Opposition in Colombia

I'm posting an article from the insightful Razon Publica blog. It discusses the Interamerican Human Rights Court ruling charging Colombia for the murder of an opposition party senator in 1994. His name was Manuel Cepeda, and he was a member of the Union Patriotica party, a party formed in the late 80s from certain segments of the FARC guerrilla movement that wanted peace and legitimate political participation. All the members of this party, all of them, were hunted down and executed. We're talking thousands of people. Cepeda was one of the last surviving UP senators, but a hit squad finally caught up to him in 1994.

The article asserts that the Colombia State, in its Constitution as well as its international agreements, is bound by law to protect its citizens from crime, to prosecute criminals, and above all not to commit crimes itself. The Interamerican Court has ruled that the Colombian government was responsible for a successful plot against Cepeda's life, and then failed to prosecute the actors immediately responsible.

The Court demands a satisfactory investigation into Cepeda's murder, protection and reparations for the victim's family, a recognition by the Colombian government of its guilt in the matter, and the establishment of a journalism scholarship in Cepeda's name.

The article points out that this case is a reminder of how important it is for the government to respect the voices of the opposition. In the case of the UP party, the State created an environment of hostility, such that even where government actors were not directly involved in the executions of UP members, the government can be held responsible for its expressed hostility to politicians, thinkers, and journalists of the opposition.

This point is very pertinent today, as our incoming president, Santos, consolidates what he calls a strategy of national unity. As of yet, all the major parties but two have officially signed onto the national unity idea, and of the two remaining opposition parties, one is not very critical of the government, and the other's presidential candidate has tried to snuggle up to Santos as well. The idea of national unity sounds nice, but what it means on the ground is that the opposition can be demonized as an aberration, a group of contrary people who don't want to contribute to the nation, even as traitors to the motherland. This monolithic agglomeration doesn't believe that diversity and opposition are important to a democracy. So in such a national unity government the opposition finds itself with less and less space to operate.