Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos said on Wednesday (September 21) he expects an historic peace deal ending a half century of conflict between the Colombian government and leftist rebels to pass a plebiscite on October 2.
Santos made the comments in an interview with Reuters on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly. He said he was confident in a positive outcome despite a push by former President Alvaro Uribe against the deal.
“Of course the opponents are trying to use every tool possible to try to oppose the plebiscite but fortunately they’re not succeeding. What we have seen throughout the country is increasing support for the agreement. People are simply tired of the war,” he said.
After almost four years of talks, the FARC and government last month reached a final peace accord that will be signed by FARC commander Rodrigo Londono, better known by the nom de guerre Timochenko, and Santos on Sept. 26.
Santos said the post-deal work of reintegrating the FARC rebels into society will present challenges.
“We have to reconstruct the country. The challenge would be to – it’s a challenge from the development point of view. There are regions, very rich regions, extremely rich, which haven’t had no presence of the state so we have to start building roads, building hospitals, building schools and taking – it’s like the Wild West here in the United States back in the 19th century. You have to in a way conquer these regions with the presence of the state,” he said.
But he added that the deal would also open up room for change in Colombia’s drug production. He noted that after 40 years Colombia is still the world’s number one exporter of cocaine to world markets.
“The FARC finances themselves out of drug money. They admitted that. But now they have agreed to cut every link to the drug business and on the contrary to help us with the substitution of illegal crops for legal crops. So for the first time we have the opportunity for a structural solution in the issue of drugs in Colombia. And this is a great opportunity not only for us but for the whole region because the impact of that in the world of drug business is going to be very large,” he said.
Santos also said he was confident that Colombia’s second largest rebel group, the National Liberation Army (ELN) would eventually participate in peace talks. He said the government had invited the ELN to explore negotiations under certain conditions.
“I told them [ELN] you want to go to the public negotiation, you must release the people you have kidnapped. Kidnapping is simply not acceptable as a tool of war. And they are discussing about this. But I feel confident they will end up negotiating. They know that the train of history is already moving and they would not want to be left out,” he said.
He also commented on the political and economic crisis in neighbouring Venezuela where the opposition is working to remove President Nicolas Maduro from office through a recall referendum.
“We are very much interested in maintaining stability in Venezuela. We have been promoting a dialogue between the opposition and the government. So far we have failed. But we still continue to promote that dialogue. And that’s all I’m going to say about Venezuela to you,” he said.
Still, he added that Colombia was prepared to face a swarm of refugees from Venezuela into Colombia should the situation in Venezuela collapse.
“Of course we are aware of the danger of having a massive influx of refugees and we have been preparing for that, we are doing everything in our hands to try to avoid that. There are many, many Colombians living in Venezuela and that’s why we are working so hard to maintain stability in Venezuela,” he said.
He also commented on the U.S. presidential election.
“I’ve learned a lot during the last six years. One of the lessons is don’t get involved in other countries’ elections. But I will tell you this. I know Hillary Clinton. She has been a great friend of Colombia. She knows Colombia. I am a good friend of her husband. As a matter of fact I worked with him last Monday and they know – Bill Clinton was the architect of Plan Colombia which helped us tremendously and it’s been probably the most successful bipartisan foreign policy initiative the U.S. has launched in the recent past. I don’t know Mr. Trump. I’ve never talked to him. I don’t know what he thinks about Plan Colombia or about what we’re doing. So that’s all I can tell you about the U.S. elections,” he said.
(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2016