Colombia, FARC to make cease-fire, disarmament official after half-century civil war

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and regional leaders are set to descend Thursday on Havana to celebrate what could be the last major step toward ending the Western Hemisphere’s longest-running war, as Colombia’s government and leftist FARC rebels sign a much-anticipated cease-fire and disarmament deal.

While the agreement comes months after a self-imposed March deadline set by the two sides, U.S. officials hailed the development Wednesday as “an important step forward” in the elusive effort to formally end a guerrilla war that has killed more than 220,000 people, displaced millions of Colombians over the past half-century and proved a source of instability and drug trafficking across Latin America.

“Sometimes diplomacy, particularly this kind of difficult diplomacy, takes time and takes a lot of hard work,” said State Department spokesman John Kirby, adding that U.S. officials are especially grateful to Colombian President Juan Santos for the “effort that he put in to get the process this far.”

But Mr. Kirby also said President Obama’s own pursuit of diplomatic detente with the leftist Castro regime in Cuba — a longtime backer of the FARC — had a key impact on the negotiations. “Certainly it helped foster a better climate,” Mr. Kirby said. “But there isn’t one factor here that got us to this point.”

Originally founded as a Marxist peasant insurgency in Colombia, the FARC — the Spanish acronym for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia — is widely believed to control some 60 percent of the nation’s illicit cocaine trade.

While Washington spent more than $10 billion in the past 15 years on a counternarcotics effort to help Colombia’s military and police weaken and kill several top FARC commanders, analysts say, Mr. Santos, who staked his 2014 re-election campaign on reaching peace with the group, deserves the lion’s share of the credit for this week’s developments.

The majority of Colombians alive today have never known their country to be undivided and at peace.

“The disarmament and cease-fire agreement between the Colombian government and the FARC is a breakthrough that would have seemed impossible only a few years ago,” said Jason Marczak, who heads the Latin America Economic Growth Initiatives at the Atlantic Council, a Washington think tank.

“In doubling down on peace, President Santos is also doubling down on ushering in the new Colombia,” Mr. Marczak said in an emailed statement. “The final accord will signal that Colombia has fortified its place among the best emerging markets in which to do business.”

While some have questioned whether Bogota has a post-conflict plan that can effectively and quickly integrate rebel-controlled areas, this week’s agreement has at least removed doubts about the prospects for a final peace accord.

Plan for demobilization

The agreement announced Wednesday went further than expected.

In addition to announcing a framework for the cease-fire, both sides said they agreed on how the FARC’s estimated 7,000 fighters will demobilize and hand over their weapons, as well as on the security guarantees that will be provided to leftist activists after the conflict ends.

Momentum built toward the breakthrough after Mr. Santos said this week that he hoped to end a half-century of bloodshed by July 20, marking Colombia’s declaration of independence from Spain. “[Thursday] will be a great day,” the Colombian president blasted out on Twitter as the deal was announced. “We’re working for a Colombia in peace, a dream that’s beginning to become reality.”

Mr. Santos and FARC leader Rodrigo Londono will be among those on hand in Havana to unveil further details of the agreement. Mr. Ban announced he also will be there, and the presidents of Cuba, Venezuela and Chile — the three nations sponsoring the now almost 4-year-old peace talks in Havana — were also expected to attend.

Mr. Kirby said the Obama administration was sending its special envoy to the talks, former diplomat Bernard Aronson.

With the latest advances, diplomats said only a few minor items remain in the way of a final peace deal that would end Latin America’s last major insurgency, one seen as being a major supplier of cocaine to the United States and Europe.

The government and the rebels must still settle on a mechanism for selecting judges who will preside over special peace tribunals evaluating the war crimes of guerrillas as well as the Colombian military.

Mr. Santos has also promised to put any final deal to a referendum by Colombian voters. While it’s unclear when the vote will be held, it is generally seen as a small hurdle since opinion polls show the FARC is widely despised among Colombians.

A bigger uncertainty centers on Colombian conservatives aligned with former Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, who have opposed the negotiations and may attempt to scuttle any final deal if they win control of the government at the end of Mr. Santos’ presidency in 2018. Mr. Uribe as president launched the first effective counterinsurgency that rolled back FARC gains in 2002, with support from the George W. Bush administration.

On a separate front, the much smaller and more recalcitrant National Liberation Army, known as the ELN, remains in the field and could fill the void left by the FARC. The ELN agreed to a peace process with the government earlier this year, but those talks have yet to start because of Mr. Santos’ insistence the group renounce kidnapping.