Colombia’s peace deal has been oversold

(Photo: Ramon Espinosa – AP)

Colombia’s peace agreement with the FARC guerrillas has been almost universally hailed as a historic event that will bring about all kinds of goods things, but I’m afraid that the deal has been vastly oversold, and has turned Colombia into a one-issue country at the expense of other just as important issues.

While Colombians are embroiled in a bitter debate over President Juan Manuel Santos’ preliminary peace agreement signed Thursday in Havana, and have been talking about almost nothing else for the past three years, the country remains obscenely behind in the areas that will matter the most for its future prosperity: education and innovation.

Granted, peace is always a worthy goal, even if Santos’ peace agreement has been described by Human Rights Watch and other advocacy groups as way too generous with FARC war criminals. And granted, peace may bring more investment, even if Santos may have been too optimistic when he predicted it would help Colombia’s economy grow by an additional 2 percent a year.

But Colombia has been virtually consumed in recent years by a fierce public fight between Santos and his predecessor, Alvaro Uribe, over the merits of this peace deal. And this clash is likely to intensify with a planned referendum on the peace accord.

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