Colombia, FARC plan to sign peace deal over Uribe objections
Source: Associated Press
Cesar Garcia, Associated Press
Updated 5:45 pm, Tuesday, November 22, 2016
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) Colombia's government and leftist rebels say they will sign a modified peace agreement Thursday despite strong resistance from former President Alvaro Uribe.
The signing ceremony promises to be a more subdued event than the heavily symbolic one attended by several heads of state in September in the colonial city of Cartagena. Reflecting the more somber mood in the country after the original deal was narrowly rejected by voters in a referendum, it will be held at the tiny Colon theater in downtown Bogota.
The decision to sign the accord and submit it to congress for approval was agreed to Tuesday by government peace negotiators and leaders of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia during a day of closed-door meetings at a heavily guarded Roman Catholic retreat in Bogota.
It followed a seven-hour meeting Monday night in which government negotiators tried to persuade Uribe and other skeptics to support the accord that would put an end to a half-century of fighting with the FARC.
Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/world/article/Colombia-FARC-plan-next-move-as-Uribe-rejects-10630774.php