“There has not been a peace process," Uribe tells U.N. chief

Prompted by U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres’ visit to Colombia this week -- marking the fifth anniversary of the signing of the Final Peace Agreement between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) – former Colombian President Alvaro Uribe wrote a letter to the U.N. chief expressing his extreme disappointment in the outcome of the peace process.

In the letter, Uribe affirms categorically that, “there has not been a peace process.”

When referring to the Aug. 2016 peace agreement between then-president Juan Manuel Santos and former FARC leader Timoleon “Timochenko” Jimenez in Havana, Uribe noted that both national and international law was fractured “by giving total impunity and political eligibility to people responsible for atrocious crimes, including the kidnapping and rape of minors."

In total, 26 points were addressed in the letter ranging from constitutional concerns to concerns with continued narcotrafficking in previous guerrilla strongholds. Furthermore, Uribe expressed outrage surrounding issues of impunity and international law.

“In terms of impunity, Colombia broke away from the rule of law of western democracies that require the imprisonment and political non-eligibility of those responsible for atrocious crimes,” he wrote.

Uribe has been a vocal opponent of peace with the terrorist organization, wrote an open letter to the U.S. congress in 2017 expressing his disapproval of the process. It went to every U.S. congressional office, as well as to Washington’s community of analysts, advocates and donors who work on Colombia, WOLA reported.

Nevertheless, the signing of the peace agreements has not brought peace to Colombia and frustrated former FARC guerrillas have once again taken up arms.

In the absence of FARC, a power vacuum has emerged in rural Colombia and the government has been largely unable to fill it. Areas formerly controlled by FARC have been infiltrated by guerrilla groups like the EPL and the ELN – both of which operate out of Venezuela and projects into Colombia through the Catatumbo region.