We asked the people we accompany about the peace agreement, how they think it will change the situation in Colombia, what their expectations and hopes are once peace is signed with the FARC, and what the risks are that exist in the regions.

Julia Adriana Figueroa Cortes, Luís Carlos Pérez Lawyers’ Collective

The day of the signing must be “supremely” visible, so the world does not doubt that this is what Colombia needs.  It should be celebrated, but it is also the beginning of a great challenge.  We must make the most of the media’s attention to say what we want as a people, the support and commitment of a people without weapons.  The expectation is that the signature will be the moment to make the territories speak out, and guarantee that the peace has the budget it needs.

With human rights violations, we will continue using the same working practices, but we should be careful because a lot of violations will become classified as common crimes “there are no more false positives because there is no conflict”.  This could pervert everything and make advocacy impossible.

Rommel Duran, ‘Pueblos’ Legal Team

It will not change. In practice, nothing will change, just the silencing of one of the armed actors’ guns. The political, economic and social structure will stay the same.

The State does not have the capacity to reach certain areas, and what is more, the paramilitaries have already said in leaflets that when the peace comes they will capture the areas that were the FARC’s control.

It is peace on a national level, but there has been a failure to educate about peace, it has all been aimed at the TV and computers; very urban; at the same time there is a lot of disinformation, people are unclear about what has been agreed, and in the cities people are in another world, they are not interested because it doesn’t affect them.

Peace is not just a signature. There has to be a change in counterinsurgency policy, the logic of the internal enemy still prevails; and the media continues to fragment the population.  People are still hungry and there is unemployment.