I just returned from Bogota, where -- with some 75 percent of the population backing the upcoming peace talks between the government of Colombia and the FARC -- the mood in Colombia’s capital city is more upbeat than I’ve seen in years. The peace talks follow a year-and-a-half of planning and six months of secret exploratory talks in Havana, Cuba that produced a road map forward and an agenda for the talks. They are scheduled to begin in Oslo, Norway on Monday, October 15, to be followed by a joint press conference by the parties on October 17, before they move to Havana the following week. Difficulties in suspending arrest warrants for the FARC leaders who will participate in the talks delayed an earlier start date by a week. Without this protection, the insurgents could be legally detained (or worse) before they reach the negotiating table.

Peace Summit of Local Leaders

I was in Bogota to participate in the national Peace Summit of Mayors and Governors. Dozens of local and regional authorities from some of the most war-torn parts of Colombia attended. On behalf of USIP, I served, along with two representatives of the French Embassy and the OAS Mission to Support the Peace Process, respectively, as an international guarantor for the meeting, and we witnessed and signed the final declaration that laid out future commitments of the participants. | Read the declaration

The peace summit explored ways for local authorities to support the national peace process, ensure the protection of the civilian population while peace is being negotiated, and promote the construction of regional agendas for peace and development. "We don't want a spot at the table in Oslo or Havana," Bogotá Mayor and host of the summit Gustavo Petro announced. "We want to accompany the process locally. ... It would be disingenuous to assume that the social conflicts of the regions will be resolved in Oslo or Havana."

While the regional leaders are not asking to be at the peace tables, they are calling on the national government’s and the FARC’s negotiating teams to “facilitate and support humanitarian agreements in the territories … while the peace is being signed.” (See my blog post, “A Peace Summit of Local Authorities”)

Regional Inflections of War

Far from being a national war, in Colombia there are “innumerable territorial conflicts marked by violence,” noted Mayor Petro. In the absence of a national peace process, war has raged in many of the regions outside of the capital city of Bogota --the "territories," as they are called here, but it has affected the entire country in a variety of ways.

Many of the governors and mayors described the impact of the war on their communities. Some regions are grappling with ways to support the influx of internally displaced populations (IDPs) –which number some five million throughout the country--in their municipalities. Bogotá and Medellín are the recipients of the largest numbers of displaced persons from other regions. The former is host to 366,000 internally displaced people, including more than a thousand indigenous Embera who will return to their home communities on November 25 with the assistance of Bogota city officials. In other regions, violence is causing populations to abandon their territories. In many regions, communities are both receiving and producing IDPs.

Local authorities as well as the general citizenry have increasingly been caught in the middle of the war. The mayor of Florencia told how she was the victim of an attack that left her in a wheelchair for two years and on crutches for a third. Some 10,000 Colombians have been affected by land mines, which have been sown by government and insurgent forces alike. Others described how implementation of the land restitution law has created new security challenges throughout the country.

The mayor of Magdalena spoke of the lack of development options in the regions and the mandate for peace. “Without peace, there is no development,” he noted. A representative from Quibdó (Chocó) spoke of the role of young people in the conflict and their desire to participate in the construction of peace.

Regional Peace Initiatives

The drive for peace has been strong in the regions. (See my blog post, "Approaching a Tipping Point in Colombia"). The mayors of Valledupar and Caquetá underscore that a small minority wages war but the majority want peace. Congresswoman Angela María Robledo and Congressman Iván Cepeda, co-chairs of the House Peace Commission, described their plan for eight regional hearings to assemble inputs for the national peace process. Mayor Petro underscored the role of local leaders in implementing current land restitution laws, providing protection and reparations to victims, and carrying out future rural land reforms. Regional leaders must prepare themselves to implement the anticipated peace accords by activating local structures such as the constituent assemblies and peace councils and nurturing an environment for peace. Mayor Petro called on his colleagues to establish a "group of friends" to support the national peace process through local pacts and agreements in the territories.

All of the regional leaders seem eager to take advantage of the historic moment offered by peace talks to help their communities move toward recovery after decades of war. They urged the negotiating teams for Oslo and Havana to keep in mind regional needs; they plan to meet again next month in Florencia (Caquetá).