Doubts had been voiced by the government, the UN 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) about whether the March 1 commencement date to begin the disarming process would be met as some of the 26 zones of concentration in Colombia were not ready to receive the 6,900 rebels now committed to the peace agreement.
But as news came that the process had begin, the government sounded optimistic both sides would stay committed to the deal.
"It's an inescapable fact that the armed conflict is coming to an end," Interior Minister Juan Fernando Cristo told a local radio station. "We are in the initial phase of destroying unstable weaponry."
President Juan Manuel Santos, who relied the Nobel Peace Prize for working out the peace deal said late Tuesday that "the country has entered an irreversible stage of peace consolidation," and that "as a government, as a state and as a society we are going to make the fruits of peace a reality".