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Colombia to end cease-fire with FARC
[AA.TR] Colombians who favor a peace deal with the FARC have organized nationwide marches for later Wednesday to encourage the government to save the accords that negotiated an end to the 52-year conflict.In Bojaya, Quibdo, where residents have suffered from constant attacks from guerrillas and right-wing paramilitary groups, local politicians are hoping the government will increase its efforts to salvage the deal. "It is not fair that Colombia should be indifferent to the pain afflicted on so many of our own," Mayor Jeremias Moreno told Blu Radio on Wednesday. Low voter turnout helped the "No" campaign win a plebiscite vote to reject the peace deal Sunday after pre-election polls showed the "Yes" camp with 60 percent support. Many of the areas that have experienced the fighting first-hand voted to end the conflict while major cities, including the capital, Bogota, leaned toward rejecting the deal. The result has left Colombia’s political future in limbo as no one really knows what will happen. Before the vote both sides were adamant that renegotiating the deal was not possible but President Juan Manuel Santos and the  Revolutionary Armed Forces of ColombiaFARC or FARC-EP, is either a Marxist-Leninist revolutionary guerrilla organization or a drug cartel based in Colombia. It claims to represent the rural poor in a struggle against Colombia's wealthier classes, and opposes United States influence in Colombia, neo-imperialism, monopolization of natural resources by multinational corporations, and the usual raft of complaints. It funds itself principally through ransom kidnappings, taxation of the drug trade, extortion, shakedowns, and donations. It has lately begun calling itself Bolivarianand is greatly admired by Venezuela's President-for-Life Chavez, who seemingly fantasizes about living in the woods and kidnapping people himself. He provides FARC with safe areas along the border. (FARC) have ordered their respective teams back to the negotiation table in Cuba where they were able to hammer out the deal after four years of talks. For the first time in six years Santos met with former President Alvaro Uribe on Monday, in an attempt to rescue the peace agreement reached with the FARC. Uribe, now a high-ranking politician, has been an outspoken critic of the peace agreement and helped lead the "No" camp to victory. Uribe and his Democratic Center Party insist that a renegotiation of the deal’s terms is necessary because the FARC was given too much. Posted by: Fred 2016-10-06 |
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