Colombian peace process

The Colombian peace process refers to the peace process between the Colombian government of President Juan Manuel Santos and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia – People's Army (FARC–EP) to bring an end to the Colombian conflict. Negotiations began in September 2012, and mainly took place in Havana, Cuba. Negotiators announced a final agreement to end the conflict and build a lasting peace on August 24, 2016. However, a referendum to ratify the deal on October 2, 2016 was unsuccessful after 50.2% of voters voted against the agreement with 49.8% voting in favor. Afterward, the Colombian government and the FARC signed a revised peace deal on November 24 and sent it to Congress for ratification instead of conducting a second referendum. Both houses of Congress ratified the revised peace accord on November 29-30, 2016, thus marking an end to the conflict.

The Colombian armed conflict is the oldest ongoing armed conflict in the Americas, beginning - by some measures - in 1964 with the creation of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia), the largest of left-wing guerrillas groups which have operated in the country.

In 1990 and 1991, peace negotiations with several smaller guerrilla movements resulted in their demobilization and transformation into civilian political actors. The first guerrilla group to demobilize following a peace agreement with the Colombian government was the 19th of April Movement (M-19), which demobilized and surrendered its weapons in exchange for blanket amnesty for all actions committed as part of the conflict. Other guerrilla groups which demobilized along similar conditions included most fronts of the Popular Liberation Army (EPL) and the Movimiento Armado Quintin Lame (MAQL). However, repeated attempts at finding a negotiated settlement through formal peace talks between the government and the FARC have all been unsuccessful. Prior to the current peace process, the most recent attempt at peace talks with the FARC was the 1999-2002 peace process under the government of President Andrés Pastrana, who had conceded a demilitarized zone to the FARC to facilitate peace talks within Colombian territory. Although the peace process continued for three years, no kind of agreement was reached between the two sides. Pastrana formally broke off all talks and ordered the military to retake control of the demilitarized zone on February 20, 2002, a few months before the 2002 presidential elections. The FARC had used the demilitarized zone as a safe zone to keep hostages, negotiate prisoner exchanges, train troops and plan offensive actions.The paralyzed peace process coincided with an escalation of the conflict, owing to a variety of factors including the rapid numerical and geographic expansion of paramilitary groups such as the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) who opposed the government's negotiations with the FARC. The 1998–2002 period was one of the most violent periods in recent Colombian history, with the national homicide rate increasing from 58.92 (1998) to 69.69 per 100,000 inhabitants (2002). In addition, there were 390 attacks on civilian settlements - the majority of them by the FARC; over 3,000 kidnappings each year between 1998 and 2002 and 898 massacres - mostly committed by paramilitary groups - killing over 5,400 people.

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