Colombia and Farc 'putting final touches' on peace accord

[SnakeMasteR]

Colombia's President Juan Manuel Santos has said that government negotiators and Farc rebels are putting the final touches to a historic peace accord.

An announcement is expected later on Wednesday, after nearly four years of negotiations in Cuba.

The two sides singed a bilateral ceasefire in June, paving the way for a final agreement.

"Today I hope to give historic, very important news to the country," said Mr Santos.

Farc's leader Timoleon Jimenez, known as Timochenko, has tweeted that "at 18:00 in Colombia (24:00 BST) we will announce the end of the talks and and the conclusion of the [peace] accord".

"From Havana, I want to share with the Colombian people my satisfaction of having reached this point," he said on a video posted on Twitter.

The left-wing rebels have been fighting Colombian government since 1964. It is the longest-running conflict in Latin America

Over the past four years, peace negotiators have managed to reach agreement on six areas: land reform, the Farc's involvement in drug trafficking, justice for the victims, disarmament, future political participation and implementation of the accord.

Once an agreement is announced, Mr Santos will need Congressional approval to hold a popular vote to endorse the terms of the deal.

A vote is expected to take place in October.

Former President Alvaro Uribe is leading the campaign to get the agreement rejected.

The peace talks are aimed at getting the Farc to renounce to more than five decades of armed struggle and join the legal political process.

Decades of war

•An estimated 220,000 killed

•More than five million internally displaced

•More than seven million registered victims

•The Farc has about 8,000 rebels in its ranks

Sources: Unit for Attention and Reparation of Victims, Colombian government

Source

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-37180752

[luisam]

Actually, "final touch" will be put by Colombian people deciding in October referendum.

Now, while "political" reasons of FARC uprising might have some kind of justification (and NO, I DON'T JUSTIFY THEM), their involvement in drug production, dealing and smuggling to the rest of the world, catalyzing the operation of the most dangerous drug cartels and their inflitration in highest layers of different governments and state institutions can't be covered, emballished and hidden by "left-wing" lullabies, an amnesic amnesty and peace accords. You can't accord peace with criminals.

I'm sure many FARC "dissidents", ELN and similar paramilitar druglords will continue with this higly lucrative business and probably we'll hear much more about them in near future.