Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, who will be inaugurated for a second term Aug. 7, said on Sunday that Colombia's new legislature will be a "Congress of peace," according to Reuters.

Santos won his re-election bid in June, gaining support for his plan to end the 50-year war Colombia has been fighting with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), which has killed around 200,000 people.

The new session of this idealistic Congress opened Sunday.

"This will be -- there's no doubt -- the Congress of peace," Santos said. "We have a great challenge -- an achievable challenge -- to end an armed conflict which has bled us for half a century and build peace."

Colombia's former president, Alvaro Uribe, likely will head the opposition of such peace talks with the rebel forces. Uribe said striking a deal with the FARC is disrespectful to the war's victims.

The Democratic Center party, to which Uribe belongs, has 20 percent of the Senate and nearly 10 percent of Colombia's house.

In response to Uribe, Santos said that the argument again peace talks is invalid, because they "are not about -- and I want to be clear on this -- sacrificing peace to obtain justice. This is about seeing how to achieve peace with the maximum justice."

The FARC and another rebel group, the National Liberation Army, have spoken out in favor of the peace talks and put out a statement saying as much.

"Reconciliation is knocking at Colombia's door. It's time to pass from rhetoric and dead words to a period of transition, when Congress will legislate in favor of the uniting of Colombian society."

Peace talks with the rebel groups have been ongoing since 2012, according to Colombia Reports. Those talks have gotten partial agreements on land reform, political participation and drug trafficking. The Havana-based negotiators are discussing reparations and justice for the victims.