A peace deal has been agreed between the Colombian Government and the largest guerrilla group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), bringing to an end the longest internal armed conflict in the western hemisphere. Here’s what lies ahead and some of the remaining hurdles: — REFERENDUM ON PEACE Colombians will get a chance to vote on the accord on October 2.
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In Colombia’s capital, Bogota, some 400 people gathered in a plaza to watch on a giant screen the agreement being announced by negotiators in Havana who have been working around the clock in recent days to hammer out the final sensitive details left to the end of the four years of talks.
The deal opposed by two former Colombian presidents needs to be voted on in a referendum before becoming law.
Under the peace deal, the FARC will begin moving its estimated 7,000 fighters from their jungle and mountain hideouts into disarmament camps set up by the United Nations, which is helping monitor the ceasefire.
Earlier, Colombia’s president also backed the deal which was the result of four years of negotiations.
The British prime minister, Theresa May, phoned President Santos to congratulate him on Thursday.
“This is for Colombia, so that what happened in Central America does not happen here – that we abandon them after they lay down their weapons and they end up in criminal groups or taking up weapons again”, said Senator Roy Barreras, one of the negotiators.
FARC chief negotiator Ivan Marquez called the accord a new chapter for Colombia.
The FARC was forced to the negotiating table in 2012 after a decade of heavy battlefield losses inflicted by the US -backed military.
Over the past few days, the government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) have been discussing a range of unresolved topics, and worked late into the night Tuesday to draft a joint statement, sources from the two delegations told AFP in Havana.
Sergio Coronado, deputy director of CAFOD partner Centre for Research and Popular Education, said: “We are celebrating this news, this is the start of a long journey to transform the country, although we still face many challenges before we can say Colombia is a country at peace”. Under the terms of the plebiscite vote, only a 13 percent threshold is needed for approval.
“The best way to win the war was to sit down and negotiate peace”, Humberto de la Calle, the government’s top representative at the talks, said. That is the lowest since he took office in 2010. However, Bogotá officials have anxious about the potential for low voter turnout: in order for the agreement to be ratified, at least 13 percent of the population must participate. “We have to wait for the citizens’ verdict”.
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An agreement with the FARC does not guarantee an end to political violence.
