BOGOTA, Colombia — With less fervor and an added dose of uncertainty Colombia’s government on Thursday will sign another peace accord with the country’s largest rebel group — the second in two months.
The simple, hastily-organized ceremony in a Bogota theater reflects President Juan Manuel Santos’ greater sense of urgency to end hostilities with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia after the original accord, brokered over four years of talks, suffered a shock defeat in a referendum a week after it was signed in front of heads of state and U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
Santos, winner of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize, has tried to project a conciliatory image in the face of the humbling defeat at the polls.
The new, 310-page accord introduces some 50 changes intended to assuage critics led by still-powerful former President Alvaro Uribe.
But the FARC wouldn’t go along with the opposition’s strongest demands — jail sentences for rebel leaders who committed atrocities and stricter limits on their future participation in politics.
In an act of protest, members of Uribe’s political party are considering a boycott of next week’s scheduled debate in congress on ratifying the agreement, accusing the legislature of disobeying the constitution. They’re also threatening to call for street protests to denounce what they say is a “blow against democracy.”
The lack of broad support for the accord will make the already-steep challenge of implementing it even tougher.
Colombians overwhelmingly loathe the FARC for crimes such as kidnappings and drug-trafficking. Ensuring that the 8,000-plus fighters don’t wind up joining criminal gangs rampant throughout the country will test the state’s ability to make its presence felt in traditionally neglected rural areas, at a time of financial stress triggered by low oil prices.
There’s also a risk that peace could trigger more bloodshed, as it did following a previous peace process with the FARC in the 1980s when thousands of former guerrillas, labor activists and communist militants were gunned down by right-wing militias, sometimes in collaboration with state agents.
That fear, although less prevalent than in the darker days of Colombia’s half-century conflict, has become more urgent with more than a dozen human rights defenders and land activists in areas dominated by the FARC being killed by unknown assailants since the first signing ceremony in September.
Santos this week held an emergency meeting with his Cabinet and U.N. officials to discuss the murders, taking an opportunity to reinforce his message that peace can’t wait. So far this year, 70 have been killed, according to Bogota-based We Are Defenders, more than in all of 2015.
“We have to take action. There’s no time to lose,” Santos said in a televised address announcing Thursday’s ceremony with less than 40 hours of anticipation.