Speaking in Colombia, Santos said negotiators were “putting the finishing touches” on a final peace accord.
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“To have a long lasting peace we have to guarantee that those raised as armed insurgents can reintegrate into the social and legal life of our country”. That happened Wednesday after more than four years of negotiations.
President Juan Manuel Santos is required by law to publish the full text at least 30 days before the referendum to give Colombians a chance to review it before they vote.
Sergio Coronado, Deputy Director of CAFOD’s partner CINEP (Centre for Research and Popular Education), based in Bogota, 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”.
A cease-fire between the two sides went into effect in late June.
The team that spent almost four years negotiating with the FARC in Havana, stressed at their news conference that the government and people from all walks of life must work together to help integrate the fighters into mainstream society.
Mr. Santos said he would present the accord to Congress on Thursday and then request electoral authorities to organize a nonbinding referendum asking Colombians if they approve of the deal with the FARC on October 2. More than 220,000 people were killed in the conflict, tens of thousands disappeared and millions fled their homes.
FARC chief negotiator Ivan Marquez called the accord a new chapter for Colombia.
“We hope that it will be announced that the peace talks were successfully concluded”, a member of the government negotiating team said, on condition of anonymity.
Both the White House and Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton congratulated Colombia on the deal and promised USA support for implementing it. “The best way to end the war is sitting down to discuss the peace”. “I think that after this experience of four years with the FARC this is the time to decide”, De la Calle said.
“[Obama] noted that the USA was proud that it could stand with Colombia in supporting the pursuit of peace, and he pledged to continue the US bipartisan tradition of support for strengthening Colombia’s institutions and improving the lives of the Colombian people through the Peace Colombia framework”, the White House said in a statement.
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After the agreement is formally signed, the guerrillas will start to deploy to temporary zones where they will hand over their weapons to a United Nations mission over 180 days. Talks between the smaller, leftists National Liberation Army (ELN) and the government recently stalled, while gangs born out of right-wing paramilitary groups are reported to have taken over some drug trafficking routes.
