Colombia, rebels announce historic peace deal reached
BOGOTA,COLOMBIA>> Colombia’s government and leftist rebels said Wednesday that they have reached a deal to end Latin America’s last major guerrilla war, opening a new chapter for the country after more than a half-century of political bloodshed.
Negotiators for the government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia said on Twitter that they would announce details of the successful conclusion of negotiations Wednesday evening in Havana.
In the past week, the two sides had worked around the clock to hammer out final details of an accord that commits Colombia’s government to carrying out aggressive land reform, an overhaul of its anti-narcotics strategy and a mass expansion of the state in traditionally neglected areas of the country.
“Today I hope to give historic, very important news to the country,” President Juan Manuel Santos said earlier in the day.
The accord must still be ratified by voters in a plebiscite. But just the wrapping up of talks opens the possibility for Colombians to put behind them more than 50 years of political bloodshed that has claimed more than 220,000 victims and driven more than 5 million people from their homes.
Negotiations began in November 2012 and were plagued by distrust built up during decades of war propaganda on both sides.
Polls show most Colombians loathe the rebel group known as the FARC and show no hesitation labeling them “narco-terrorists” for their heavy involvement in Colombia’s cocaine trade, an association for which members of the group’s top leadership have been indicted in the U.S. Meanwhile, the FARC held onto a Cold War view of Colombia’s political and economic establishment as “oligarchs” at the service of the U.S.
The rebel army was forced to the negotiating table after a decade of heavy battlefield losses that saw a succession of top rebel commanders killed by the U.S.backed military and the its ranks thinned by half to the
current 7,000 troops.
Santos, an unlikely peacemaker given his role as architect of the military offensive, throughout maintained a steady pulse even as he was labeled a traitor by his conservative former allies and suffered a plunge in approval ratings.
The most contentious breakthrough came in Sep- tember when Santos traveled to Havana to lay out a framework for investigating atrocities, punishing guerrillas for involvement in those abuses and offering compensation to victims.
Opponents of Santos and some human rights groups harshly criticized a key part of that deal: guerrillas who confess their crimes won’t spend any time in prison and will instead be allowed to serve out reduced sentences of no more than eight years helping rebuild communities hit by the conflict.
Another toad to swallow, as Santos calls the concessions he’s had to make, will be the sight of former rebel leaders occupying seats in congress specially reserved for the FARC’s still unnamed political movement. The exact number of such seats was among the last details being hammered out in marathon 18hour sessions taking place in recent days.
“We haven’t slept but it was worth the effort,” said Sen. Roy Barreras, among political reinforcements sent in by Santos to work on the deal, speaking to Caracol Radio from Havana.
The announcement that talks have successfully concluded will trigger a series of events, some entailing political risks.
First, Santos must present the accords to congress and ask it to set a date for a plebiscite that could take place as early as next month. Polls show Colombians would likely endorse any deal in a simple yes or no vote.