HAVANA (AP) – President Juan Manuel Santos and leaders of Colombia’s largest rebel group vowed to end Latin America’s longest-running armed conflict in the coming months after reaching a breakthrough in talks that put the country closer to peace that it has been in half a century.
Speaking in Havana, where talks between the sides had been dragging on for years, Santos announced on Wednesday that government and rebel negotiators, prodded by Pope Francis to not let a historic opportunity for peace slip away, had set a six-month deadline to sign a final agreement. After that, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia would demobilize within 60 days.
“We are on different sides but today we advance in the same direction, in the most noble direction a society can take, which is toward peace,” said Santos, minutes before a forced, cold-faced handshake with the military commander of the FARC, known by his alias Timochenko.
The U.S. government lauded the breakthrough, with Secretary of State John Kerry saying that “peace is now ever closer for the Colombian people and millions of conflict victims.”
In a joint statement, Santos and the FARC rebels said they had overcome the last significant obstacle to a peace deal by settling on a formula to punish human rights abuses committed during about 50 years of bloody, drug-fueled fighting. The formula is designed to demand accountability from belligerents while insulating a deal against possible legal challenges from victims.