Yinis Pimienta, 40, former rebel of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia FARC makes clothes at a tailoring shop in Pondores, Colombia November 9, 2021, part of a productive project. PONDORES, Colombia, December 2, Reuters - Former rebel fighter Yinis Pimienta walks through the oppressive desert heat of La Guajira province in northern Colombia, past shoddy stucco houses, faded murals themed around peace and a handful of pig pens in a camp for ex-guerrillas.
Pig farming is one of many projects that aim to help former fighters reintegrate into Colombian society, which have stalled, which has put strain on the political party formed by former Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia FARC leadership.
The FARC signed a peace deal with the government five years ago, ending its part in Colombia's nearly six-decade armed conflict and becoming a political party called Comunes.
But as the deal's implementation falters, the party that promotes the FARC's Marxist ideals and is meant to give former fighters a political voice is fracturing.
The peace deal won former President Juan Manuel Santos a Nobel Prize but ex-combatants face targeted violence from both crime gangs and former comrades, lack of job opportunities and the temptation to join dissident rebels who reap huge profits from drug traffickers and illegal mining.
Some ex-combatants are looking for alternatives to the Comunes, led by former FARC commanders who hold guaranteed seats in Congress until 2026.
Pimienta, 40, said of the party leadership, they represent their own interests but they don't represent us. She says that the overwhelming feeling in the camp is of abandonment.
This year, the parties started a political movement that they say will address the issues of ex-combatant employment efforts, as the party leaders criticized for not doing enough to support ex-combatant employment efforts and not making the party more attractive to voters.
Zuniga said the FARC never transitioned from a military organization that does things vertically to a political organization that depends more on consensus.
He would not be drawn on if the new movement, known as Gather to Advance, or Agrupar, would become a separate party.
He said that this is an alternative.
The movement will re-energize reintegration projects that are stalled under the leadership of the Comunes, take a census of ex-fighters who have left the camps to work in cities or make political decisions from the ground up, and make political decisions from the ground up, according to the adherents.
This is too late for some ex-combatants. Some 2,400 fighters, including some who backed the deal, are among the armed groups led by ex-FARC commanders who are wanted on U.S. drug charges.
According to a May report by the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, only 28% of the steps have been fully implemented so far, but there is a funding gap of some $474.5 million for this year, according to a May report by the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies.
The report said political participation efforts were the most affected by lack of funding.
The peace deal is going to be rolled out over 15 years.
No FARC-linked movement is likely to garner much support in congressional and presidential elections next year. Agrupar Avanzar will not run its own candidates in 2022, but he may back those from other parties.
Arlene Tickner, a researcher at Bogota's Universidad de Rosario, said the divisions do not bode well for the long-term future of the community.
There are a range of ideological positions that come to the surface that aren't as apparent when they're an insurgent group and their purpose was something different, Tickner said.
A Comunes spokeswoman wouldn't say anything about the party's fractures or Agrupar Avanzar. Its leadership blamed the administration of President Ivan Duque for implementation problems.
Like thousands of ex-rebels, Pimienta moved to a reintegration zone to begin her civilian life.
Many camps soon came to resemble small towns, especially as former fighters began to have families, but residents say support for businesses and farming cooperatives meant to employ them has been slow and inadequate.
Pimienta, who joined the rebels at 15 to get away from the right-wing militants who attacked her hometown, sews together white cotton fabric for a bee-keeping suit in a nearly empty room of sewing machines, a project that never got off the ground.
She earns nothing for the work but keeps sewing with two others in the hope of keeping the project alive, even as she struggles to care for her five-year-old son.
We still don't have steady pay because this isn't profitable. She said we don't have any financial support.
Other people in the Pondores camp are sticking with Comunes.
Lili Guerraluis, 39, joined the FARC after her family was displaced from El Salado, site of one of the conflict's most brutal massacres.
She lives in a two-room house with her toddler. His father, a political organizer with Comunes, works elsewhere, but she fears leaving the camp because of the targeted killings of hundreds of ex-combatants.
The government says that both crime gangs led by former right-wing militiataries and FARC dissidents are responsible for killings.
Guerraluis said that she has dissipated the camaraderie she once felt in the group, but a political split will only deepen the problem.
We want to move forward together.