Open Letter to World Women, from Colombian Women

The guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC-EP), meeting in the Temporary Zone of La Elvira, Cauca, with great satisfaction, report to have successfully completed the first national gender workshop held throughout our organization’s history.

This unprecedented step is a historic opportunity to promote the participation of all women in the construction of peace and reconciliation in Colombia.

With this activity we seek to lay the foundations that allow us to advance in the irreversible path towards peace with social justice that we agreed in Havana. The work of the gender subcommittee made it possible to include the vision and approach of LGBTI women and the LGBTI population in the Agreement. For the FARC-EP this was a priority. We were sure that such a momentous step for Colombia and for the world should include the just and necessary demands of all the women of our country.

Inequality in access to education and decent jobs, criminalization and victimization of women’s reproductive rights, feminicide, discrimination and stigmatization should be things of the past. We do not doubt that today we are on the right path to overcome these problems.

The vindication and empowerment of women have always been a central focus since the beginning of our armed struggle. In our organization you can find peasants, indigenous women, Afro descendant women, students, displaced, workers. As an organization, we have seen and deeply felt the suffering of thousands of mothers, daughters, sisters, victims of the dominant, violent and patriarchal system. We now tell them to be sure that the FARC-EP is fully committed to continue fighting for their rights and against that system, from now on from other scenarios.

We strive to continue the task of generating conditions that allow progress in the transformation of unequal power relations between men and women and respect for sexual diversity.

We have the faithful commitment that each of the learning and experiences lived in this important workshop will be transferred to all our camps, every militant of the great Fariana family, with the aim of building a single organizational line based on the importance of recognizing the rights and participation of women in all areas of implementation and reincorporation into civilian life. This concept will be reflected in the new political movement that we will create.

Our hands that were once holding arms, today are offered to build a fair, united and equitable Colombia.

Receive our embrace of solidarity and be sure that you can count on the FARC-EP for this just revolutionary struggle.

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