Colombia tried a second time to achieve peace, with its government and largest rebel group signing a revised deal to end its brutal conflict following the surprise rejection of an earlier peace accord by voters in a referendum.
Government negotiator Humberto de la Calle and rebel negotiator Ivan Marquez announced the new, modified deal Saturday in Havana, moving to end a half-century-long conflict that has claimed more than 220,000 lives and driven almost 8 million people from their homes.
The latest agreement aims to address some of the concerns of opponents of the original accord, who said the deal was too lenient on a rebel group that had kidnapped and committed war crimes.
“The new deal is an opportunity to clear up doubts, but above all to unite us,” said De la Calle, who described the text of the modified accord as “much better” than the previous one. The negotiator didn’t say if or how it would be submitted again to voters for approval or to congress.
President Juan Manuel Santos and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia inked an initial peace deal on Sept. 26 amid international fanfare after more than four years of negotiations. But voters rejected it on Oct. 2 by just 55,000 votes, dealing a stunning setback to Santos who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to end Colombia’s conflict.
Santos immediately began looking for ways to rescue the deal and the sides extended a cease-fire until Dec. 31 to get the modified deal done. The rebels insisted they wouldn’t go back to the drawing board and throw out years of arduous negotiations with the government.
“The meetings with the FARC delegation were intense,” said De la Calle. “We worked 15 days and nights to reach this new agreement.”
De La Calle said some modifications made were related to justice, punishment for combatants accused of war crimes and reparations for the conflict’s victims. He said negotiators had worked out the details of how and where those responsible for crimes would serve their sentences, addressing complaints by opponents that rebels accused of atrocities would not be imprisoned but submitted to “alternative punishments.”
Other modifications include requiring the rebels to present an inventory of acquired money and holdings, and the provision of safeguards for private owners and property during reforms carried out in the countryside.
Cases of conflict participants accused of drug trafficking would be dealt with under Colombia’s penal code and be heard by high courts.
In a televised address Saturday night, Santos said he had instructed De la Calle and the negotiating team to return to Bogota to explain the details of the new accord to the “no” campaign led by conservative former President Alvaro Uribe.
Santos said that an issue where negotiators did not achieve advances was on the insistence by opponents of the peace deal that guerrilla leaders not be allowed to run for elected office.
“We won’t have assigned legislative seats. To the contrary, they will have to participate in elections. Nor will they have positions in government, as has occurred in other cases. But yes they can be elected,” he said.
FARC negotiator Marquez said “the implementation of the accord is all that remains for the construction of the bases for peace in Colombia.”
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry congratulated Colombians, including Santos and those from the “no” campaign, for reaching the new peace deal.
“After 52 years of war, no peace agreement can satisfy everyone in every detail. But this agreement constitutes an important step forward on Colombia’s path to a just and durable peace. The United States, in coordination with the Government of Colombia, will continue to support full implementation of the final peace agreement,” he said in a statement.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s office said Sunday that he “commends the parties for maintaining firm their commitment to the cease-fire and cessation of hostilities” and “reaffirms the support of the United Nations for the peace process.”
Hours before the deal was announced, Uribe, who was Colombia’s president from 2002 to 2010, had asked that it “not be definitive” until opponents and victims of the conflict could review the text.
Following a meeting with Santos, Uribe read a statement to reporters saying he had asked that the “texts to be announced from Havana” not be official until they had been reviewed.
Uribe and his supporters had demanded stiffer penalties for rebels who committed war crimes and criticized the promise of a political role for the FARC, a 7,000-strong peasant army that is Latin America’s last remaining major insurgency. They didn’t like that under the old deal guerrilla leaders involved in crimes against humanity would be spared jail time and allowed to enter political life.
