In August 1994, Iván Cepeda’s father was murdered on the streets of Bogotá. Manuel Cepeda was a communist and congressman for the Patriotic Union party, which was targeted by paramilitaries, who executed more than 4,000 members of the party, including presidential candidates, congressmen, mayors and militants.
Today, Cepeda says that the election of Gustavo Petro, this Sunday (19), is a “great sign of change in a country that until yesterday was killing its progressive leaders.” Senator for the Alternative Democratic Pole and member of the Pacto Histórico coalition, he reinforces that the new government will change the economic structure, privilege the environmental issue and should extend the concept of restorative justice to pacify the country.
Cepeda received the Sheet in his apartment in the Colombian capital.
Petro’s administration will be Colombia’s first leftist government. Why has this never happened before? The main reason is that there was a process of political violence against the left. Petro’s election is a great sign of change in a country that until yesterday was killing its progressive leaders. They tried to erase us from the political map, with thousands of people murdered. Today, murder is no longer used as it used to be, but when someone with a chance comes along, they try to morally squander him. When people ask me if change is real in Colombia, I say that just the fact that Petro made it to the second round alive demonstrates it. What about winning? This is already a country in transformation.
In light of what happened to your father, how do you see this shift in acceptance from the left? I think he would be happy and I feel that I am fulfilling my role by participating in this process. Finally, a democratic left came to power without being brutally repressed. I wish he could see this. Petro’s election is the result of enormous struggles that were also fought by historically despised minorities.
At first, Petro will not have a majority in Congress. How do you see it? With optimism. For now, we own about 30% of the House, but we didn’t invent the name Pacto Histórico for marketing purposes. The idea is to reach a consensus with all the forces, including uribismo. The reforms we want are profound, changes that point to the transformation of Colombia into a liberal democracy with a minimal basis for social justice. Therefore, there are no themes or alliances that I consider impossible to debate and form. There may be friction in the fact that we are going to have a more demanding policy in relation to a sector that has historically enjoyed great benefits, but we believe in consensus.
How do you see Colombia’s relationship with Brazil? Are there any proposals for dialogue to deal with the preservation of the Amazon? The environmental issue is at the heart of our proposals, which is why we propose the transition from an extractive model to a productive one. We want to install a model of environmental justice, to deal with crimes committed against nature, and we will integrate communities in decision-making processes, because indigenous people are guardians of nature. The tragedy that occurred in Brazil with the murder of journalist Dom Phillips and indigenist Bruno Pereira occurs here all the time.
We are among the countries that kill the most environmental defenders. It has to do with the fact that illegal mining, fishing and smuggling crimes, as well as drug trafficking, are the same on both sides of the border. It would be important for Brazil and Colombia to join forces to save the Amazon.
Are there contacts between Petro and Lula? We hope Lula wins in Brazil. There is dialogue with the PT at different levels, we want a regional integration plan, it is strategic, basic, not only because we have borders with Brazil. There are topics that we want to deepen with countries in the region, with Mexico on drug trafficking, with Argentina on financial crimes and with Brazil on climate change and the Amazon. With Venezuela, too, to establish diplomatic and border relations.
The Special Justice for Peace (JEP), court in which crimes committed during the war with the FARC are being tried [Forças Armadas Revolucionárias da Colômbia], will release its first sentences soon. Do you believe that this restorative justice, without prison sentences, is a way of pacifying the country in a general? This mechanism will allow us to have justice and reparation in a different way than has been done until now. There have been seven decades of violence and more than nine million victims among all conflicts. It is necessary to formulate an alternative mechanism, and this has been successful with regard to the FARC. [Forças Armadas Revolucionárias da Colômbia]. It can indeed be a model to be applied to other conflicts we are experiencing, as well as the fight against organized crime.
The model of arresting drug lords, used for decades, did not work. We have seen this from Pablo Escobar until recently with [o líder do Clã do Golfo Dario] Othniel. The day after they leave the scene, there is already another leader in place, and the flow of drug trafficking continues the same. To pacify the country, we can no longer use punitive or warlike measures, we must bet on social transformation and the renewal of the economy in the countryside. We will also start the discussion of marijuana legalization.
How will the Petro government stand in relation to the US? We want a constructive relationship with the US. One of the fundamental themes is the economic one. With regard to foreign investment, we are not going to end the presence of foreign capital, but we want to re-discuss the relationship and conditions of free trade treaties from the environmental and indigenous communities’ point of view.
Mr. was the protagonist in the case in which former president Álvaro Uribe responds to a lawsuit. In this election, Uribe was silent. Is uribism over? We gave Uribe a hard defeat. His project was a radical authoritarian transformation of Colombia, something he failed to achieve. So much so that, in these elections, his bench in Congress has decreased a lot. Uribe was silent, but he tried to act behind the scenes for Rodolfo Hernández’s victory. I think he feels that his figure is starting to become toxic to the country, hence this change in strategy. The defeats that uribismo suffered are important, but they do not mean that uribismo disappeared — nor that the extreme right ended up in Colombia.
x-ray | Ivan Cepeda, 59
Senator for the Alternative Democratic Pole, he participated in the negotiations between the State and the FARC, he is a spokesperson for the Movement of Victims of State Crimes, the main organization for families of victims of the conflict in the country, and the author of books such as “Duelo, Memoria, Reparación ” and “Por las Sendas del Ubérrimo”.
