed confrontations but you see them all through society. You see them because of racial discrimination, gender discrimination, age, you see them in everything. Our global society is built upon a structure of power relations… We need to change.”
What are CIASE working on right now?
“We are working with emerging citizens, indigenous women in their diversity, we are working with communities through dialogues. We are working in collaboration with many other organisations and the government to design the Women, Peace and Security Action Plan, which is going to be a very good opportunity to ensure women are included in the peace process.”
“We are supportive of the presence of women in the government. They are all working for issues that are so important; women, diversity, inclusion, anti-racism. We really support these kinds of people, we hope they are going to make a change. Also, there has been a new Minister of Equality approved. We are doing a lot of lobbying so that this Minister creates a Vice Minister of Women’s Rights who can move forward the Women, Peace and Security Action Plan.”
“We have worked in formulating peace agreements, and now we are trying to see how we work towards Total Peace. We are trying to create a culture of dialogue within Colombian society. This is very complicated because people have experienced many many years of exclusion, years of war, Narco trafficking, organised crime. People are tired, but we have incredible resilience and creativity. It will take a while to change but I think that day by day we are conscious that we have to change our society as a whole. Not only creating agreements, but using all the agreements as tools of change. I think there is a growing consciousness about this.”
“We are also part of the Latin American Women’s Peace and Security Network. We are building this incredible network that is working to look at how we can support these new ideas of a democracy from a feminist perspective that will change these patriarchal ways of thinking about peace and security.”
How has the peace process in Colombia developed more recently and what challenges remain in creating a stable accord?
“It has been seven months since we got a new President. It has not been easy, there is a lot of resistance. There was a lot of fear, this is a government that only has a short time to make reforms, we hope that they can turn us slightly onto another path so we can begin to change Colombia.
“One of the challenges for the new President is the four years previous that were lost for peace. We had an agreement with the FARC and then there was so little work done towards peace under the previous President. We lost a lot of time and a lot of hope, many people were killed and the conflict arose again. The challenge for peace for this government is huge as the problem has grown bigger, but now Petro has created the policy of Total Peace.”
What are your hopes for Colombia and peace?
“We are not asking him [Petro] to change everything. But we are asking him to change the path. It is not going to be easy, there is a huge opposition but we are working for that. We have hope because we have been in such a difficult situation for years that we are used to working in difficult situations… I think we are changing, it is not easy. It is difficult for me to say it is not easy as I am always very hopeful but I know that we have a window of opportunity. There is hope because of the recent election.”
“There is a change in Latin America… We are trying to give birth to a new way of political behaviour that is not going to be the same as Europe or North America. It is a new way of thinking about peace, security and democracy.”
