Colombian youth to lead Fourth International Peace Brigade

On March 23, comrades from the Central Executive Committee of the YCL-LJC met virtually with a delegation from the Colombian Communist Youth (JUCO) in order to discuss solidarity work in the efforts toward peace and reconciliation in Colombia. 

The representative form the Colombian organization provided the context for the upcoming fourth Youth International Brigade for Peace in Colombia. The previous installments of the brigade have focused on convening all sectors of local society and international organizations to oversee and discuss the agreements coming out of the peace talks between the former Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia – People’s Army (FARC-EP) and the Colombian government. 

This year, the brigade aims to mobilize all levels of society to Huisito, a focal area in the Cauca region in Colombia. This rural area is key in the implementation of the peace agreements, signed in 2016, as it holds a large campesino (peasant) population, as well as indigenous and Afro-Colombian peoples. These communities have been in the crossfire between the trans-national illegal economies exploiting their labour in coca leaf farming and the Colombian army, which has a dark history of operating through paramilitary tactics both to control the illegal economies and subjugate the local population.

After the peace agreements, the Colombian government was supposed to enact agrarian reform and fulfill its commitments to truth and reconciliation. However, ex-president Ivan Duque Marquez intentionally dragged his feet in land redistribution and intensified military actions that victimized the locals, while cocaine trade remained intact. Moreover, there was not even an attempt to implement other treaty goals like government aid in terms of health, education, and connectivity (as the 1991 Constitution documents mandate). The latter fueled the re-creation of peace treaty dissidents comprised of ex-FARC combatants and rural folk that felt betrayed, while the political party “Comunes” – former FARC-EP – distanced itself from the dissidents, claiming that their fight was not legitimate as they aim to instrumentalize campesinos, racialized and indigenous peoples to protect illegal mining, cocaine farming and trafficking, and ransom practices. Meanwhile, peace talks are advancing with other left-wing organizations, like the National Liberation Movement (ELN), which answered the call from the new government of Gustavo Petro Urrego aiming at a “total peace” grounded in finding the truth about the root causes of violence in Colombia. 

The brigade, scheduled for April 25 to April 29, aims to include international delegations with the purpose of extending the voice and visibility of the local communities in Huisito, as a sort of listening tribunal of the needs and goals of the populations in the frontline of peace advancements in Colombia. The YCL-LJC encourages all progressive organizations, labour unions, and the student movement to support the maintenance of peace efforts in Colombia.

To learn more about the brigade and participate, consult the online resources of Juventud Rebelde Cauca.