Colombia: País del año 2016

Abstract

This article reviews the most important events in the Colombian political arena during 2016. The focus of this review is on the facts and processes that led to the signature of the peace agreement between the national government led by Juan Manuel Santos and the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC). The first section describes the road towards the signing of the first agreement in August, tracks the process of popular ratification of the agreement through a plebiscite in October, and analyzes the impact of the victory of the opposition to the agreement on the peace talks, and on the administration itself. The second section shows how some attitudes related to public trust in institutions have deteriorated in the past few years and states how these attitudes might be related to a sharp polarization between those who follow former president Álvaro Uribe and those who do not. The third section reviews the moderate economic slowdown as compared to other countries in Latin America. In the fourth section I analyze the composition of Santos’s cabinet, and in the fifth I show the legislative agenda during the year. The article closes with some brief conclusions on how the plebiscite’s results became an anti-climactic blow to the much-awaited end of the conflict with the oldest guerrilla group in the world.