Recently in the global news, the Colombian government has signed an agreement with the FARC, the country's largest rebel group. It was a peace deal between the two parties.

In a report by BBC News, there was a previous deal which was rejected by the Colombian people almost a month ago. However, they were persistent to make a deal to the degree that there was a revised agreement submitted to the Congress of the Columbian agreement. It was Congress who gave the approval upon request rather than casting votes from the public through a referendum.

In the signing of the agreement by the two parties, there only about 800 people invited to Thursday's ceremony in the Colon Theater. It was more than half of the 2,500 people who attended the previous ceremony which took over in the port city of Cartagena. Of course, the leader of the group Farc, Rodrigo Londono, who is better known as Timochenko, and the President Juan Manuel Santos, the Columbian President, led the ceremony together upon signing the agreement.

Timochenko mentioned in an interview that it was better to put a definite end to the war that is going on so that they may be able to know their differences in a civilized manner. On the other hand, President Santos had emphasized that this revised agreement should proceed to implementation as soon as possible. He added that he expects Congress also to vote on the deal probably next week.

Meanwhile, in a report by the New York Times, the rivals of President Santos were accusing him of rushing into this new agreement instead of asking them to check and revise on it. Also, the Alvaro Uribe, who was the former president of Columbia was against to this move of the present administration. He said that the agreement does not put punish the rebels by the justice system.

Moreover, the following comprise other changes to the new agreement as reported in BBC:

  • FARC assets will have to undergo a handover to the government. Money from those assets will go to reparations for conflict victims. The agreement will address issues on family values arising from the agreement - as raised by religious groups.
  • The transitional justice system will have a 10-year time limit.
  • FARC rebels will have to divulge information on any drug trafficking-related cases.
  • The Colombian constitution will not include even parts of the peace agreement.

Stay tuned for more updates here in the global news.

Related