In its daily newsletter the FARC peace delegation in Havana (Cuba) said on Monday night that Jesús Santrich, spokesman of the Peace Delegation of the FARC-EP, read the daily press release. The document consisted of ten sub-points of the second point on political participation. The second proposal of the Ten Minimum Proposals for political participation is called full guarantees for political and social opposition and the right to be government.

The sub points as reported by the FARC newsletter article are as follows:

1. Issuance of the Statute of Political and Social opposition. As the social and political opposition are a pillar of democracy, their rights should be expressed in a Statute of Political and Social opposition, which, among other issues, should mention the following: the right to participate in political power, the right to found parties and political movements without any restrictions, freedom of expression and dissent, to political pluralism and tolerance, to protest, to the need for a political culture of peaceful solutions for conflicts and the State´s duty to guarantee political, open dialogue with its opponents.  
2. Special recognition of the political and social opposition and the right to govern. The concept opposition has to be understood as any dissent or critics on the government policies, through the political system or through protests and mass mobilization. The exercise of opposition is a fundamental political right and implies the possibility to propose alternative policies or to demand a reorientation of the government’s policies. The political parties and political and social movements who want to declare themselves officially opposition will be registered in the National Electoral Council, which is all they need to receive efficient guarantees.

3. Full guarantees for the exercise of political and social opposition.  Apart from the security guarantees, free access to all kinds of media and information will be assured, as well as the right to reply and to rectify. Those parties or movements who have been declared in opposition and with parliamentary representation, will be part of the directing boards of the Congress, they will have the last word before ending the debate in the Congress, they will participate in and control the electoral processes, and will be consulted about issues of national interest like foreign relations, security and national defense or justice.  

4. Special State funding of political parties and political and social movements. There will be a complementary State financing, in order to provide conditions to qualify the opposition. They will have the opportunity to analyze and investigate governmental policies. This funding will consist of 10% of the total budget destined for political parties and political and social movements.

5. Electoral threshold and other rights of the opposition. The legal recognition of the opposition won´t be subedited to an electoral threshold. They just need to register their political program and the statutes of the group. The opposition will be part of the Advisory Committee of Foreign Relations; it will have a representative in the Directing Board of the Bank of the Republic. The candidate to presidency, who has gained a second place and has declared himself in opposition, will occupy a seat in the Senate.
6. Participation of the political opposition in the National Electoral Council. The National Electoral Council will be chosen directly by the people, but the opposition will have guaranteed a number of representatives in this council.

7. Extraordinary measures for the participation of social excluded sectors and minorities. The oppositional activities of peasant, indigenous and afro-descendent communities will be guaranteed, as well as the activities of women, youth and the LGTBI community. A special fund will be created to attend their needs. The Copenhagen Convention of the 18th of December 1979 will be complied, as well as the Quote Law, and women and young people will occupy more high political posts. 

8. State institutions guarantors of the right topolitical and socialopposition. Military doctrine.  State institutions will be organized in order to guarantee the right to opposition, which includes a special legislation to eliminate, among others, clientelism, corrupt, criminal and mafia-like practices. There will be guarantees so that the opposition won´t be criminalized or stigmatized.  The military doctrine and the State security policies will be reformulated, eliminating all “cold war” elements, for example the persecution and the fight against “internal enemies”.

9. Effective government commitment for the eradication and the elimination of paramilitary structures and all illegal counterinsurgent practices. The national government will commit itself in the effective elimination and dismantling of paramilitary structures and of all illegal counterinsurgent activity that doesn´t allow political and social opposition. A Historical Truth Committee will be conformed, to clarify their crimes, in which the opposition and the movement of victims will participate. This committee will also control future governmental policies in this field and guarantee non repetition.
10. Comprehensive reparation measures of the genocide against the Patriotic Union and the extermination of other opposition forces.  One of the specific tasks of the Historical Truth Committee on State Terrorism will be the clarification of the genocide against the Unión Patriótica, and the extermination of other political oppositional forces, as well as the forced disappearances or the assassination of militants, sympathizers and leaders of social and popular mobilization. In the case of the Unión Patriótica, the State should publicly recognize its responsibility and give them back the number of seats they had when they were at their best moment. All this will be done in a public ceremony which will be transmitted by the media. The State will be committed with the reconstruction of the historical memory. 

The FARC bulletin reports that after reading the press communiqué, the press asked about the Legal Framework for Peace, proposed by the Colombian government and approved by the Congress these days. Commander Jesús Santrich answered that "Any legal framework or normativity that has to do with the peace process or with transition can only be a product of an agreement between the two parts at the conversation table”.