Colombian civil society is playing a leading role at the International Meeting “People Building Peace,” which ends today in this capital, participants said at this event.
The meeting, which started on Tuesday, December 4, analyzed the long historical development of social struggles that led to the process of peace talks between the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People’s Army (FARC-EP) and the government of Juan Manuel Santos.
The 10 social organizations in attendance agree that the conversations taking place in Havana, Cuba, between the two parties, in search of a solution to the political, social and armed conflict, is only the first step for the materialization of peace.
A new model for the nation is the formula suggested, with unity as the true north for social justice, responding to the clamor and needs from the vast working classes, as Omar Fernandez, delegate of the Coordinating Committee of Social Movements, said.
Alexandra Bermudez and Edgar Mujica, members of Congress for the People, stated the need to join efforts from social organizations to protect the process being held in the Cuban capital.
Prominent lawyer Alirio Uribe, of the Movement of Victims of State Crimes, called for protecting the process undertaken by the FARC-EP and the government, “from lurking enemies.”
From prisons, where the members of the political prisoners movement for peace are being held, a message arrived at the meeting, demanding the presence at the roundtable of Simon Trinidad, who is serving a 60-year sentence imposed by the United States.
