The Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) have reached a final agreement towards ending a bloody war ongoing since the 1960s, the parties announced on 24 August.
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“We have arrived at a final agreement. for an end of the conflict and the construction of a stable and lasting peace in Colombia”, said Cuban representative Rodolfo Benitez, reading from the statement before the agreement was signed by lead negotiators for the rebels and the government.
Once an agreement is announced, Mr Santos will need Congressional approval to hold a popular vote to endorse the terms of the deal.
Colombian President recently outlined the steps that will have to be taken for the peace deal to take effect and the FARC to effectively demobilize and disarm.
“Peace is always better than war”. This will end a conflict that has lasted more than 50 years.
This means that Colombians will have to swallow some bitter pills if voting in favor of peace with the country’s oldest and largest rebel group.
The two sides had signed a ceasefire in late June. Paramilitaries are responsible for most of the attacks and threats against human rights defenders today and they continue to be behind forced displacements and disappearances of people here.
The government must win support from many who would prefer to have defeated the guerrillas through military force to avenge years of kidnappings and attacks on civilians.
Analyst Jorge Restrepo of the Conflict Analysis Resource Center said the agreement allows Colombia to “finally deal with the public policy issues that have been overshadowed by the armed conflict”, such as drugs.
Part of the plan to help the FARC fighters includes paying them 90 percent of Colombia’s minimum wage as they emerge from their hideouts. The negotiators compared the monthly $200 subsidy to the thousands of dollars spent on each army bombing raid. “The war is over”, he said. The US president, Barack Obama, also welcomed the deal. After 2026, the former rebel must prove their political strength at the ballot box.
An agreement with the FARC does not guarantee an end to violence that began as a peasant revolt.
Under the deal, the rebels are set to hand their weapons over to United Nations -sponsored monitors, but the date the weapons transfer will begin is not yet known.
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The Santos administration has already began with an “education campaign” that seeks to educate the Colombian people on the contents of the peace deal, but also the hidden and inconvenient truths of the country’s half-a-century war.
