HAVANA: Colombia’s government and its biggest rebel group announced a deal on Wednesday evening for ending their country’s half-century guerrilla war, one of the world’s longest-running armed conflicts.

The government’s accord with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia must still be ratified by voters in a plebiscite in order to take effect. But the announcement in Havana of a deal after four years of talks opens the possibility for Colombians to put behind them political bloodshed that has claimed more than 220,000 lives and driven more than 5 million people from their homes.

The accord commits Colombia’s government to carrying out aggressive land reform, overhauling its anti-narcotics strategy and greatly expanding the state into traditionally neglected areas of the country. Negotiations began in November 2012 and were plagued by distrust built up during decades of war propaganda on both sides.

Polls say most Colombians loathe the rebel group known as the FARC and show no hesitation labelling them “narco-terrorists” for their heavy involvement in Colombia’s cocaine trade, an association for which members of the group’s top leadership have been indicted in the US Meanwhile, the FARC held onto a Cold War view of Colombia’s political and economic establishment as “oligarchs” at the service of the US.

The rebel army was forced to the negotiating table after a decade of heavy battlefield losses that saw a succession of top rebel commanders killed by the US-backed military and its ranks thinned by half to the current 7,000 troops. Santos, an unlikely peacemaker given his role as architect of the military offensive, throughout maintained a steady pulse even as he was labelled a traitor by his conservative former allies and suffered a plunge in approval ratings.

The most contentious breakthrough came in September when Santos travelled to Havana to lay out a framework for investigating atrocities, punishing guerrillas for involvement in those abuses and offering compensation to victims.

Opponents of Santos and some human rights groups harshly criticised a key part of that deal: guerrillas who confess their crimes won’t spend any time in prison and will instead be allowed to serve out reduced sentences of no more than eight years helping rebuild communities hit by the conflict.

Another toad to swallow, as Santos calls the concessions he’s had to make, will be the sight of former rebel leaders occupying seats in congress specially reserved for the FARC’s still unnamed political movement.

The exact number of such seats was among the last details being hammered out in marathon 18-hour sessions taking place in recent days. “We haven’t slept but it was worth the effort,” said Sen. Roy Barreras, among political reinforcements sent in by Santos to work on the deal, speaking to Caracol Radio from Havana.

The announcement that talks have successfully concluded will trigger a series of events, some entailing political risks. First, Santos must present the accords to congress and ask it to set a date for a plebiscite that could take place as early as next month.

Polls show Colombians would likely endorse any deal in a simple yes or no vote.

Published in Dawn, August 26th, 2016