The Colombian peace process: Challenges to implementation and the role of business in the post-conflict

After more than 50 years of armed conflict, the Colombian government and the largest and oldest guerrilla group in Latin America, the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC) finally struck a peace deal at the end of 2016 that formally ended the civil war. The agreement will necessitate the FARC’s transition into a legitimate political party. Undoubtedly, this will be a complicated process requiring participation from every sector of Colombian society – particularly the private sector, because it will bear much of the financial burden in the post-conflict period.

The role of the private sector in the Colombian post-conflict was precisely the focus of an event hosted by the MacMillan Center on January 18. (watch video) The keynote speaker, Sergio Jaramillo, High Commissioner for Peace for the Presidency of Colombia, addressed the current state of the peace process and the most salient challenges for its successful execution. Jaramillo, chief architect of the process with the FARC, has worked on numerous other peace negotiations in Colombia’s recent history. “You need to have a vision of peace that is truly bottom up and that tries to change the vicious circle of violence that the people in the country are immersed in, and that leads to a virtuous cycle of true institutional strengthening, and to the protection of people’s rights, which is ultimately what this process is about,” asserted Jaramillo.

After his thoughtful and articulate speech, he entertained questions from Yale students. When asked what features of the Colombian process he thought could be extrapolated and to be used in similar peace negotiations in other countries, Jaramillo answered, “that is, first of all, a very large question, and second, one that one must answer with a great deal of humility since we still have to see how things work out here [in Colombia].” However, he highlighted, “a critical piece was the idea of doing secret negotiations before to provide a framework so that everyone knew what the process was about.”

Jaramillo’s keynote lecture was followed by a panel discussion with prominent Colombian business leaders: Carlos Enrique Cavelier, CEO of Alquería, a major dairy producer; Antonio Celia, CEO of Promigas, a natural gas company responsible for distributing half of the natural gas in the country; and Sylvia Escovar, CEO of Terpel, an oil and gas company that is the third largest corporation in Colombia. Moderated by Ana María Ibáñez, Rice Visiting Professor and Senior Fellow at the MacMillan Center and former Dean of Economics in Colombia’s Universidad de los Andes, the business executives were asked how the private sector could contribute to tackling the challenges outlined by the High Commissioner. Each outlined the different social projects their companies are undertaking in vulnerable rural areas. Escovar emphasized the role of education in advancing the futures of underprivileged families. Cavelier discussed the importance of infrastructure development throughout Colombia, but particularly in rural areas. Antonio Celia, CEO of Promigas, publicly announced the creation of a new committee of private sector representatives with governmental approval – the Council for Sustainable Peace – that will oversee the implementation of the peace accords.

For the last portion of the event, Maria Victoria Llorente, Executive Director of Fundación Ideas para la Paz (FIP), and Christo Nel, Director of The Village Leadership Consulting, commented on the remarks made by Colombian business leaders. Llorente made a “call for action” for the private sector to become more engaged and to lead the country in the dawning stages of post-conflict, given that historically the private sector has been hesitant and sometimes uncooperative toward similar peace negotiations. Nel, who led conversations in South Africa between top CEOs and the incoming African National Congress at the end of apartheid, provided an interesting comparison between the two countries’ transitions. Nel concluded by saying, “the key thing here with the threshold Colombia has crossed, the message that I would take out of my own country, is that we have lost 20 years of potential progress because we transformed the political system with great inputs from business… but business and government didn’t engage adequately to create a socioeconomic structure which would be able to support our young democracy.” His call for continued involvement highlighted the dangers of losing the momentum, and resonated deeply with the business leaders. As Colombia stands at a decisive moment in its history, the private sector must unite in order to move the country forward and forge an enduring peace.

Written by Nicolas Jimenez, Class of 2019 and an Ethics, Politics, and Economics major.