Humanitarian Exchange - Manos Por La Paz

Manos Por La Paz

A little know fact which could clearly hamper the possibility of the humanitarian agreement is that most FARC members currently held in Colombian prisons would rather demobilize and reintegrate back into Colombian society than rearm and go back to FARC. In order to advance their cause, they created a non-governmental organization called Manos por la Paz (www.manosporlapaz.org) which is trying to advance this goal with the Colombian government.

The government is currently offering a reintegration process which counts with over 40,000 persons demobilized from Colombia's various illegally armed groups, over 10,000 of which come from FARC. Furthermore, since January 2008 an average of almost 300 FARC combatants per month are abandoning FARC and entering the demobilization process out of their own will and volition. If this rate of desertion is maintained, by yearend 2009 it is estimated that no more than 1,000 - 1,500 armed persons will remain in FARC.

What Manos is trying to do is to get its members out of Colombian prisons so that they may join their comrades in the reintegration process. More importantly, they are standing up to FARC because they feel that they should be asked if they want to return to that organization or whether they want to reenter normal life. No one seems to be asking them what they want.