Source: Granma
August 28 2017
by International news staff | informacion@granma.cu
As a further step in the Colombian peace process, the founding congress of the political party that will replace the FARC-EP began August 27 2017
Photo: Twitter
BOGOTÁ.–The leader of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People’s Army (FARC-EP), Timoleón Jiménez, inaugurated the founding Congress of the political party that will replace this force, on Sunday, August 27, under the slogan “For a Transitional Government for Reconciliation and Peace.”
The event is being held in the Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada Convention Center, in the Colombian capital, with the participation of 1,100 delegates and 200 guests from various sectors of Colombian society.
The opening remarks of the Congress were offered by Alberto Anaya, secretary general of the Mexican Workers’ Party, who welcomed the holding of such an event on behalf of delegates of Latin American leftist organizations.
Fighting in conditions of peace
Anaya noted that after so many decades of struggle, the FARC-EP will continue to fight for its people, but now in the everyday democratic political battle, in conditions of peace.
This first day of the Congress was dedicated to messages of support from guest Colombian and international personalities.
The Congress will continue to session today, in several working commissions, as Andres París, a member of the FARC-EP leadership, told Prensa Latina.
The executive board of this first Congress for the integration of the insurgent force into civilian life is headed by Jiménez, along with commanders Iván Márquez, Solis Almeida and Joaquin Gómez, as well as three women’s representatives of the FARC-EP high command.
The Congress must agree on the name of the new political party to be formed before it concludes on September 1, which according to Márquez, a member of the FARC-EP Secretariat, could be called the Alternative Revolutionary Force of Colombia.
The event will see the election of the party leadership, the approval of its lines of action, and the appointment of the ten delegates who will occupy seats in the Congress of the Republic, five in each chamber, as outlined in the Peace Agreement signed with the Colombian government at the end of 2016 in Havana, after more than four years of talks.
The Congress will conclude on September 1 with a mass act in the central Plaza Bolívar of the Colombian capital.
The peace process underway has put an end to more than five decades of internal armed conflict in Colombia, which have resulted in 5.7 million displaced persons, 220,000 dead and more than 25,000 disappeared.
JSC: Jamaicans in Solidarity with Cuba 