Colombia, rebels sign peace agreement
Voters still must approve accord
Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos and the leader of the country’s main guerrilla group signed a historic peace accord Monday, in a ceremony meant to promote their agreement to end the country’s 52-year armed conflict.
Held in the colonial city of Cartagena, the event marked the first time that Mr. Santos and Rodrigo Londono, leader of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, publicly appeared together on Colombian soil.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Cuban President Raul Castro and other heads of state attended the ceremony, all of them dressed in white, as a show of support for the pact.
As a binding document, though, the agreement will matter little unless Colombian voters approve it in a crucial referendum on Sunday.
By scheduling the signing ceremony ahead of the vote, the Santos government and the guerrillas hope to boost public support for their accord and send the message that the pact is irreversible. Both sides say the agreement — the result of four years of painstaking negotiations — is a finished product whose rejection by voters would simply prolong a conflict that has killed 220,000 people over the past half-century.
“I feel a great excitement and a great joy for the Colombian people,” Mr. Santos told reporters Monday. “To leave for my children and for all Colombian children a country that is at peace, a normal country, a country where they don’t have to grow up with fear — that is something wonderful.”
The latest surveys indicate that the accord will be approved by a wide margin Sunday, but many analysts say the outcome could be closer than expected.
Mr. Santos pursued the accord with a single-minded determination that is expected to make him a leading candidate for a Nobel Peace Prize if voters back the deal. He also insisted on giving Colombians the final say, submitting the agreement to a democratic vote.
The accord calls for the FARC’s 7,000 or so fighters to move into camps — which would be monitored by the United Nations — to begin handing over their weapons. In one of its more controversial provisions, it would guarantee the rebels 10 seats in Colombia’s congress for two terms, opening a path for rebel commanders to enter politics.