{"id":28142,"date":"2016-08-29T02:01:24","date_gmt":"2016-08-29T02:01:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/colombia-ceasefire-ends-half-century-long-war\/"},"modified":"2016-08-29T02:01:00","modified_gmt":"2016-08-29T02:01:00","slug":"colombia-ceasefire-ends-half-century-long-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/colombia-ceasefire-ends-half-century-long-war\/","title":{"rendered":"Colombia ceasefire ends half-century-long war"},"content":{"rendered":"

{Government and FARC fighters declare end to 52-year-old conflict, with a peace deal expected to be signed in September.}<\/p>\n

A ceasefire to end the 52-year-old war between the Colombian state and FARC fighters has gone into effect, with a full peace agreement expected to be signed in September.<\/p>\n

The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) has issued the order for its men to observe the ceasefire from midnight (05:00 GMT Monday).<\/p>\n

Juan Manuel Santos, Colombia’s president, said on Twitter: “This August 29 a new chapter begins for Colombia. We are putting down our weapons. We’ve ended the war with FARC!”<\/p>\n

Hundreds of thousands of Colombians have died since 1964 as government forces and FARC fighters battled in the jungles in what is considered Latin America’s last major civil armed conflict.<\/p>\n

On the government side, Santos on Thursday ordered the Colombian national armed forces to halt military operations against the FARC.<\/p>\n

“The end of the conflict has arrived!,” he said on Twitter.<\/p>\n

In a declaration before the media on Sunday in Cuba, where peace talks were held, Timoleon Jimenez, top FARC leader, said: “I order all our commanders and units and each one of our combatants to definitively cease fire and hostilities against the Colombian state from midnight tonight.<\/p>\n

“We noted with excitement the president’s order to the army. Consequently we are proceeding to give the same order to our troops.”<\/p>\n

The FARC declared a unilateral ceasefire in July 2015. But Sunday night’s ceasefire is the first in which both sides have committed to a definitive end to the fighting.<\/p>\n

“The ceasefire is really one more seal on the end of the conflict. It is the test of fire,” said Carlos Alfonso Velazquez, a security expert at the University of La Sabana.<\/p>\n

Santos and Timochenko are due to sign a final, full peace agreement sometime between September 20 and 26.<\/p>\n

The ceasefire and definitive end of hostilities will be followed by a six-month demobilisation process.<\/p>\n

From Monday, the FARC’s estimated 7,500 fighters will start heading to collection points to give up their weapons under UN supervision.<\/p>\n

Guerrillas who refuse to demobilise and disarm “will be pursued with all the strength of the state forces,” Santos told El Espectador newspaper.<\/p>\n

Before the demobilisation, the FARC will convene its leaders and troops one last time before transforming into “a legal political movement,” according to a statement published on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Peace referendum<\/p>\n

On October 2, Colombians will go to the polls to cast ballots in a referendum that Santos hopes will endorse the peace agreement.<\/p>\n

“A victory for the ‘Yes’ vote will be a mandate from citizens for future governments,” Santos was quoting as saying by El Espectador.<\/p>\n

“The plebiscite will grant the political legitimacy that is needed.”<\/p>\n

He said the exact question that will be posed to voters in the referendum would be announced “in the coming days.”<\/p>\n

“We are on the verge of perhaps the most important political decision of our lives,” Santos said in a speech on Saturday<\/p>\n

The territorial and ideological conflict has drawn in various left- and right-wing armed groups and gangs.<\/p>\n

It has left some 260,000 dead, 45,000 missing and 6.9 million people uprooted from their homes.<\/p>\n

Efforts to launch peace talks with a smaller rebel group, the National Liberation Army, have yet to bear fruit.<\/p>\n

But with the country’s biggest rebel group, the FARC, ordering a definitive ceasefire, the conflict appears to be reaching an end.<\/p>\n

\"Both<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{Government and FARC fighters declare end to 52-year-old conflict, with a peace deal expected to be signed in September.} A ceasefire to end the 52-year-old war between the Colombian state and FARC fighters has gone into effect, with a full peace agreement expected to be signed in September. The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[101],"byline":[2474],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-28142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics-48","tag-internationl","byline-al-jazeera"],"bylines":[{"id":2474,"name":"AL JAZEERA","slug":"al-jazeera","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"contributors":[{"id":2474,"name":"AL JAZEERA","slug":"al-jazeera","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28142"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28142\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28142"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=28142"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=28142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}