The FARC-EP Peace Delegation in Havana (Cuba) has published its first report on the status of the peace talks.

In the report, published on the Peace Delegation's webpage, the FARC-EP underlined that the report is presented to the country, as part of the commitment to transparency and constant information the guerrilla movement has taken with the people.

"In development of the guidelines of the commander of the FARC-EP, Timoleón Jiménez, we present the following first report on the status of the peace talks to the country. There are no restrictions on the discussion of the agreement", says the report.

"The president himself, in defense of the peace process, has raised the issue in various scenarios. And that's fine. Furthermore, no clause of the General Agreement provides that the parties must maintain confidentiality on the progress of the process.

The agreement says that the discussions of the Table will not be made ​​public, without referring to the issues agreed upon. That's why we have never objected or been bothered about reports given by the government to businessmen, the military, or the overall opinion" continues the report.

The lenghty document is published here in its integrity as it provides an important insight into the Cuban negotiations:

Given that the government has informed the public and the legislative and judicial branches about both the legal framework, as well as the referendum, the FARC feel free to express their opinion on these issues. We will responsibly do so, in order to give citizens the necessary elements to form a judgement, so that they continue to contribute with their initiatives to overcome the long conflict in Colombia.

Today, after fourteen rounds of exchanges in which the FARC-EP has put  about 200 minimum proposals on the Table to solve rural problems and Political Participation and citizenship. Although a little more than 25 pages of partial agreements have been made, the scope is modest. The recent national agrarian and popular strike corroborates the social dissatisfaction and discontent, which tells us we are right and expresses the correctness of the proposals we have taken to the Table for discussion.The 19 dead and 850 wounded, and the hundreds of detained and prosecuted registered during this strike, make it urgent to agree on sufficient guarantees for opposition for social organizations and movements that are now in the streets demanding their rights.

At the Table, there are two opposing visions, trying to find common ground. On the one hand, there is the neoliberal approach of the development of the country, which, held up by the government, prioritizes the interests of multinationals, and on the other side the focus of the insurgency, embodying the claims of the majority, which, for example, ask for a comprehensive rural reform, social justice and democracy in terms of peace with sovereignty.

In theory, regarding the first point of the agenda, we achieved a pact to formalize land ownership, with the government's commitment to award titles to all the farmers who are living and working on their lands, which is of utmost importance when you consider that over 48 percent of our farmers possess their lands in an informal situation. And regarding the construction processes of the Peasant Reserve Zones, their protagonists calculate that there are 9.5 million hectares involved. Moreover, there is a commitment of the government to give the land to the ones that don't have it, or to extend the property of those who don't have enough.We've also signed agreements on incentives for agricultural production and the economy of solidarity and cooperation, technical assistance, subsidies, loans, income generation, marketing and labor formalization.

On the other hand, the government made a commitment for the creation of a land fund, the resolution of conflicts about land-use, an agricultural border closure to protect the environment, an update of the cadastre, which allows to have a real view of the configuration of property to ensure its productive rearrangement, which should be socially and environmentally sustainable, and they have also pledged their word in the promotion of development projects, aimed at repairing the historic debt with the Colombian countryside and to overcome the huge gap between countryside and city.

We recognize the government's willingness to advance in the dialogues, and have faith that we will find solutions to key issues for rural transformation, which haven't been resolved yet. We refer to crucial issues such as the search for effective measures to overcome land concentration, the establishment of limits on foreign ownership of land, the definition of the amount of hectares to be distributed, restored and formalized, the disastrous energy and mining exploitation, the disadvantageous FTAs, territorial reorganization and other important issues like the funds for financing the agreement.

Aware of the caveats and the need to resolve them later, the peace delegations of the government and the insurgency valued the first partial agreement as positive, and thus informed the country and the world, and from the rounds initiated on June 11th, they started to address the second point of the agenda, referred to political and citizen participation.

From the events of citizen participation that have been carried out, emerged the proposals that the FARC has placed in the hands of the government for discussion; among them, the proposal for a National Constituent Assembly, which is a matter that will require a prior political agreement.

In an agreed manner, the peace delegations of the government and the FARC-EP have discussed in the last rounds about almost the entire Agenda, which has provided the Table of many instruments that will help move closer to an agreement for justice and reconciliation in Colombia.

Therefore, the delays that may have aroused by the circumstances of varying the order of discussion topics on the agenda, for the purpose of analyzing other issues of national interest, are not the responsibility of the FARC and in that sense cannot be taken - as has been done- as a factor to condemn us or urge us to speed up.

Apart from matters that belong to the issue of Political Participation, we have touched aspects related to the solution of the problem of illicit crops; on topics such as the legal framework for peace or the countersignature of the agreements. We have marked positions that make clear each party's views, trying to find approximations. Throughout these discussions we have specially referred to the subject of the victims of the confrontation, inquiring about the historical responsibility of those who generated and participated in this war that requires an act of contrition of everybody.

We'll make known some reflections on the momentous issues that have been discussed publicly with the counterpart:

On the so-called Legal Framework

In Colombia it has been officially declared that there is a conflict between two parties with responsibilities for each of them, but there is also the terrible circumstance that the conflict continues with the interference of U.S. military bases that trample our sovereignty. So it is required that any transitionality or rules for it, should be the product of an agreement, not of an imposition.

It should be noted that one-sidedness is useless, especially if you notice that the acceptance of responsibility for the conflict deprives the State of the necessary legitimacy to be a judge. You cannot be judge and party at the same time, especially when it comes to a State responsible of the facts, and even more, when the civil war persists without victor or vanquished. A peace process requires absolute legal sovereignty, without foreign interference that obstructs reconciliation.

About victims

It is about opening, in the Havana peace talks, the chapter that allows to establish the historical truth that led to more than sixty years of national bleeding, to identify the victims and their necessary repairs. All with the aim of highlighting the need for reparation, that should include an obligation for the parties of collective pardon, to the effect that after reaching the ultimate peace - in case it is reached-, we are all obliged to a "never again".

Accordingly, we proposed to immediately proceed with the integration of the commission to review and clarify the truth of the history of the Colombian internal conflict, consisting of national and foreign experts, to establish the truth of what happened during the two-party violence, the origin of the present conflict as a result of the fratricidal confrontation, the reasons for the emergence of the guerrilla and the unfolding, since then, of the internal armed social conflict.

We invited the entire country to a day of reflection and contrition, in which all those responsible for the armed social conflict make massive presence in every corner of the country. A day for the traditional parties and those who have eluded their responsibilities, to express themselves, the State, in head of the President and his ministers, echoing the statements of Dr. Juan Manuel Santos before the Constitutional Court, the heads of the security forces, the paramilitaries from wherever they are, the heads of the other constituted bodies; the ones who were commanders of the rebel forces in retreat today, the former presidents and ex-commanders of forces, trades and businessmen, the media, foreign powers that have supported governments in the war against the people, and the church of the regime.

On that day that is to be chosen for the intended purposes, the insurgency will be equally manifesting itself from every corner of Colombia.

On the government's referendum proposal

At the Table, the principle of equality must prevail at a time when the fate of the supreme good of peace is at stake. It is with the help of the people through reliable mechanisms, preventing powers to be transferred to one single person, or to doubtful institutions, which must endorse the agreements.

Colombians must seek a body with real powers to deal with justice reform, with the organizational independence of the jurisdiction, with the territorial reorganization, with the creation of an independent electoral body. An entity that resolves the legal safety issue, required by the future of peace.

Peace Delegation FARC-EP