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Colombian president, head of FARC rebels agree on cease-fire

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, left, and Commander of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia or FARC, Timoleon Jimenez, right, shake hands during a signing ceremony of a cease-fire and rebel disarmament deal, in Havana, Cuba, Thursday. (Ramon Espinosa / Associated Press)
By Michael Weissenstein and Joshua Goodman Associated Press

HAVANA – Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos and the head of the country’s leftist FARC rebels agreed Thursday on a cease-fire and rebel disarmament deal that moves the country to the brink of ending a 52-year war that has left more than 220,000 people dead.

At a ceremony in Havana, Santos and FARC commander Rodrigo Londono, better known as Timochenko, watched as their lead negotiators signed a deal laying out how 7,000 rebel fighters will demobilize and hand over their weapons after the signing of a final peace accord as early as next month. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, a special U.S. envoy and the presidents of Cuba, Chile and Venezuela and other Latin American countries applauded the signing.

In the Colombian capital, Bogota, hundreds of people watched the ceremony live on a giant screen, hugging each other, signing the national anthem and waving the Colombian flag. Some cried.

A 15-year, U.S.-backed military offensive thinned rebel ranks and forced FARC’s aging leaders to the negotiating table in 2012. In Santos, a U.S.-educated economist and scion of one of Colombia’s richest families, the rebels found a trusted partner who hailed from the conservative elite but wasn’t bound by its prejudices.

“The Colombian armed forces that grew enormous during the war are now called to play an important role in peace,” Timochenko said. “They were our adversaries, but going forward they’ll be our allies.”

In addition to a framework for the cease-fire, both sides agreed on a demobilization plan that will see guerrillas concentrate in rural areas and hand over weapons that had long been the vaunted symbols of their movement’s origins as a self-defense force of peasant farmers attacked by the oligarchy-controlled state.

The deal does not mark the start of a cease-fire, which would only begin with the signing of a final peace deal. It requires the rebels to completely put down their arms at most six months after the signing of the final accord.

A day after the signing of the final deal, the Colombian army will reposition troops to protect FARC fighters as they move to their transition zones within five days. FARC fighters will move to 23 zones and eight camps where they will leave their arms and begin the process of moving back into civilian life. The arms will be delivered to United Nations monitors, who will use them to build three monuments to peace, according to the deal.

Santos has also promised to let Colombians vote on accepting the final accord in a national referendum, and his government isn’t taking acceptance for granted.