At midnight local time (5.00am Irish time) fighters from the main leftist rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), put down their weapons.
Advertisement
The peace deal follows four years of talks with the government, and more than 50 years of bloodshed.
Never again will parents be burying their sons and daughters killed in the war. “All rivalries and grudges will remain in the past”.
Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos announced Friday that his military would cease attacks on the FARC beginning today.
But the definitive ceasefire was supposed to come into force the day after the final peace agreement was signed by President Santos and the leader of the Farc, Timoleon Jimenez – an event expected in Cartagena at the end of September.
“In my condition as the commander-in-chief of the FARC, I order all of our officers, all of our units, to all and each and every one of our combatants, to halt military actions and hostilities against the Colombian State, in a definitive manner from 2400 hours tonight”, Rodrigo Londoño Echeverri, alias Timochenko, said during a news conference in Havana.
In one sense, the statement of a complete ceasefire of the Farc is just procedural.
The deal will now be voted on in a referendum on October 2nd.
From Monday, the FARC’s estimated 7,500 fighters will start heading to collection points to give up their weapons under United Nations supervision.
But the conflict appears to be reaching an end point, having exacted a fearsome toll: some 260,000 dead, 45,000 missing, and 6.9 million people uprooted from their homes.
The territorial and ideological conflict has drawn in various left- and right-wing armed groups and gangs.
“We are on the verge of perhaps the most important political decision of our lives”, Santos said in a speech on Saturday.
Under the peace accord, FARC’s yet-to-be-named political movement will be guaranteed five seats in both the lower house and senate.
After 2026, both arrangements would end and the former rebels would have to demonstrate their political strength at the ballot box.
Other parts of the accord deal with rural reform, combating drug trafficking, compensation to victims and transitional justice.
Advertisement
Efforts to launch peace talks with a smaller rebel group, the National Liberation Army, have yet to bear fruit. The agreement was reached August 24 after nearly four years of negotiating.
