Colombia nearing historic peace deal

Don’t fail, Pope told both sides

Colombia is closer to peace than it has been in half a century as President Juan Manuel Santos and leaders of the country’s largest rebel group vow to end Latin America’s longest- running armed conflict in the coming months.

Speaking in Havana, Santos announced Wednesday that government and rebel negotiators, prodded by Pope Francis to not let a historic opportunity for peace slip away, had set a six- month deadline to sign a final agreement. After that, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia would demobilize within 60 days.

“We’re on different sides but today we advance in the same direction, in the most noble direction a society can take, which is toward peace,” said Santos, minutes before a forced handshake with the military commander of the FARC guerrillas, known by his alias, Timochenko.

In a joint statement, Santos and the FARC rebels said they had overcome the last significant obstacle to a peace deal by settling on a formula to punish human rights abuses committed during 50 years of bloody, drug- fuelled fighting. It is designed to demand accountability from belligerents while insulating a deal against possible legal challenges from victims.

Under the terms, rebels who confess abuses to peace tribunals, compensate victims and promise not to take up arms again will receive from five to a maximum of eight years of labour under unspecified conditions of confinement, but not prisons.

War crimes committed by government forces also will be judged by the tribunals, and combatants on either side of the conflict caught lying will face up to 20 years in jail.

An immediate test of the accord will be the referendum giving Colombians a chance to endorse or reject any deal.

Foreshadowing what’s likely to be a bitter political fight, conservative former president Alvaro Uribe called the peace agreement a gift to the FARC.

Negotiators said the deal came together ahead of this week’s visit to Cuba by Pope Francis, who during his stay on the communist- led island warned the two sides they didn’t have the option of failing in their best chance at peace.