Mr. Eamon Gilmore:

It is well known publicly that the President Duque and his Government do not support Mr. Maduro and have identified with Mr. Guaido and expressed support for him. The Venezuelan situation has a big impact on Colombia at a number of levels. The first is the significant numbers of migrants from Venezuela into Colombia. It is estimated that some 3 million Venezuelans have left Venezuela and approximately half of those have gone into Colombia. To put that in perspective, that is more than the total number of migrants who came into Europe at the height of what was referred to us the migration crisis for Europe.

The humanitarian situation in Venezuela is of concern. There are shortages of food and medicines and there are energy problems. That has an impact on Colombia because of the extent of its border with its neighbour. The situation in Venezuela is now a major priority for the Colombian Government.

I do not agree that the peace process is failing. The peace process is succeeding. I accept there are problems with it. There are problems with the implementation of any peace agreement. It is more than 20 years since the Good Friday Agreement here and there are still implementation problems.

There was some speculation at the time of the peace agreement that the increase in the coca crop was related to an expectation that there would be compensation as part of the peace agreement. I do not think that explains the extent of the growth of the coca crop. What explains the growth of the coca crop is largely increased demand and that increased demand is largely coming from North America and from Europe, but also there is increased demand now in South America, including in Colombia itself.

The truth and reconciliation provisions both in relation to the peace agreements in Northern Ireland and South Africa are very strong. A truth commission was established so that people who committed crimes and atrocities during the conflict would go there and tell the truth, and in particular give information to families about what happened to their family members. Many people are still missing and people want to know the truth about what happened at different points. That approach is working.

There is also the jurisdiction for peace. The fundamental idea behind it is that under the jurisdiction for peace if somebody who has committed a crime during the conflict goes before the jurisdiction for peace and tells the truth, he or she can be sentenced to deprivation of liberty but not in a conventional prison, it is more in a community setting. The sentences can be quite long, for example eight years or up to 12 years in some instances. If they do not go before the jurisdiction for peace they are then liable to be prosecuted in the normal way by the judicial system and incur the prison sentences that are associated with that.

In response to how strong and transparent Colombian democracy is, one of the things that we need to remember about Colombia is that it is one of the oldest democracies in the world. We are celebrating our 100th anniversary of independence and the establishment of the State. They are celebrating 200 years of almost continuous democracy since 1819. There was a four-year interruption in the mid 1950s but democracy was restored. They are very proud of their democracy. The system is based on a government, an executive president, Congress and the separation of powers. They take great pride in it and it is a strong democracy.