Diplomacy in Colombia, a peace process 

Diplomacy throughout history has gone through multiple changes, which have made us know it as we currently do, a huge change was where diplomacy went from being secret and restricted to being open and public (Calduch, 1993). This was one of the main changes that led to generating new meanings of the word, such as the following, “diplomacy is the method to establish, maintain and strengthen relations between States” (Valdés & Loaeza, 1993, p.63). 

Conflicts in Colombia have been around for decades, starting with bipartisan warfare around the 19th century which is not yet over (Tirado, 1978). In addition, the assassination of presidential candidate Jorge Eliécer Gaitán would spark further controversy between liberals and conservatives (Ríos, 2017). Since then, the country has been in a constant struggle, not only between the people and the government but also between the people themselves. Added to this is the armed groups, the diplomacy used in the case of armed conflict has the name of rebel diplomacy, referring to the strategic relations between insurgents and actors (García, 2019). 

The first tool used to resolve these social conflicts in the country was diplomacy, for which the National Peace Council was created through Law 434 of 1998 (Fisas, 2010). Which would be in charge of establishing the first dialogues between the government and the revolutionary armed forces. The frustrated negotiations in Caguán (1999-2002), were closed without any beneficial conclusion for the parties, none was willing to give in at that time, because while the negotiations were taking place the president was dialoguing with the United States government to receive military support and the FARC still committed crimes in the most remote towns in the country (Ríos, 2015).  

After this failure in the negotiation process, no attempt was made to negotiate again until 2012, in Havana-Cuba, by this time there was more optimism since both parties were more willing to give in to reach an agreement (Tobar & Alonso, 2015). After two years of cautious approaches, the dialogue table was held, where the parties involved dictated their interests in order to reach an agreement of mutual benefit (Santos, 2019). The signing of the agreements represents the beginning of a peace building in the Colombian territory (Hernández, 2015).  

This agreement represents the advances that diplomacy has allowed to reach the end of the internal conflict in Colombia; throughout history, there has been a strong impact in social, economic and political spheres as a result of the armed conflict, in addition to the devastating physical and psychological consequences for the childhood and the grown-ups (Valencia & Daza, 2010). These conflicts have been drastically reduced through this diplomatic process, which seeks mutual benefit through dialogue and which, after so many years, gives a light of hope to a peaceful Colombia