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Colombia, FARC Set to Sign Renegotiated Peace Deal

by VOA News

   The Colombian government and the country's largest rebel group, FARC,
   are set to sign a renegotiated peace deal Thursday.

   The revised document will be signed in Bogota between FARC leader
   Rodrigo Londono and Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, who won the
   Nobel Peace Prize last month for his efforts to end the conflict with
   the insurgent group.

   The government and representatives of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of
   Colombia have been negotiating in Cuba for more than four years to
   bring an end to the conflict that has killed more than 220,000 and
   displaced millions in the Andean country.

   Earlier deal rejected by voters

   Last month, voters taking part in that referendum surprisingly rejected
   the first accord. After it is signed, the new deal will be submitted to
   Congress for approval, rather than put to another referendum.

   Ever since the original deal's defeat at the polls, the FARC and
   government negotiators have worked around the clock, introducing some
   50-plus changes to make it more acceptable to conservative Colombians
   who overwhelmingly despise the FARC.

   Former Colombian president Alvaro Uribe talks to the media after a
   meeting with Colombia President Juan Manuel Santos over a new peace
   deal with FARC, Nov. 12, 2016. Uribe is very much against the accord.

   Congress has to approve

   Despite the amendments, opposition leader and former President Alvaro
   Uribe on Tuesday rejected the deal, saying the changes are merely
   cosmetic.

   Uribe requested a meeting with the FARC leadership to discuss his
   concerns, but his overtures were soundly rejected. "Uribe governed
   badly, corrupted and bled Colombia during eight years and never wanted
   peace. He wanted to defeat the FARC, but he couldn't," FARC commander
   Pablo Catatumbo, one of the rebel commanders in Bogota, wrote on his
   Twitter account.

   Santos has made clear there is no more room for negotiation. In a joint
   government-FARC statement Tuesday, negotiators said they were still
   working on the procedures that will be used for ratification in
   Congress, where the government coalition has a solid majority.