Shock result as Colombia’s voters reject peace deal to end 52-year war with Farc rebels

COLOMBIANS narrowly rejected a peace deal with guerrillas last night in a historic referendum, blasting away what the government hoped would be a historic end to a 52-year conflict.

In a reversal of the trend in earlier opinion polls, voters rejected the hotly debated peace deal between Juan Manual Santos, Colombia’s president, and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Co- lombia (Farc) led by “Timochenko,” their charismatic leader, near-complete referendum results indicated.

With 99 per cent of the votes counted, Colombians appeared to have narrowly defied the government’s pleas for a new era of peace by voting 50.24 per cent to 49.75 per cent against the accord, a difference of less than 60,000 votes out of a total of 13 million.

Although Mr Santos wasn’t required to call for a vote ratifying the accord that he signed on Sept 26 with the Farc – some of his advisers and the rebels themselves opposed the idea – the outcome will be binding.

Before the referendum, the Colombian president said that he had no Plan B and would return Colombia to war if the “no” vote won.

Opponents of the pact, led by influential former president Alvaro Uribe, believed the deal was too soft on the Farc rebels by allowing them to re-en- ter society, form a political party and escape traditional jail sentences.

There was no immediate comment from the Colombian president, who summoned advisers to an emergency meeting. His office said he would speak later. Farc leaders declined to make any statement until the government commented. In a cryptic message, however, the group made no indication it intends to resume fighting.

“The love we feel in our hearts is gi- gantic and with our words and actions will be able to reach peace,” the rebels said in a message published on Twitter. Final polls had predicted a double digit win for the Yes camp, with 55 per cent of support versus 36 per cent for No.

The issue of reparations for the 52year conflict, the longest war in the Western hemisphere, has been thorny.

Before the vote the rebels had offered to surrender all their assets to compensate their victims but Farc have insisted throughout four years of talks, held in Cuba, that they have no money, owing to operational costs. Critics cite a figure published in the Economist this spring, suggesting they had $10.5 billion stashed away in 2012 – profits from decades of drug trafficking, extortion, ransom payments and black market land deals.

Much of the money is believed to be buried in pits dug in the Colombian countryside.