Ceasefire in Colombia after Decades of War

Colombians celebrated Monday August 24th, as the signing permanent ceasefire brought an end to over 50 years of civil war in Colombia late Sunday night. This was a major step in creating peace between the government of Colombia and the country’s largest rebel group, The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

The commander of FARC announced Sunday that beginning at 12:01 a.m., fighters would stop any hostilities in light of the peace accord the government and the group had reached. The president of Colombia, Juan Manuel Santos, announced Friday that the military would stop all attacks on the FARC beginning Monday.

Copies of the 297-page peace accord were distributed in national newspapers over the weekend.

Commitments covered in the FARC peace deal included:
- A commitments from FARC to lay down their arms within 180 days of the final peace deal which will be received by UN monitors
- The creation of temporary transition zones and camps for an estimated number of 7000 rebels
- A commitment not to allow civilians to enter the FARC camps in an effort to guarantee the safety of rebels

On October 2nd Colombia is expected to hold a national referendum in which voters will have the a chance to approve the peace accord.

However, the agreement that took over four years of peace negotiations to reach, is “not a done deal” according to some experts including Cape Breton university lecturer on globalization and Latin America, Garry Leech.

The agreement has "interesting novel and unique aspects," says Leech, in that "it calls for things like peasant reserve zones, because most of the poverty and inequality in Colombia is evident in the countryside."

"You're about to demobilize about 8,000 guerrillas whose principal skill is violence, and so if you don't find an effective way to reintegrate them into civilian life and give them a means to support themselves, then you run the risk of […] an increase in criminal violence."

"The peace process in Colombia is going to be as complicated and complex as the conflict has been," he said.