Renewed wave of FARC violence puts Colombia peace negotiations in peril

Following months of negotiations, ongoing peace talks between the Colombian government and FARC militia commanders are teetering on the precipice of failure following a renewed wave of attacks by militia insurgents over the past several weeks.

The FARC—as well as its smaller associate, the ELN (National Liberation Army) — has carried out a series of well-organized attacks on important infrastructure projects across the country. In reaction to the unexpected onslaught, President Juan Manuel Santos has condemned the militia’s actions while likening them to “playing with fire.”

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The attacks—which have taken place all over the South American nation—have augmented in scale since their commencement, ultimately resulting in this week’s power plant attack in the Pacific coast city of Buenaventura. The bombing—which was carried out on Monday and took out one of the city’s major power generators—has left up to 400,000 residents of the country’s second-largest port city without electricity. Meanwhile, President Santos has called an emergency security summit with top military officials in order to discuss alternatives in case the ongoing negotiations fall through.

“From water supplies in remote regions to oil pipelines and electricity grids, the FARC has executed a series of attacks recently on these so-called soft targets, which rarely cause bloodshed but are costly in other ways,” reported Dan Molinski of The Wall Street Journal .

“For many residents of Buenaventura, which are already struggling with soaring unemployment and a murder rate three times that of the capital, Bogotá, the power outage only makes things worse.”

The attacks have even reached the capital of the country, where on Tuesday the ELN detonated several small explosives that damaged a highway crossing. In light of the attacks, the Santos administration—it recently won a presidential election based mostly on the promise that negotiations would be completed while bringing peace to war-torn Colombia for the first time in nearly50 years—has been dealt a major blow as the prospects of renewed warfare suddenly seem increasingly likely.

The months-long negotiations—which are taking place in Havana—center on five agenda points ranging from political participatory rights to ceasefire stipulations. As Peter Murphy of Reuters explains, “The [negotiators] have so far reached agreement on three of the five points on the agenda – land reform, the rebels’ participation in politics, and withdrawal from the drugs trade. A framework for ending the conflict and victim compensation are the remaining items to be agreed upon.”