About 85 percent of FARC's former fighters are still in the program for reintegration into civilian life.
The peace agreement planned for about 25 cooperatives, but the former fighters have started more than 300.
The cooperatives work in farming, textiles, brewing, construction and tourism, among other fields.
Ten years after the peace agreement between Colombia's government and the FARC guerrillas, about 85 percent of the former guerrilla fighters are still in the program for reintegration into civilian life. The figure comes from the UN and is cited by researcher Camilo Ucrós Soler on the Colombian news site La Silla Vacía.
More than one in three peace agreements in the world collapse within five years. Colombia's agreement from 2016 has passed that mark by a wide margin.
More than 300 cooperatives
The peace agreement planned for about 25 cooperatives, one for each place where the former fighters would live during their reintegration. Instead, they have started more than 300. Not all of them are operating today. They work in farming, textiles, brewing, tourism, construction, food processing, culture and communication.
Standard disarmament programs focus on the individual. The idea is that ties to the old armed group raise the risk of falling back into illegal activity. Colombia's agreement instead opened the way for a collective path through cooperatives and other associations. The organization Ecomún coordinates the cooperatives, and joining is voluntary.
Colombia has more than 23 years of experience in bringing members of armed groups back into civilian life. More than 77,000 people have gone through such programs.
Ucrós Soler has written a doctoral thesis on the collective reintegration. He points to four ways the cooperatives have sustained the process. They work as a school, as a way to put down roots in a new place, as a community and as a bridge from military discipline to shared decision-making.
The cooperatives as a school
The cooperatives have channeled vocational training from SENA, the state training agency. They have asked for courses that fit their members' needs. They have also wanted to show that it is possible to run businesses built on dialogue, consensus and benefit to the surrounding villages. Community-based tourism is a clear example.
A new home and a new community
Many former fighters have moved to places where they were neither born nor fought. Through their own businesses and partnerships with farmers, victims of the conflict and ethnic organizations, they have made a place for themselves in the local community.
The cooperatives have also become a community. Members coordinate their work, keep in touch, take care of each other and plan the future together. Ucrós Soler's research suggests that ties to old comrades can strengthen the will to contribute to the group. Most cooperatives cannot pay wages. He takes the fact that they still exist as a sign that members value them for more than the income.
The guerrilla movement was built on a strict hierarchy. In the cooperatives, decisions are instead made by consensus and voting. Members have become both bosses and employees in their own businesses.
Rafting instead of weapons
One example is Remando por la Paz (Rafting for Peace) in the municipality of San Vicente del Caguán in the department of Caquetá, an area that saw heavy fighting during the conflict. There, former FARC fighters take tourists rafting on the Pato River. Several of them are now certified guides and compete in rafting. Colombia's official tourism portal Colombia Travel promotes the trip. Visitors can also see a memory museum created by women who were once guerrilla fighters.
Land, housing and thousands of projects
The UN Verification Mission in Colombia monitors how the agreement is carried out. In its latest report, the mission writes that few of the former fighters have fallen back into crime. According to the report, the former fighters run 6,206 productive projects to support themselves. A total of 130 plots of land, covering more than 20,662 hectares (about 51,000 acres), have been handed over. So far, 780 homes have been delivered, and another 1,600 are under construction.
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