Leftist rebels in Colombia have turned over almost all of their fighters’ individual weapons as part of a historic peace deal reached with the government last year to end a half century of conflict, the United Nations said Monday.
Spain has agreed to extradite to Colombia a former FARC rebel accused of carrying out 300 forced abortions on women fighters, some of them underage. Hector Arboleda Albeidis Buitrago, who has Spanish nationality, was detained in Madrid in December 2015.
Colombia's FARC rebels have expelled five commanders for refusing to demobilize and join a peace process with the government aimed at ending more than five decades of war, guerrilla leadership said. The five commanders, all from units in the country's southeast jungle, include one former participant in four-year-long peace talks in Cuba.
Colombia's government and FARC guerrillas will sign a new peace accord on Thursday, after a previous agreement to end their half-century-old war was defeated in a referendum, both parties said. The new, revised accord will be submitted to Congress for approval, rather than put to another referendum, they added.
Colombia's government and its largest rebel group announced a new, modified peace accord Saturday, after voters rejected an earlier deal in a referendum. The government and Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) - a Marxist guerrilla group - said in a joint statement they had incorporated proposals from various groups in the new deal.
Tuesday saw the first ever state visit by a Colombian president to the UK. Nobel Peace Prize laureate, President Juan Manuel Santos is visiting for three days as an official guest of Her Majesty The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh. He will have a working lunch with Prime Minister Theresa May, visit Belfast and attend events at Mansion House, the Natural History Museum and his old university, the LSE.
Colombia's Democratic Center party founded by former president Alvaro Uribe criticized on Sunday The New York Times for a recent editorial accusing the ex head of government of blocking the peace process in the country and calling on him to act as a true statesman. The party said that the NYT editorial constitutes an offence to the millions of Colombians who voted against the terms of the peace accord between the government and the main guerrilla group, FARC.
Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos said Wednesday peace with the FARC rebels is “close,” but his top opponent demanded an overhaul of a “weak” deal rejected by voters in a referendum.
Colombia's president tried Monday to keep alive an agreement to end Latin America's longest-running war after a shocking rejection by voters, but his opponents made clear their price for joining the effort will be steep.
Colombian voters appeared to have shocked their government, world leaders and pollsters by blasting away its hopes for a historic peace deal with the Marxist FARC rebels on Sunday, near-complete referendum results showed. Reversing the trend of earlier opinion polls, voters appeared to have narrowly defied the government's pleas to ratify its plan to put 52 years of bloody conflict behind them within months.