HAVANA – Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos and leftist guerrilla commanders on Wednesday announced an important breakthrough in peace talks that sets the stage to end Latin America’s longest-running armed conflict.
In a joint statement from Cuba, Santos and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia said they have overcome the last significant obstacle to a peace deal by settling on a formula to punish belligerents for human rights abuses committed during a half century of bloody, drug-fueled fighting.
Rebels that confess abuses to special peace tribunals, compensate victims and promise not to take up arms again will receive a maximum 8 years of reparative labor in unspecified conditions that will restrict their freedom but likely not be prisons. War crimes committed by Colombia’s military will also be judged by the tribunals and combatants caught lying will face penalties of up to 20 years in jail.
Santos flew earlier in the day to Havana, where talks with the rebel group known as the FARC have been going on for three years. The advance came after Pope Francis warned the two sides that they didn’t have the right to fail in their best chance at peace in decades. Vatican spokesman Rev. Federico Lombardi credited the agreement to Francis’ appeal.
“Maybe we can connect this good news of today with the appeal of the pope on Sunday. I think this is a positive sign,” Lombardi said in a statement.