Colombian Senator and Ex-President Álvaro Uribe Vélez once more criticized agreements between the Colombian government and FARC terrorists, this time during the New Economy Forum in Spain.
Uribe claimed that if the Democratic Center wins the 2018 elections, they will not discard the current agreements with the FARC, which he cataloged as “inconvenient”, but rather would modify them to eliminate the impunity from war crimes and other violence committed by FARC terrorists during the war.
Colombia has seen a dramatic increase in coca production since the agreements were signed, troubling allies in the region, a fact that Uribe raised during the meeting. He also warned that Colombia could become a “second Venezuela” should any FARC-supporting candidate win the upcoming elections. Former Bogota Mayor Gustavo Petro was close to the late Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez, and Petro and Uribe have had several public battles in their political careers.
Uribe’s principal concern, however, was the Colombian economy. The economy has slowed over the past 18 months amid falling oil price, lower oil production, rising inflation and troubling economic signs for 2017-2018. He argued that many of the problems are directly related to the agreements with FARC, comparing them to the agreements implemented in El Salvador in 1993. By providing amnesty to FARC terrorists, Uribe believes it has shaken the confidence of investors and curbed investments.
During the decades long civil war, FARC terrorists used drug cultivation, kidnapping and extortion to amass wealth. The agreements do not address this money, which Uribe fears could later be used to spend on political activities and move Colombia further toward becoming a leftist state.
