Philosophical Approaches to Understanding the Implementation of Peace from a FARC Book at FilBo

“To build a peace that is stable and lasting”, that was the request of Jorge Suárez, recognized as the son of alias 'Mono Jojoy' and now an activist and advocate for the implementation of the Peace Accords signed between the national government and the extinct FARC guerrilla, now turned into a political party.

Just the transition from arms to struggle since the Congress of the Republic, through words, is one of the main themes of the digital book FARC Ep: from armed arm to political arm - Comunes, in which, in addition to deep reflections on the progress made in the implementation of the final agreement, several are proposed philosophical approaches to the transition that the current community has had, which is headed by former leaders of the guerrilla group.

At first it seems complex but in reality it is not. To get to the core of the epistemological gatherings of the armed group, focusing on different authors, it is necessary to go through several themes, and one of them is precisely the first chapter of the book, focusing on the delegitimization of alternatives for social change in Colombia based on historical events such as the Cold War.

What does this fact have in common with the Colombian internal conflict and the peace alternatives created and implemented? According to the research team responsible for nurturing the book that was presented at the Bogotá International Book Fair, FilBo, that in both events the concept of 'internal enemy' was launched, which in this country has transcended the stigmatization of the most recent demonstrations and days of social protests.

You may be interested in: 'Between dreams, absences and resistances': the compendium of chronicles of LGBTIQ+ victims of the conflict that is now in the FilBo

“We see that social struggle has become stigmatized in the last 20 or 30 years (...) the Castrochavista discourse was a consolidation of a discourse that was also empowered by the construction of the internal enemy; later, after the signing of the peace treaties, there was supposedly talk of a dominance of the FARC in Congress, and new concepts of domination emerge such as 'those or those that are part of the Sao Paulo Forum',” said panelist Pablo García, adding that there is a game of misinformation regarding social struggles.

Quoting Adam Curtis, García refers to 'Hypernormalization', a 2016 film where he mentions the concept of Postpolitics, understood as the political exercise based on spectacle, emphasizing that it is currently reflected in the “circus of politics in Colombia”, beyond electoral periods.

The dialectical game and other ways of building the internal enemy in Colombia

A specific example given by Garcia is that of 'Social forgiveness', which has generated controversy around the presidential candidate, Gustavo Petro, because it generated a dialectical game and even a dichotomy that is fueled by the discourse itself. In that order, and according to Heidegger, the book is an opening to the aforementioned effect that “allows us to see beyond not only academic margins, but also social, territorial and cultural margins. That other way of building peace beyond that dichotomy.”

Finally, and with regard to the elaboration of literary work, he points out several elements to be taken into account in order to fully implement the Peace Agreement, one of them being the recognition of the high illiteracy rate of ex-combatants - 80% according to a study by the National University - taking as examples initiatives such as 'I know that I can ', from Mexico, and the traveling teachers of Cuba - and whose idea of José Martí materializes in the revolution - to educate the reinserted.

All these exercises are found in the text published by the Quillango publishing house, in collaboration with the National Open and Distance University and under the support of figures such as Jorge Suárez who, under their contributions, broaden a view on the need to implement the agreements with urgency.

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