FARC, Colombian government announce end to hostilities
August 25, 2016
The Colombian government has reached a historic truce with the armed rebel group. An insurgency has been ongoing in the country for decades, leaving hundreds of thousands of people dead.
Image: Reuters/E. de la Osa
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Negotiators from both the government side and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) announced that a deal had been reached on Wednesday evening in Havana, Cuba, effectively ending Latin America's last major guerrilla war.
The two sides have been working in recent weeks to finalize the last details of the accord, which early details suggest commits the government to carry out radical land reform, overhaul its anti-narcotics strategy and expand the state into various neglected areas of the country. The final text of the accord is yet to be published, however.
After several years of a government campaign to weaken the FARC militarily, negotiations started in November 2012, but were stymied for some time by distrust built up during decades of war propaganda on both sides.
A breakthrough came last September 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.
President Juan Manuel Santos has hailed the agreement as "historic"Image: picture-alliance/Xinhua/Colprensa
'Historic' deal
The war, which began in 1964, is the last major armed conflict in the Americas. It has killed 260,000 people, uprooted 6.8 million and left 45,000 missing.
"Today I hope to give historic, very important news to the country," President Juan Manuel Santos said earlier in the day.
The accord must now be ratified by voters in a plebiscite, which will take place on October 2, according to Santos. Polls show Colombians would likely endorse any deal in a simple yes or no vote.
Low voter turnout is a concern because a minimum of 13 percent of the electorate, or about 4.4 million voters, must vote in favor for the accord to be ratified.
Lingering concerns
The opposition is also reportedly likely to try to convert the vote into a referendum on Santos, whose approval rating plummeted to 21 percent in May according to a Gallup poll, the lowest since he took office in 2010.
Various polls have indicated that most Colombians associate the FARC with narco-terrorism due to its heavy involvement in the cocaine trade. The FARC for its part has retained a Cold War-era view of Colombia's political and economic establishment as "oligarchs" at the service of the US.
Many Colombians are horrified that the 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.
Meanwhile, the government is still fighting a smaller rebel group, the National Liberation Army (ELN), whose ongoing kidnappings have derailed efforts to open peace negotiations.
Latin America's longest armed conflict comes to an end
The Colombian government has reached a historic truce with FARC, ending over half a century of violence with the leftist group. Latin America's longest conflict claimed at least 220,000 lives.
Image: Reuters/A. Meneghini
How the insurgency started
In 1948, the assassination of populist leader Jorge Eliecer Gaitan sparked political chaos in Colombia known as "the violence." Tens of thousands died and peasant groups joined with communists to arm themselves. Later in 1964, a military attack on the insurgency's main encampment led to the creation of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia or FARC.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo
What the rebels wanted
FARC's political ideology has never been well defined. Initially, it sought to weaken the oligarchy's grip on power. The rebels also wanted land reforms in a country where more than 5 million people have been forcibly displaced, mostly by far-right militias. However, the group lost popularity as it turned to kidnapping and illegal gold mining for funds.
Image: Reuters
How the US got involved
To help the Colombian security forces fight against the insurgency and to counter drug-trafficking, the US began sending billions of dollars under Plan Colombia. The US State Department classifies the group as a terrorist organization and its leaders face US indictments.
Image: Reuters/J. Vizcaino
The human cost of the conflict
Latin America's longest-running armed conflict is responsible for the death an estimated 220,000 people, while millions of Colombians have been displaced within their country. According to Bogota’s estimates, there are 7.6 million direct and indirect victims of the conflict. The country has more landmine victims than any country except for Afghanistan.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/C. Escobar Mora
Peace accord after decades of failed attempts
Peace talks between FARC and the government collapsed in the mid 1980s after at least 3,000 allies of FARC's political wing Patriotic Union Party were killed at the hands of right-wing paramilitaries. Efforts fell short again in 2002 after the rebels hijacked an airliner to kidnap a senator. The latest round of talks started in 2012 in Havana and culminated on August 24, 2016 with a deal.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/E. Abramovich
50 years of conflict
"We have reached a final, integral and definitive agreement" to end the conflict and build a stable, lasting peace, the government of President Juan Manuel Santos and the left-wing Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia said in a joint statement. In June, the negotiators had already announced a cease-fire agreement and a blueprint for how the estimated 7,000 to 8,000 fighters will demobilize.
