BOGOTA, Colombia — This Andean nation may be closer than ever to reaching a peace deal with the nation’s largest guerrilla group after the two sides announced Wednesday that they’d hammered out a cease-fire and disarmament agreement.
The details will be released today at a high-profile event in Havana, where conversations have been taking place for more than three years with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, guerrillas.
In a brief joint statement Wednesday, negotiators said they had reached agreements not just on the cease-fire, but on how the FARC will hand over its weapons, gather in “concentration zones,” and be protected after its members demobilize. The deal will also include the government’s plans to fight criminal gangs and other groups seen as a threat to lasting peace.
Those issues were considered some of the thorniest in the overarching peace deal. And even though a definitive agreement may still be weeks off, the administration hailed the news as a major breakthrough.
