Colombia's government and FARC guerrillas said Monday they have reached agreement on reparations and justice for victims of their half-century conflict, a key breakthrough in peace talks.
Negotiators from both sides confirmed the deal and said details would be released Tuesday.
"One more step toward the end of the conflict," the government delegation wrote on Twitter.
"This is cause for happiness, satisfaction and certainty that we are advancing with firm, secure steps toward a final accord," rebel negotiator Marcos Calarca told journalists in Havana, where the two sides have been in talks for the past three years.
The deal includes the establishment of special courts that will give maximum sentences of eight years for crimes committed in the conflict -- an agreement heralded as a major breakthrough when the two sides announced it in September.
They vowed that day to sign a final peace deal by the end of March. The only unsettled agenda items now are disarmament and the mechanism by which the final accord will be ratified.
The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), a Marxist guerrilla group, have been at war with the government since 1964.
The conflict, which has drawn in multiple rebel groups, right-wing paramilitaries and drug traffickers, has killed more than 220,000 people and uprooted six million.
Colombia’s government and FARC guerrillas said Monday they have reached agreement on reparations and justice for victims of their half-century conflict, a key breakthrough in peace talks.
Negotiators from both sides confirmed the deal and said details would be released Tuesday.
“One more step toward the end of the conflict,” the government delegation wrote on Twitter.
“This is cause for happiness, satisfaction and certainty that we are advancing with firm, secure steps toward a final accord,” rebel negotiator Marcos Calarca told journalists in Havana, where the two sides have been in talks for the past three years.
The deal includes the establishment of special courts that will give maximum sentences of eight years for crimes committed in the conflict — an agreement heralded as a major breakthrough when the two sides announced it in September.
They vowed that day to sign a final peace deal by the end of March. The only unsettled agenda items now are disarmament and the mechanism by which the final accord will be ratified.
The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), a Marxist guerrilla group, have been at war with the government since 1964.
The conflict, which has drawn in multiple rebel groups, right-wing paramilitaries and drug traffickers, has killed more than 220,000 people and uprooted six million.
