Colombia a ballot away from ending 52-year civil war
Referendum will decide fate of peace deal with Farc rebels after conflict that has touched millions
COLOMBIANS vote today in a historic referendum on whether to end the longest-running civil war in the West.
The country will be asked whether it agrees to a peace deal signed on Monday between Farc rebels and the government following four years of talks in Havana.
A yes vote will officially end a war that began in 1964 when Farc, a Che Guevara-inspired Marxist group claimed peasant land rights, and which mutated into a conflict that threatened to turn Colombia into a failed state.
Eight million people are considered victims of the violence, including 220,000 dead. Some 30,000 were kidnapped, 45,000 “disappeared,” and 6.9 million forced from their homes.
“It’s right that Farc should apologise,” said Victoria, 24, a member of the group’s Frente 18 battalion. “We’re all in favour of the peace process. We miss our families. And we’re tired of war.”
Advised by Jonathan Powell, Tony Blair’s chief of staff, who negotiated the Northern Ireland agreement, Juan Manuel Santos, Colombia’s president, has staked his presidency on a Yes vote today ending the last remaining war in the Western hemisphere. “How much pain and tears, how much mourning and pointless plunder to finally conclude that war is not the way to solve this,” he said.
The six-point plan promises political participation for Farc, truth and reconciliation tribunes, punishment for severe crimes, and land rights for rural communities. Mr Powell said the deal could be a model for future conflicts – even Syria, adding: “It sets a real precedent for the rest of the world.”
Final polling before the referendum showed 55 per cent of Colombians voting Yes, and 36.6 per cent voting No.
But the referendum has caused deep divisions – even within families.
Ferley Ruiz was 13 when the paramilitaries took him away. Now 31 and studying business administration at university in Bogota, he is voting Yes to peace with Farc – despite his four frightening years as a child soldier and the fact the group killed his sister.
“My mother called me after the signing and said: ‘They think they can say sorry and it’s all suddenly OK,’” he said. “I was surprised I suppose, because I thought she had got over it.”
Over in congress, Maria del Rosario Guerra and her brother Antonio are both senators. But Mr Guerra, 61 – six years older than his sister – has campaigned for Yes, his sister for No. “It’s a trap,” Ms Guerra told The Sunday Telegraph. “This referendum won’t give us peace – it’s the government on its knees to give in to the Farc. Would the United States give in to al-Qaeda? Would Mexico give in to El Chapo?”