In this article, Cynthia Arnson is quoted on the peace talks between Colombia and the FARC. The article also includes a mention of the Latin American Program’s new bulletin, “The FARC and Colombia’s Illegal Drug Trade”.
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The two sides have been able to reach draft agreements on the first three points, but victims' rights and the group's disarmament have proven more complicated. "They are now involved in one of the trickiest issues, focusing on the rights of victims, which necessarily touches onto questions of transitional justice and how much impunity or prosecution [to pursue], which is one of the most emotionally difficult and visceral issues for the public," saysCynthia Arnson, director of the Latin American program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. Both sides have acknowledged commiting human rights violations and have agreed that victims have a right to "truth, justice, reparations, and guarantees that violations will not be repeated (PDF)". However negotiators are struggling to define who should be considered victims (6.7 million people have registered as victims of parties to the conflict) and agree on how to bring perpetrators to justice.
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The Wilson Center’s prestigious Latin America Program provides non-partisan expertise to a broad community of decision makers in the United States and Latin America on critical policy issues facing the Hemisphere. The Program provides insightful and actionable research for policymakers, private sector leaders, journalists, and public intellectuals in the United States and Latin America. To bridge the gap between scholarship and policy action, it fosters new inquiry, sponsors high-level public and private meetings among multiple stakeholders, and explores policy options to improve outcomes for citizens throughout the Americas. Drawing on the Wilson Center’s strength as the nation’s key non-partisan policy forum, the Program serves as a trusted source of analysis and a vital point of contact between the worlds of scholarship and action. Read more
