By Cintia Garcia

Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

Bogota, Colombia—The citizens of Colombia voted to reject the historic peace deal with FARC. The referendum resulted in a 50.24% vote against the peace deal. Ratification was the final step in making the peace deal, signed last week by President Juan Manuel Santos and the FARC leaders, official after four years of negotiations in Cuba.

The margin in votes was close with 49.8% in favor of the agreement, which resulted in a difference less than 63,000 votes. A total of 13 million ballots were counted. The question voters were asked to answer was,” Do you support the final agreement to end the conflict and construct a stable and enduring peace?” The result has left many stunned with uncertainty. The referendum was predicted to result in the approval of the peace deal which would have allowed the implementation to go forward.

President Juan Manuel Santos addressed the nation following the result and stated, “I won’t give up, I’ll continue the search for peace until the last moment of my mandate because that’s the way to leave a better country to our children.” He also expressed that the current ceasefire put in place will remain and has sent negotiators back to Cuba to discuss the next steps with FARC.

FARC leader, Rodrigo Londoño, stated, “With today’s result, we know that our challenge as a political party is even greater and requires more effort to build a stable and lasting peace.” He also emphasized that FARC will not continue fighting, “The FARC reiterated its disposition to use only words as a weapon to build toward the future.”

The peace deal is an effort to end the 52 years of civil war between the government of Colombia and FARC.

For more information, please see:

Aljazeera—Colombia referendum: Peace Deal With FARC Rejected—2 October 2016.

BBC—Colombia Referendum: Voters Reject FARC Peace Deal—2 October 2016.

NBC News—Colombia Narrowly Rejects Historic Peace Deal With Rebels—2 October 2016.

New York Times—Colombia Peace Deal Headed to Defeat, Causing Shock and Uncertainty—2 October 2016.