Unlearning war

GNARLED beams and splinters of wood are all that remain of many houses in Toribío, a town high in the Andes that saw some of the worst of the violence in Colombia’s war against the FARC, a left-wing guerrilla army. On one dwelling’s surviving wall graffiti in bold yellow letters reads: “I hate your war.” Over its 52 years, perhaps 220,000 Colombians died and 7m were displaced.

Now Latin America’s longest-running military conflict is over. On August 24th negotiators representing Colombia’s government and the FARC announced that they had reached a final agreement after four years of talks in Havana. Although violence subsided in recent years, especially after the FARC declared a unilateral ceasefire in 2015, the war’s formal end will allow Colombia at last to become a normal country, and to focus its attention on improving the lives of its 48m citizens. “Today marks the beginning of the end of the suffering, the pain and the tragedy of war,” said Colombia’s president, Juan Manuel Santos.

Now he will ask congress to convoke a plebiscite on October 2nd to seek voters’ approval. Meanwhile, the FARC will hold their tenth, and...Continue reading

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