Joy as Colombia, FARC Sign Ceasefire Ending 50 Years of War

[DemMomma4Sanders]

Source: AntiWar

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos shook hands with the FARC commander at a ceremony in Cuba, declaring the deal to be “the end of the FARC as an armed group.” Former FARC commander Elda Neyis Mosquera praised the deal, calling for full reconciliation.

Not everything is finalized in the deal, and FARC’s transition to a political party is still not totally set, and FARC is demanding the unilateral appointment of some of its members to parliament without having to contest elections.

FARC was formed in 1964 as a Communist insurgency, and was classified as a terrorist organization in Colombia as well as in many major Western allies, including the US and European union. The peace process began tentatively in mid-2012, leading to today’s ceasefire.

Read more: http://news.antiwar.com/2016/06/23/joy-as-colombia-farc-sign-ceasefire-ending-50-years-of-war/

[NWCorona]

1. Let's hope it holds!

[Stuart G]

2. I agree with you..."Let's hope it holds!"

Nice to read about a peace agreement somewhere....k and r

[Judi Lynn]

3. Colombia between optimism and opposition on FARC peace treaty

Feature: Colombia between optimism and opposition on FARC peace treaty

by César Mariño García

BOGOTA, June 24 (Xinhua) -- On Thursday night, thousands of people took to the streets of Bogota to celebrate the ceasefire agreement signed between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in Havana.

The gamut of emotions ran from tears to applause and messages of hope from those who feel that a war lasting more than five decades may have finally ended.

The agreement guarantees that the FARC will proceed with a complete disarmament, under the supervision of the UN.

In Bogota, most of those celebrating were left-wing supporters, who feel that bullets will now be replaced by civilized dissent and that true democracy can finally be built in Colombia.

More:
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2016-06/25/c_135464806.htm

[Aristus]

4. Please God let there be peace...

[Judi Lynn]

5. ‘It’s a miracle my Colombia could never have imagined’

‘It’s a miracle my Colombia could never have imagined’

After 60 years of conflict, the truce signed between President Santos and leaders of the Farc rebels has made a nation rejoice

María Jimena Duzán

Saturday 25 June 2016 19.05 EDT

Last Thursday the Colombian president, Juan Manuel Santos, and Timoleón Jiménez (Timochenko), the head of Las Farc, the largest guerrilla organisation in this hemisphere, decided to sign a truce to put an end to 60 years of conflict.

It was a bloody war that took the lives of 220,000 Colombians, according to the country’s Centro Nacional de Memoria Histórica. Those who died were mainly poor people and innocent civilians. More than six million were displaced from their lands and forced to go to the cities, and an authoritative number for those “disappeared” is still unknown. The office of attorney general has said that 45,000 people were disappeared, but according to the International Committee of the Red Cross the toll is higher: 100,000.

For Colombians, the peace accord is not only the best news in years, but a miracle that not even the novelist Gabriel García Márquez could have imagined. After 30 years of unsuccessful negotiations, Colombians became so pessimistic that we took for granted that this war would never end. We thought we were condemned to live with perpetual conflict.

We even drew a red line between cities and the rural territories, as if this country was torn apart. Cities became safe havens when the Colombian army, Latin America’s largest, managed to push the rebels back to their jungle strongholds, and rural Colombia became off-limits for generations of citizens who never dared to go outside the cities. The Farc never was defeated, though, and the war became a way of life.

More:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jun/25/colombia-truce-farc-maria-jimena-duzan