TEHRAN, Jul 14 - Maria del Pilar Hurtado's son screamed in anguish at the sight of his mother's dead body on a dirt road in the poor community in northern Colombia the family called home.
TEHRAN, Young Journalists Club (YJC) - He kicked his feet on the ground and grasped his face in his hands. Passersby stopped and watched the boy's agonizing grief but did little to console him.
The wrenching scene was caught on a cellphone camera and quickly made headlines around Colombia in June. For many, the social leader's violent death was another painstaking reminder that in numerous parts of the South American nation peace remains elusive.
Now the United Nations Security Council is getting a firsthand look at the challenges of peace nearly three years into Colombia's historic accord with leftist rebels as they visit Friday with the nation's president, politicians and former rebels at a time of mounting concern.
The council ambassadors kicked off their trip by expressing their steadfast support for the accord ending Latin America's longest-running conflict, even as observers warn that implementation needs to move more quickly to avoid more anguishing scenes of death.
Despite the concerns, Peruvian Ambassador Gustavo Meza Cuadra maintained that the accord, "Continues to be an example not just for Latin America but the entire world."
President Ivan Duque, elected last year on a platform promising to change key aspects of the accord, said his administration stands committed to helping ex-combatants who genuinely want to leave a life of violence behind but won't tolerate those involved in new crimes.
"We should think big and look to the future," he said following a breakfast with the Security Council. "And construct a peace where the law is the chief guarantor."
Colombia's government signed the accord with members of the former Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia in 2016 after four years of negotiations in Cuba. Since then, most of the 13,000 ex-combatants have begun the transition to civilian life.
Thousands of weapons used in more than five decades of conflict have been melted down and made into a monument in Bogota. The former rebels have formed a political party and now have congress leaders and senators.
Despite those important advances, analysts are concerned that Colombia's government hasn't done enough to establish a presence in vast remote stretches once controlled by rebels and now in the hands of competing illegal armed groups involved in the drug trade.
Source: AP
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