Colombian, FARC leaders to sign historic peace deal
What you need to know:
- He will sign the accord at 5:00 pm (2200 GMT) with his former enemy, FARC leader Timoleon Jimenez, at a ceremony in the colourful colonial city of Cartagena.
CARTAGENA, COLOMBIA
Colombia’s government and the leftist FARC rebels prepared to sign a historic peace accord Monday to end a half-century civil war that has killed hundreds of thousands.
A solemn ceremony on the Caribbean coast witnessed by international dignitaries will set the seal on a four-year process to end Latin America’s last major armed conflict.
“Today we are experiencing the happiness of a new dawn for Colombia,” President Juan Manuel Santos said on Twitter.
He called it “a new stage in our history — one of a country in peace!”
He will sign the accord at 5:00 pm (2200 GMT) with his former enemy, FARC leader Timoleon Jimenez, at a ceremony in the colourful colonial city of Cartagena, the government said.
Santos opened the day’s events with a tribute to the Colombian military and police.
A prayer service for peace and reconciliation was scheduled later at an 18th-century Catholic church in Cartagena’s old town, led by the Vatican’s Secretary of State Pietro Parolin.
The guests at the signing will include UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, US Secretary of State John Kerry and an array of Latin American leaders.
They include Cuban President Raul Castro, whose country hosted the nearly four-year-long peace talks.