- Title: Mediator Henry Acosta paved the way for Colombia´s peace deal
- Date: 22nd September 2016
- Summary: CALI, COLOMBIA (SEPTEMBER 17, 2016) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) MEDIATOR BETWEEN REVOLUTIONARY ARMED FORCES OF COLOMBIA AND GOVERNMENT NEGOTIATORS, HENRY ACOSTA, SAYING: "Tell them yes, that I am interested in meeting and that I delegate Frank Pearl and Enrique Santos, and that yes, Pablo Catatumbo and Alfonso Cano will go to the meeting with the two of them, do it carefully, ´ President Santos said, ´I will go too´."
- Embargoed: 7th October 2016 19:23
- Keywords: Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia FARC Henry Acosta peace mediation
- Location: URIBE MOUNTAINS, CALI, SABANAS DEL YARI AND CAUCA, COLOMBIA; LA HABANA, CUBA; HURDAL, NORWAY
- City: URIBE MOUNTAINS, CALI, SABANAS DEL YARI AND CAUCA, COLOMBIA; LA HABANA, CUBA; HURDAL, NORWAY
- Country: Colombia
- Topics: Conflicts/War/Peace,Military Conflicts
- Reuters ID: LVA00350NFX3B
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text:EDIT CONTAINS VIDEO THAT WAS ORIGINALLY 4:3
For more than a decade, Henry Acosta criss-crossed Colombia's mountains and jungles on foot and mule, fording rivers and evading military intelligence on a top secret mission to promote peace between the government and Marxist rebels.
There had been several attempts before, in the 1980s and 1990s, but each one ended in failure, with the war bloodier and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) stronger.
An economist and former United Nations worker, Acosta's chance meeting with a top FARC commander in 1998 helped pave the way for this year's pact to end a half century conflict that has killed 220,000 people.
Peace between Latin America's oldest guerrilla army and President Juan Manuel Santos's government will be signed on Monday after four years of talks in Havana. The final hurdle is a plebiscite on Oct. 2.
Travelling back and forth between Colombia and Cuba, Acosta had the ear of both Santos and FARC leaders. In 2013, he even helped persuade Santos to remain at the negotiating table when the FARC tried to deviate from the official agenda, a moment he described as a real crisis, adding that Santos' advisers had told him to walk away.
His odyssey began 18 years ago when his truck was stopped by FARC fighters as he headed along a dirt track in western Valle del Cauca province to inspect agriculture projects on behalf of some local businessmen.
The rebels took Acosta to their commander Pablo Catatumbo, to explain his presence in guerrilla territory. Instead of taking him hostage, as the FARC frequently did, Catatumbo spent hours talking politics and current affairs with him.
"That is where a very long conversation began throughout the whole day. I ended up staying until the next day because it was very late at night. I no longer needed to go to the project as it was and came back, and that is the moment when it all started," 67-year-old Acosta told Reuters.
"What would I have imagined? I had never seen the FARC, I came across them in a checkpoint going into Santa Lucia, no, I never imagined this. I kept speaking to him because he said to me to keep coming back and to bring him books so that we could speak about history, politics and the rural customs," he added.
Acosta's dealings with the FARC were not always easy and his role as a mediator - visiting the camps dozens of times - began in difficult circumstances.
In 2002, the FARC kidnapped 12 lawmakers from Cali, including the son of a close friend.
Acosta sought to intervene for his friend and negotiate their release with Catatumbo. But the FARC had embarked on a policy of taking high-profile captives for bargaining chips and refused to release them.
Years later, 11 of the lawmakers, including his friend's son, were shot dead by the FARC.
But his intervention triggered interest from then President Alvaro Uribe, who personally asked Acosta to take a secret message to Catatumbo and then FARC leader Alfonso Cano.
The hardline Uribe, whose eight-year military offensive debilitated the rebels, was not interested in negotiations: he wanted surrender.
While Uribe's efforts - known to only a few of his inner circle - ended when he left office in 2010, Acosta wrote to President Juan Manuel Santos and asked him to keep the possibility of peace alive - a proposal Santos accepted.
"´Tell them yes, that I am interested in meeting and that I delegate Frank Pearl and Enrique Santos, and that yes, Pablo Catatumbo and Alfonso Cano will go to the meeting with the two of them, do it carefully,´ President Santos said, ´I will go too´," Acosta recounted.
"The FARC said very quickly on October 15, ´Yes, we accept´, that was one of the happiest days of my life," he added.
Secret meetings took place with FARC leader Cano. But in November 2011, he was killed in an air raid.
Acosta, a jovial and bespectacled man whose key role was confirmed by the government's peace commissioner Sergio Jaramillo, was convinced it was over and negotiations would be scrapped. Two days later, however, he was invited to meet the FARC close to where Cano died.
As helicopters flew above the bomb site, a message from Catatumbo was relayed to him: "Tell the president everything we have discussed stands, this does not affect the dialogue." Acosta telephoned Santos.
The peace plan was revealed in August 2012 and tricky negotiations concluded on Aug. 24 with a final accord.
Reflecting on the process at the FARC´s Tenth Conference and last as an armed contingent, FARC negotiator, Rodrigo Granda, stressed Acosta´s significance.
"He (Henry Acosta) was a very important facilitator under (President) Alvaro Uribe and then during the talks with President Juan Manuel Santos. He has been an important, vital person in this process and continues to carry out responsibilities assigned to him by the president," said Granda. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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