By Jim Wyss, Miami Herald
BOGOTA, Colombia —This long-troubled nation took a leap into the void Sunday as it narrowly rejected a peace deal with the country’s largest guerrilla group that was intended to end more than a half-century civil conflict.
The vote is a brutal blow to President Juan Manuel Santos, who had staked his presidency on the deal. Just last week, he was basking in the glow of world leaders as he signed off on the deal.
With 99.08 percent of the vote counted, election authorities said the “no” vote won with 50.2 percent, vs. 49.8 percent for the “yes” vote. The difference was less than 70,000 votes.
The government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, spent almost four years in Havana, Cuba, negotiating the deal. They ended negotiations Aug. 24 and Santos and FARC leader Rodrigo Londono signed off on deal Sept. 26.
Polls before Sunday’s vote had indicated “yes” would win with a comfortable margin. But rural areas, particularly those hardest hit by the FARC, voted overwhelmingly “no.”
Colombians in the United States, many of whom fled during the violence, also voted against the deal. With 65 percent of the vote counted in the United States, 61 percent voted against the deal vs. 39 percent for it.
After casting his vote earlier in the day, President Juan Manuel Santos said he believed the election “would change the history of the country for the better.”
“We’re ending a 52-year-old war and opening up the path for peace,” he said.
If the peace deal had been approved, the FARC, which was founded in 1964, planned to put down their weapons and become political players in the Andean nation.
Saturday, the FARC announced they would provide a detailed list of their resources and goods — which they called their “war economy” — to be used to make reparations to the victims of the conflict. Until then, the group had insisted that it was broke.
Carolina Travesedo, a 27-year-old religion teacher, said she had some doubts about the content of the peace deal but had voted in favor of it.
“It’s not perfect,” she said. “But this is a day where we have to have hope and give peace a little help.”
Luis Ernesto Gonzalez, a 65-year-old homeopath from Florencia in southern Colombia, said he feared the peace deal would put the nation at risk by giving the FARC a free pass.
“We’re giving them a passport so they can come down from the hills into the cities and keep killing and committing crimes,” he said. “This government is unjust in giving benefits to these violent people.”
Among the peace agreements provisions: Most guerrillas would receive amnesty, and those accused of serious crimes would have access to “alternative” penalties that don’t include jail time as long they confess their crimes.
The deal also required the FARC, which has ties to Colombia’s cocaine trade, to help eliminate illicit crops.
The deal contemplated reparations for victims, a truth commission and a special group to discover the fate of the disappeared. But at its core, the deal paved the way for the FARC to transform itself into a political party.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
