Colombian Government Says New Peace Deal Final, Senate to Meet Soon

There will be no more negotiation between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. The new tentative peace deal reached between the two parties last weekend is, in fact, the final draft, chief government negotiator Humberto de la Calle said Tuesday.

According to Bogotá, the new agreement adopts the vast majority of an estimated 500 proposed changes offered by factions that rejected the referendum when it was voted down Oct. 2. Much of the opposition focused on what critics called leniency toward the rebels in the original agreement. The new deal restricts those who have confessed to war crimes to certain rural sections of the country for five to eight years.

President Juan Manuel Santos, who won a Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to bring an end to the 52-year conflict just days after the earlier deal was voted down, is not legally required to hold a second referendum for this second deal. Tuesday’s government statement suggests he will instead have it ratified by Congress.

And, indeed, Colprensa news agency has reported Congress will begin to debate the process of ratification and implementation of the peace deal on Wednesday. Senate President Mauricio Lizcano, a member of Santos’s U Party, said his coalition intends to bring the final deal to a congressional vote.

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