Colombia and Farc rebels usher in era of peace

Definitive ceasefire brings 52 years of war to an end

BOGOTA // Colombia yesterday began its first day of peace, ending 52 years of warfare after a ceasefire between the Farc rebels and the government took effect.

The full ceasefire – ordered by president Juan Manuel Santos and Timoleon Jimenez, head of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) – began at midnight on Sunday.

“This August 29 a new phase of history begins for Colombia. We silenced the guns. THE WAR WITH THE FARC IS OVER!” Mr Santos wrote on Twitter one minute after midnight.

A message from the official Farc account was more restrained: “From this moment on the bilateral and definitive ceasefire begins.”

The ceasefire is the first in which both sides are committed to a definite end to the fighting.

“The ceasefire is really one more seal on the end of the conflict. It is the test of fire,” said Carlos Alfonso Velazquez, a security expert at the University of La Sabana, just north of the capital Bogota. Hundreds of thousands of Colombians have died since 1964 as rebel armies and gangs battled in the jungles in what is considered Latin America’s last major civil armed conflict.

Mr Santos and Mr Jimenez are due to sign a final, full peace agreement between September 20 and 26.

The end of hostilities will be followed by a six-month demobilisation process.

Starting yesterday, the Farc’s estimated 7,500 fighters will head to collection points to surrender their weapons under UN supervision.

Guerrillas who refuse to demobilise and disarm “will be pursued with all the strength of the state forces”, Mr Santos said.

Before the demobilisation, the Farc would convene its leaders and troops one last time before transforming into “a legal political movement”, said a statement published on Saturday. On October 2, Colombians will vote in a referendum that Mr Santos hopes will endorse the peace agreement.

“We are on the verge of perhaps the most important political decision of our lives,” he said.

The territorial and ideological conflict has left 260,000 dead, 45,000 missing and 6.9 million people displaced from their homes.

Efforts to launch peace talks with a smaller rebel group, the National Liberation Army, have yet to bear fruit.

But with the Farc ordering a ceasefire, the conflict appears to be reaching an end.

“To the soldiers, naval personnel and air force pilots, police and state security and intelligence agencies, we wish to express our clear and definite will for reconciliation,” said Mr Jimenez – who is known by the nom-de-guerre Timochenko – in Havana.

“Rivalries and resentment must remain in the past. Today more than ever we regret that so much death and pain have been caused by the war. Today more than ever we wish to embrace them as compatriots and start to work together for a new Colombia.”