Juan Manuel Santos says that “neither the agreements nor the JEP can be repealed”

On November 14, the former President of the Republic and Nobel Peace Prize, Juan Manuel Santos, published an open letter addressed to the head of the Partido Alternativa Revolucionaria del Común, Rodrigo Londoño, known in times of war as ‘Timochenko’. In the letter, he assured that there is nothing to worry about before the announcement of former President Uribe where it indicates that it wants to repeal the JEP by means of a referendum.

Santos assures that the peace agreement and the JEP are shielded by the law and the Political Constitution of Colombia and he maintains that the announcements made by the Democratic Center have no future, since the agreement between the State and the extinct FARC cannot be modified.

“I understand the concern about a referendum or the law to ‘tear apart the Peace Accords’ by repealing the JEP,” says the former president in one of the sections of the letter in which he refers to the statements expressed by Londoño. “I would not worry so much because neither the agreements nor the JEP (which is part of them) are derogable. It is a categorical legal and political impossible “

The former president highlighted what has already been said by several academics and legal experts who assure that no law, or reform, or decree, or referendum, or constitutional reform can modify or alter what is established in the peace process.

The agreements and their proper implementation are part of our Constitution and are binding on this and the next two governments.

In the letter, the Nobel Peace Prize quoted Pope Francis on the importance of supporting the peace agreement to protect its fulfillment.

‘Timochenko’ would have expressed concern about the breaches and the murder of several ex-combatants; to which former President Santos said that the two parties must comply with what was agreed. “The State has to comply, but so do you, and it cannot be half compliance”Juan Manuel Santos wrote in the letter.

To date, 232 ex-combatants have been murdered in Colombia after the signing of the Peace Agreement, as revealed by the figures of the Farc Party, which released the news of a new criminal act.

This is Plutarco Cardozo, 46, who was found dead at his residence, just 300 meters from the Territorial Training and Reincorporation Area (ETCR) Jaime Pardo Leal, in the Colinas village, Guaviare.

Cardozo’s body, which was found by his daughter and a nurse, had several injuries, although it has not been possible to determine whether they were caused by a firearm.

On several occasions, even before international organizations such as the United Nations, the representatives of the Farc Party have denounced that there are systematic attacks against their former members. This was done on June 10 by Rodrigo Londoño, current head of the Farc Party, before Michelle Bachelet, former president of Chile and UN Commissioner for Human Rights.

“It has not been possible to identify those responsible or the intellectual authors of these systematic attacks, which explicitly leaves the omission of the State, its lack of will, the lack of guarantees for the effective enjoyment of the right to life. On many occasions, the investigating organizations have determined that the perpetrators of these deaths are armed groups in territories, however, what the government does not measure is that the existence of these groups comes from non-compliance with the Agreement, since the State, its strangely, the public and social rights never reached the territories, the reincorporation is late and without sufficient resources, “said Rodrigo Londoño.

Londoño also asked the commissioner for a group of rapporteurs to visit Colombia to personally verify the situation of social leaders and those who laid down their arms.

For its part, a new report from the UN Verification Mission indicates that during 2020, 50 former FARC-EP combatants have been murdered in the country. The document highlights that “30% of the murders have been committed near the New Reincorporation Areas (NAR), which are mostly located in isolated rural regions, where illegal armed groups and criminal organizations are fighting over the economies illicit ”.

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