Santos and FARC leader Timoleon “Timochenko” Jimenez presided over a ceremony where government and rebel negotiators signed a deal on justice for crimes committed during the conflict, which had been the key issue blocking progress in dragging peace talks.
Advertisement
“We are opponents, but today we walk in the same direction,” Santos said in a Wednesday address broadcast live from Havana by the website of the Presidency of Colombia. “We do not have the right to allow ourselves yet another failure”, he said, an apparent reference to earlier aborted attempts at a peace agreement.
There many hurdles left to a final peace accord, and plenty of internal opposition left to overcome, but the agreement reached on Wednesday is the biggest step yet taken toward ending Latin America’s longest-running civil war. Speaking to reporters Mr Santos said the agreement provided “maximum justice for the victims”.
Moments later, Santos and Timochenko greeted each other with a handshake. It was the first time Santos has appeared beside Timoleón Jiménez, alias “Timochenko”, the elusive FARC commander who had previously surfaced in videos recorded from his jungle hideouts.
If successful, it would end the conflict that has killed 220,000 people and displaced millions over half a century.
For his part, the FARC leader expressed his great satisfaction with the successful closing of the agreement on the special jurisdiction for peace, “because it will judge not only the guerrilla’s fighters but also the government forces that participated in the conflict”.
Negotiators have so far reached partial accords on land reform, political participation for ex-rebels and an end to the illegal drugs trade.
This week’s deal will see the creation of a parallel justice system made up of Colombian and foreign magistrates that will try cases related to the conflict.
“Even after having paid a high price for rebelling against injustice, with our families also suffering the consequences of repression, putting our lives at risk, we insurgents are prepared to take responsibility for our actions during the resistance”, Timochenko said.
Both sides also confirmed the formation of a truth commission, a deal on reparations for war victims and an amnesty for combatants who had not committed war crimes.
The direct involvement of Santos and Londono heightened the profile of the ongoing talks between FARC and Bogota authorities, which have been taking place in Havana since 2012. That, broadly speaking, was what happened in the Central American peace deals of the 1990s and with Colombia’s M-19 rebels.
Advertisement
Combatants in the conflict who accept guilt for human-rights abuses or war crimes will face jail sentences of five to eight years in “ordinary” prisons.
