Colombia, FARC rebels announce deal to end five-decade guerrilla war
HAVANA — Colombia’s government and its biggest rebel group announced a deal Wednesday evening for ending their country’s half-century guerrilla war, one of the world’s longest-running armed conflicts.
The government’s accord with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia must still be ratified by voters in a plebiscite in order to take effect.
But the announcement in Havana of a deal after four years of talks opens the possibility for Colombians to put behind them political bloodshed that has claimed more than 220,000 lives and driven more than five million people from their homes.
The accord commits Colombia’s government to carrying out aggressive land reform, overhauling its anti-narcotics strategy and expanding the state into traditionally neglected areas of the country.
Negotiations began in November 2012 and were plagued by distrust built up during decades of war propaganda on both sides.
Polls say most Colombians loathe the rebel group known as the FARC and show no hesitation labeling them “narco-terrorists” for their heavy involvement in Colombia’s cocaine trade, an association for which members of the group’s top leadership have been indicted in the U.S. Meanwhile, the FARC held onto a Cold War view of Colombia’s political and economic establishment as “oligarchs” at the service of the U.S.
The rebel army has suffered a decade of heavy battlefield losses that saw a succession of top rebel commanders killed by the military.