13/11/2017
Camilo Rubiano Becerra is a lawyer. Candidate for the Congress of Colombia with Centro Democrático (Democratic Centre). Author of the book Un acuerdo inviable, with a prologue by Álvaro Uribe.
I remember when in the campaign of the plebiscite, a journalist told me “we were exaggerating with the possibility of Timochencko becoming a candidate”; now it is a reality and again, sadly, time has proved we were right. Because of having said that, President Santos, the chief negotiator of the government, Humberto de la Calle and, in general, the promoters of the agreement, called us liars, friends of the war and thus enemies of the ‘The Peace’. The truth in all this is that we were not precisely the ones who lied.
Just a few days ago, the National Electoral Council notified to the Colombians the existence of a new political party in Colombia. The new movement is named “Common Alternative Revolutionary Force” (FARC, by its abbreviation in Spanish), which means that the “Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia” (FARC, by its abbreviation in Spanish) have legal personality to get involved in politics and participate in the election of 2018.
Straightaway, during a press conference, the guerrilla leader, alias Iván Márquez, announced to the country the lists of candidates to the Congress of the Republic. Thus, for instance, the list to the Senate is led by himself and the one to the Chamber of Representatives will be led by alias Jesús Santrich. Additionally, he announced that the candidate to the presidency will be Rodrigo Londoño, alias Timochenko.
This situation reveals the lies that have been told to all Colombians for years; in fact, in a cynic way, it was pointed out that “the FARC will be able to go to Congress because this was established in the agreements”.
Apart from being clearly cynic and disrespectful, it is completely legally unfeasible because Colombia signed the Rome Statute in 1998 and ratified it in 2002. The objective was to fight against impunity; hoping that the crimes against humanity were always punished under the criterion of proportionality. Even the International Criminal Court, guarantee of the Rome Statute, has taken several decisions regarding similar cases to the ones committed by the FARC terrorist group. For instance, in 2012 the guerrilla leader from Congo, Thomas Lubanga Dyilo, was sentenced to 14 years in prison because of having recruited children younger than 15 years old. Other of the sanctions pronounced by the Court was the one imposed to Ahmad Al Faqi Al Mahdi, who was sentenced in August last year to more than 9 years in prison because of having attacked religious buildings in Tombuctú (Malí).
These incidents are not different from the ones committed by Timochencko and all his henchmen: the recruitment of more than 15.000 children or the attacks against Bojaya, where the terrorist group attacked the Church of the municipality leaving 79 people dead. The only distinctive feature is that, in this case, there will not be any exemplary punishment from the International Criminal Court since the Special Jurisdiction for ‘The Peace’ guarantees to FARC terrorists not being sentenced to prison and the right to participate in politics without any problem, according to article 60 and 36 from the Justice Agreement.
These incidents were the ones who drive most of the country, on October 2nd, 2016 to supremely refuse the peace agreements and say NO! Nobody can expect that somebody is in favor of having a person with 7 prison sentences that sum 134 years of prison running for president.
Therefore, it is important that the international community knows the truth to tell Santos Government that Colombians are not up to bear with all this irresponsibility and with all the concessions given to FARC terrorist group. And to say to the ones who today pose as victims and not assassins, that it is not going to be allowed that after all the damage they caused to the country during more than 50 years, people as Rodrigo Londoño, alias Timochenko, goes from being an assassin to being a candidate without any type of problem.
Traducido por María Maseda