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| Colombia’s President Juan Manuel Santos, front left, and the top commander of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) Rodrigo Londono, known by the alias Timochenko, shake hands after signing the peace agreement between Colombia’s government and the FARC to end over 50 years of conflict in Cartagena, Colombia, Monday, Sept. 26, 2016. Behind, from left, are Norway’s Foreign Minister Borge Brende, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, Mexico's President Enrique Pena Nieto, Peru's President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, Cuba's President Raul Castro, and Spain's former King Juan Carlos. |
CARTAGENA,
Colombia (AP) -- Colombia's government and the country's largest
rebel movement signed a historic peace accord Monday evening ending a
half-century of combat that caused more than 220,000 deaths and made 8
million homeless.
Underlining the importance
of the deal, President Juan Manuel Santos and Rodrigo Londono, leader of
the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, signed the 297-page
agreement before a crowd of 2,500 foreign dignitaries and special
guests, including U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and U.S. Secretary
of State John Kerry.
Many in the audience had
tears in their eyes, and shouts rose urging Santos and Londono to "Hug,
hug, hug!" But in the end, the two men just clasped hands and the rebel
commander, also known as Timochenko, put on a pin shaped like a white
dove that Santos has been wearing on his lapel for years. Seconds later
five jets buzzed overhead in formation trailing smoke in the colors of
Colombia's flag.
During a minute of silence
for the war's victims, 50 white flags were raised. Everyone at the event
wore white as a symbol of peace.
Santos
proclaimed after the signing that the accord will help Colombia to stop
the killing, to end the deaths of young people, the innocent, soldiers
and rebels alike. He led the crowd in chants of "No more war! No more
war! No more war!" and he urged Colombians to vote to accept the accord
in the Oct. 2 national referendum that will determine if it takes
effect.
Londono called Santos "a courageous
partner" in reaching the peace deal through four hard years of
negotiations, calling the accord "a victory for Colombian society and
the international community."
He also praised
FARC's fighters as heroes of the downtrodden in the struggle for social
justice, but repeated the movement's request for forgiveness for the
war. "I apologize ... for all the pain that we have caused," he said.
The
signing was greeted by wild cheers by about 1,000 FARC rebels in
Sabanas del Yari, where the group recently concluded its last congress
by endorsing the peace deal. "Yes, we can; yes, we can; yes, we can,"
they shouted, followed by calls for Timochenko to be president.
"Let
no one doubt that we are going into politics without weapons," Londono
said in his speech after the signing. "We are going to comply (with the
accord) and we hope that the government complies," he added.
Earlier
in the day, Santos and foreign dignitaries attended a Mass celebrated
by Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican's secretary of state, at a
baroque church named for St. Peter Claver, a 17th century Jesuit priest
revered as the "slave of slaves" for his role aiding tens of thousands
of African slaves brought to the New World as chattel.
In
a stirring homily, Pope Francis' envoy praised Colombians for
overcoming the pain of the bloody conflict to find common ground with
the rebels.
"All of us here today are
conscious of the fact we're at the end of a negotiation, but also the
beginning of a still open process of change that requires the
contribution and respect of all Colombians," the cardinal said.
Across
the country Colombians marked the occasion with a host of activities,
from peace concerts by top-name artists to a street party in the
capital, Bogota, where the signing ceremony was to be broadcast live on a
giant screen. It was also celebrated by hundreds of guerrillas gathered
in a remote region of southern Colombia where last week top commanders
ratified the accord in what they said would be their last conference as a
guerrilla army.
Colombians will have the
final say on endorsing or rejecting the accord in the Oct. 2 referendum.
Opinion polls point to an almost-certain victory for the "yes" vote,
but some analysts warn that a closer-than-expected finish or low voter
turnout could bode poorly for the tough task the country faces in
implementing the ambitious accord.
Among the
biggest challenges will be judging the war crimes of guerrillas as well
as state actors. Under terms of the accord, rebels who lay down their
weapons and confess their abuses will be spared jail time and be allowed
to provide reparations to their victims by carrying out development
work in areas hard hit by the conflict.
That
has angered some victims and conservative opponents of Santos, a few
hundred of whom took to the streets Monday to protest what they consider
the government's excessive leniency toward guerrilla leaders
responsible for scores of atrocities in a conflict fueled by the
country's cocaine trade.
To shouts of "Santos
is a coward!" former President Alvaro Uribe, the architect of the
decade-long, U.S.-backed military offensive that forced the FARC to the
negotiating table, said the peace deal puts Colombia on the path to
becoming a leftist dictatorship in the mold of Cuba or Venezuela - two
countries that along with Norway played a vital role sponsoring the
four-year-long talks.
"The democratic world
would never allow bin Laden or those belonging to ISIS to become
president, so why does Colombia have to allow the election of the
terrorists who've kidnapped 11,700 children or raped 6,800 women?" he
told protesters gathered in a working-class neighborhood on the
outskirts of Cartagena.
The stiff domestic
opposition contrasts with widespread acclaim abroad for the accord - a
rare example in a war-torn world of what can be achieved through
dialogue. On Monday, European Union foreign policy coordinator Federica
Mogherini said that with the signing of the peace agreement, the EU
would suspend the FARC from its list of terrorist organizations.
Asked whether the U.S. would follow suit, Kerry was less willing to commit but expressed a possible openness to similar action.
"We
clearly are ready to review and make judgments as the facts come in,"
he told reporters. "We don't want to leave people on the list if they
don't belong."
The FARC was established in
1964 by self-defense groups and communist activists who joined forces to
resist a government military onslaught. Reflecting that history, the
final accord commits the government to addressing unequal land
distribution that has been at the heart of Colombia's conflict.
But
as the war dragged on, and insurgencies elsewhere in Latin America were
defeated, the FARC slipped deeper and deeper into Colombia's lucrative
cocaine trade - to the point that President George W. Bush's
administration in 2006 called it the world's biggest drug cartel.
As
part of the peace process, the FARC has sworn off narcotics trafficking
and agreed to work with the government to provide alternative
development in areas where coca growing has flourished.
Only
if the accord passes the referendum will the FARC's roughly 7,000
fighters begin moving to 28 designated zones where, over the next six
months, they are to turn over their weapons to U.N.-sponsored observers.
"This
is something I waited for my whole life - that I dreamed of every day,"
said Leon Valencia, a former guerrilla who is one of the most respected
experts on Colombia's conflict. "It's like when you're waiting for a
child that is finally born, or seeing an old love or when your favorite
team scores a goal."
