After multiple failed attempts at peace agreements and negotiations by many governments, the most intriguing peace proposal this year does not come from a group of politicians in Bogotá, nor does it come from one of the armed groups. Rather, it comes from a group of small-scale farmers, those most affected by the war, who are part of the Peasant Farmer Association of the Cimitarra River Valley (ACVC). From the ACVC, peace can only be achieved when all the affected communities and groups propose their own solutions. Because as the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) recognises in a 2003 investigation: while the conflict has affected the rural “periphery”, the responsibility to search for a solution has always come from the interior, an elite group of politicians who try to resolve the conflict by way of military victories and negotiations with armed actors.[1]

Peace, as it is understood by the ACVC, is not something that can be awarded by a group of politicians, rather it is a participatory process of all of society, especially the groups most affected. The National Convention of Small Farmer Communities, Afro-descendents and the Indigenous for Land and Peace in Colombia from 12 to 15 August 2011 in Barrancabermeja (Santander) is a proposal to look for solutions to the conflict from below, and not from above.

Community leaders talk about peace

Eustaquio Polo Rivera, Community Leader, Curbaradó Humanitarian Zones

Ligia María Chaverra, Community Leader, Curbaradó Humanitarian Zones

Andrés Gil, Spokesperson for the ACVC

Mario Martínez, President of the ACVC

Yolanda Becerra, Grassroots Women’s Organisation