Colombian Government: New Deal with FARC Rebels is Final

The new peace agreement which the Colombian government and the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) announced last week is final, the Colombian government said.

    The government's head negotiator Humberto de la Calle said that the only thing still to be discussed was how the agreement, which was unveiled Saturday, will be ratified, according to the (dpa). The Colombian government and FARC negotiated for over four years in Havana to end the conflict that had lasted half a century. 

    Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos and FARC leader Rodrigo Londono signed the agreement in Cartagena on September 26. However, its implementation was left in state of uncertainty when Colombian voters rejected the agreement in a referendum on October 2. 

    De la Calle noted that the new deal included "over 80%" of the modifications proposed by the parties that opposed the first agreement. "There is really no room for new negotiations," De la Calle said. 

    Colombia's High Commissioner for Peace, Sergio Jaramillo, commended FARC on their attitude towards the renegotiations. "They accepted a number of things that are not easy for a guerrilla to accept," Jaramillo said.

Source: QNA