Lately we have only been talking about what is going wrong in the world, how bad is the situation in the Middle East, Africa, generalized corruption, crazy people accessing positions of power… But there is a silent process that has been ongoing for 4 years which intends to finish with one of the longest ongoing conflicts.
Thanks to the effort of the different sides involved in the conflict and to the Colombians themselves, today we can look with reasonable hope how these peace talks are advancing to their latest stages that will put end to a conflict that is lasting more than 55 years. This long process has only been possible because the negotiators are doing a real negotiation, forgetting about their own selfish positions and focusing on the interest of the Colombians and the peaceful future for the country. But like Coldplay sang, “Nobody said it was easy”, and there are still many obstacles on the way, namely the para-military and drug trafficking groups and political actors that want to jeopardize the process. But having the FARC and, more recently, the ELN onboard and having the Colombian Government backed up by the neighbouring countries means that there is a real chance for a successful solution.
My Colombian friends look at Cuba with hope, with the hope of being the generation that will see the historical signature that will put end to more than 5 decades of conflict and suffering. And we should also look at this hoping that this will be an example for many other successful peace process to come. The experience and lessons learnt from these 4 years of negotiations should be capitalized and used for other contexts where all the efforts have been unsuccessful so far.
I hope that soon I will be able to write about the signature of the peace agreement, but until this will materialized, we have to leave the different parties involved to continue with the negotiations and take the necessary time to come out with the strongest agreement possible. Until then, we all should hope that soon we will have another example that it is possible, that it is possible to finish a long and cruel conflict through hope, by putting aside egos and personal or political interests and through the will of having peace.