FARC rebels to enter Colombia's politics once peace deal is singed
The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) says it will enter politics and build up alliances with other parties after agreeing on a peace deal with the government in Bogota to end the decades-long conflict in the South American country.
“We will be in politics without arms. We will enter a political scenario where it will be fundamental to unite the largest number of forces possible to guarantee the deal is fulfilled,” said head of the leftist guerrilla group Rodrigo Londono, known by his nom de guerre Timochenko, in a Sunday interview with Colombian local magazine Semana.
He added that the group would put aside arms once an accord is signed and take up the “political struggle,” adding that the FARC’s political party could participate in Colombia’s 2018 legislative and presidential elections.
The two sides have been holding peace talks in the Cuban capital Havana. The negotiations have made several key advances in recent months, and the two sides have set a deadline of March 23 to sign a final accord for a ceasefire.
Several main areas of disagreement have been discussed in the talks, namely transitional justice, land reform, political participation for former rebels, putting an end to drug trafficking, removing the land mines, efforts to find missing persons, disarmament, and the mechanism by which the final accord will be ratified. Deals have been reached on the first six issues. The latter two, however, are still under discussion.
A United Nations mission will monitor the group’s disarmament once a peace deal is inked.
Bogota and FARC have been at war since the guerrilla movement rose to prominence in 1964. So far, more than 200,000 people have been killed in clashes between the two sides and millions of others have been displaced.
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