We celebrate this anniversary at a crucial point for the life of our nation, when we stand at the threshold of reaching a definitive peace agreement with the national government. After five decades and two years since war begun, finally reason seems to impose itself on the belligerent moods that unlashed the tragedy.

The peasants integrating the agrarian movement in Marquetalia, in the south of the department of Colima, knowing before hand about the huge military operation which was coming against them, wrote dozens of letters to the Congress of the Republic, the churches, political parties, companies, national and foreign personalities, calling on them to stop the decision that will condemn them to the loss of their tranquility, their families, goods, jobs, their life.

They were asking that the Colombian government would give them support, roads, credits, schools, health centres, guarantees to enable them to make politics, instead of bullets and bombs, troops and planes. They were not asking for a huge amount of money, nor for rights that were not recognised in the Constitution and the laws. However the voice of those who called them bandits and wanted their annihilation, accusing them to have build and Independent Republic, prevailed.

After the community general assembly in which it was decided that the families settled in the region would leave with the little they could take with them, in a painful exodus that was repeating itself after many years of violence. Forty-eight peasants, men and women, decided to stay there, badly armed and alone against the world, to wait for the aggressors and fight them in an unequal resistance they swore would end up changing the face of Colombia.

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The National Army occupied and rose the flag on the very place where, before being destroyed by bombs, existed the old farm of Marquetalia. However that bunch of men and women survived and converted themselves in an invincible guerrilla that was spreading its influence over the whole territory of Colombia. The just cause their weapons represented have found an eco in thousands of Colombians that day after day were supporting it and joining its ranks.

The Colombian armed forces, constantly advised by the Pentagon, had to resolve to every war tactic in a desperate effort to annihilate the growing struggle. Instigated by the national security doctrine inspiring its actions, and trained by Escuela de las Americas, they opted to consider as the enemy within, all those nonconforming reclaiming their rights in the political and social struggle arena.

The conflict became the perfect excuse for the regime to persecute trade unions and the peasants, indigenous, afros, workers, popular, social, democratic and opposition movements, sinking the country in a massive dirty war that included selective crime and massacre, disappearances, torture, forced displacement, paramilitarism, exile, threats, judicial frame-ups, prison and terror.

Death, pain, tears and fear hunted the country for decades, opposing the guerrilla call for a political solution to put an end to the conflict in a civilised manner. Thousands of children of the nation and the people saw their lives brought to an end or severed its members, they were torned to pieces by illness or hunger in the jungles, or died on the hand of official agents or paramilitary groups in an endless tragedy.

Bounties worth millions were offered for the heads of the rebel leaders and many of them were killed in a savage way, always with the approval of mainstream media and those who advocated terror as the only exit. Despite all that, every day young people, both males and females, were joining the guerrilla, smiling and with good will, to replace the dead comrades, and warm their spirit in the heat of the struggle. Both the Army and the Police, as well as their budget, were uselessly boasted, in a mad race.

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It would have been more humane and cheap to talk in order to end the painful drama of the nation. But always interests and tempers were interposed to stop or sabotage. However, after half a century of horrors, the Colombian government and the FARC-EP in Havana stand for a Final Peace Agreement, still persist in the country leaders and proselytize betting on death, calling for more bombings and inciting the population to persist in a war with no future.

The FARC-EP, with the authority given to us by our long resistance and the fact of having survived to defend our truths, firmly believe that at this point in time the whole of Colombia should join the beautiful dream of peace and reconciliation. Never before the government and the guerrilla have been so close to the signature of a bilateral and permanent ceasefire and end of hostilities as we are now. This means that the happy smile of future generations is in our hands.

We face the challenge and commitment to build a different country all together, a country in which the well being of all human beings would be above any crave for profit, in which natural and common resources would be at the service of the general development, taking good care to not hurt life. A country in which opportunities for the disadvantaged are real. A country in which people would go back to die because of old age and not violence. A country in which law and justice prevail.

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The agreements reached so far at the Negotiations Table are the keys of a better future for Colombia. The countryside must be converted into an important economic engine ensuring alimentation for the nation. Illicit crops and the need to resort to them must be put behind us. Victims will see their rights satisfied and truth and justice will be established after the dark night of war. Full democracy must be a fact on national soil.

It is with these purposes that we have talked over five years of dialogues and the formulas to ensure them are ready. It is true that some important aspects are still to be agreed, but we dream optimistically, seeing that every day more citizens join in the effort for peace, that the two parties will soon end up finding conciliatory positions. The final definition is to be found on the near horizon of some weeks or months. No human power can prevent that.

After fifty-two years of confrontation, the FARC-EP will become a legal and disarmed political movement in a country where tolerance and guarantees for the political opponent must be full. The sinister image of political discrimination will be a thing of the past. We will join our voices and efforts to all of those who dream with a just and sovereign nation, in order to be part of the unstoppable torrent that will make Colombia an example for America and the world.

We swore we’ll overcome… and we’ll overcome!

Central High Command of the National Secretariat of the FARC-EP

May 27, 2016

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