New York, United States of America. A floral offering took place on the 15th of November 2019 outside the UN headquarters in New York, at one of the three monuments created by the renowned Colombian-born visual artist and sculptor, Doris Salcedo, out of the decommissioned weapons collected by the UN mission to Colombia and the Government of Colombia from FARC under the terms of the 2016 Havana Peace Accords.
The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), a Marxist-Leninist guerrilla group, was founded by Manuel Marulanda and Jacobo Arenas in 1964. The group was formed to represent the rural population’s interests following the Colombian civil war from 1948 to 1958. On 27 June 2017, FARC ceased to be an armed group, disarming itself and handing over its weapons to the United Nations. Their melted weapons were molded into three monuments one in Havana (Cuba) where the Agreement was signed, one outside UN headquarters in New York (USA) and one in Colombia.
The floral offering was in view of the 3rd Anniversary of the Peace Signing between FARC and the Government of Colombia which was also celebrated in a series of activities commemorated in Costa Rica, Ginebra (Colombia), Montevideo (Uruguay) organized by the Defendamos la Paz Movement. This movement demands the State to continue with its implementation of the Agreement, the protection of leaders in danger, and resume peace talks with the ELN Guerrilla.
This floral offering was made possible through the advocacy and lobbying work of the UN Claretian Team in New York who made all the efforts before the UN and the Colombia Permanent Mission to the United Nations, so that this act will be carried out.
