FARC Commander Timoleón "Timochenko" Jiménez said Monday that his group would maintain the ceasefire with Colombia's government that was put into effect last June.

Timochenko said FARC would follow the peace deal that was signed last week between him and Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos.

"The FARC-EP remains faithful to the agreement," he said In a televised statement on Colombia's state-run TV. "Peace with dignity is here to stay."

Santos also said the government would respect the ceasefire and that negotiations would continue in Havana, Cuba.

Colombia's political representatives -- including Congress leaders, Senate leaders, party leaders and government negotiators -- met Monday in Bogota with Santos. Former Colombian President Álvaro Uribe, who had been leading the campaign against the referendum, did not attend. But there was no indication of what came out of the Monday meeting. Colombia was thrown into confusion after voters narrowly rejected a referendum on the deal brokered between the government and FARC, a Marxist rebel group. Final results showed a little more than 50% voted no. What happens next in Colombia? The rejection was a shock because the agreement had taken more than four years to negotiate and would have ended five decades of war that left an estimated 220,000 people dead. Also on Monday, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon said he would send his special envoy, Jean Arnault, to Havana for talks on the peace agreement. He said he was encouraged that both sides appeared to want to end armed conflict. "After more than five decades of war, the Colombian people deserve no less," he said through a spokesperson. US State Department spokesman John Kirby commended the peaceful election and said "difficult decisions are going to have to be taken in the days ahead." He said the United States supports Santos' efforts for a broad dialogue. The referendum appeared to fail because Colombians thought the deal didn't do enough to punish the FARC rebels. FARC had seized territory, attacked government forces and conducted high-profile kidnappings. The rebels also hijacked planes, made millions trafficking cocaine and forced children to fight. </s> Both the Colombian government and FARC rebels declare they remain committed to revive negotiations after voters rejected peace agreement

BOGOTA: Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos opened a new national dialogue Monday to seek peace with FARC rebels as both sides scrambled to revive a peace deal to end the half-century conflict.

In a televised address a day after voters rejected the agreement in a referendum, Santos said he had asked the government’s chief negotiator Humberto de la Calle to “begin discussions as soon as possible addressing all the necessary issues to have an agreement and realize the dream of every Colombian to end the war with the FARC.”

De la Calle had earlier offered his resignation, saying he did not want to be “an obstacle to what comes next.”

Monday’s announcement came after Santos – who has staked his legacy on ending the 52-year-old conflict – called an emergency meeting with leaders of the country’s political parties to try to chart a way forward after Sunday’s shock referendum defeat.

As he arrived, a visibly crestfallen Santos said the meeting would seek “common ground and unity.”

“That’s more important now than ever,” he said.

The leader of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), Rodrigo Londono, meanwhile said in a video from Havana – where the peace talks were held – that the Marxist guerrillas, like the government, remained committed to an ongoing ceasefire.

Londono – better known by the nom de guerre Timoleon ‘Timochenko’ Jimenez – said the rebels were prepared to “fix” the rejected deal.

The result “does not mean the battle for peace is lost,” he said.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who had offered a UN team to oversee the disarmament process, said he had “urgently” sent his Colombia envoy to Havana, where the four-year talks have been held, for new consultations.

But the outcome left no clear path to end a conflict that has claimed more than 260,000 lives and left 45,000 missing.

Opinion polls had showed the “Yes” camp well ahead, and negotiators had said there was no Plan B in the event of a “No” vote.

The peace deal had been hailed as historic from the time it was concluded on August 24 to the moment it was signed last week in the presence of Ban and US Secretary of State John Kerry.

But many Colombians resented the blood shed by the Marxist guerrillas and the lenient punishment the deal meted out for their crimes.

Voters rejected the agreement by a razor-thin margin: 50.21 percent for the “No” camp to 49.78 percent for “Yes.”

Voter turnout was low, at just over 37 percent.

Although a referendum was not required to adopt the deal, Santos insisted on holding one to ensure its legitimacy.

The deal, which failed Sunday when Colombians narrowly voted against it, broadly split the country between those who have experienced the war first-hand and those who have mainly watched it on the news, experts said.

“The rural world, which has lived through the conflict, bet on peace. The urban world said ‘No,’” said Ariel Avila of Colombia’s Peace and Reconciliation Foundation.

“Because urban Colombia didn’t live through combat, air strikes… it doesn’t see the need,” for making concessions to the leftist rebels, he told AFP. — AFP </s> A stunning referendum defeat for a peace deal with leftist rebels leaves Colombians with no Plan B to save an accord that sought to bring an end to a half century of hostilities.

Instead of winning by an almost two-to-one margin on Sunday as pre-election polls had predicted, the accord with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) lost by a razor-thin margin, 49.8 percent to 50.2 percent.

Both President Juan Manuel Santos and leaders of the FARC, after four years of gruelling negotiations, vowed to push ahead, giving no hint they want to resume a war that has already killed 220,000 people and displaced 8 million.

“I won’t give up. I’ll continue search for peace until the last moment of my mandate,” Santos said in a televised address appealing for calm.

But it’s not clear how the already unpopular Santos can save the deal following the political earthquake, comparable to Britain’s vote to exit the European Union. His chief negotiator, Humberto de la Calle, offered his resignation Monday, assuming what he called “complete responsibility” for the defeat.

It’s unclear whether Santos will accept the offer or, as he previously announced, send him to Cuba with other negotiators to confer with FARC’s top leaders, who watched the results with disbelief after ordering drinks and cigars at Club Havana, once Cuba’s most exclusive beach club.

“The FARC deeply regret that the destructive power of those who sow hatred and revenge have influenced the Colombian people’s opinion,” the FARC’s top commander, a guerrilla known as Timochenko, told reporters.

The loss for the government was even more shocking considering the huge support for the accord among foreign leaders, who have heralded it as a model for a world beset by political violence and terrorism. Many heads of state as well as U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry were present when Santos and Timochenko signed the deal less than a week ago in an elaborate, emotion-filled ceremony in the historic city of Cartagena.

“In Cartagena, I witnessed the profound desire of the Colombian people to end the violence,” Ban Ki-moon told reporters in Geneva.

U.S. State Department spokesman John Kirby also expressed backing for Santos’ plan for “a broad dialogue” in the search for peace.

“Colombians have expressed their commitment to settle their differences through institutions and dialogue rather than violence,” he said.

Santos’ former boss and chief rival, former President Alvaro Uribe, led the grass-roots campaign against the accord. With none of the government’s huge PR machine, an angry Uribe gave voice to millions of Colombians, many of them victims of the FARC like him, who bristled at provisions in the 297-page accord sparing rebels jail time if they confessed their crimes and instead reserved them 10 seats in Congress.

After the results were in, Uribe insisted on “correctives” that guarantee respect for the constitution, respect for private enterprise and justice without impunity. But he didn’t specify whether he would join Santos in trying to salvage the deal.

The FARC’s 7,000 guerrilla fighters are unlikely to return to the battlefield any time soon. For now, a cease-fire remains in place.

One option for Santos would be to reopen negotiations, something he had ruled out previously and his chief negotiator said would be “catastrophic.”

One of the reasons for the surprise defeat was low turnout, with only 37 percent of the electorate bothering to vote, a further sign to some analysts that Colombians’ enthusiasm for the accord was lacking. The campaign exposed deep rifts in Colombian society, dividing many families. making clear the road to reconciliation would have been long and torturous even had the accord passed. Colombians overwhelmingly loathe the FARC, which the U.S. considers a terrorist group, and many considered the accord an insult to victims of the long-running conflict.

But while urban voters who were being leaned on to pay for the peace largely voted against the accord, victims in many areas hardest hit by the conflict overwhelmingly endorsed it. </s> HAVANA (AP) - The commander of Colombia’s biggest rebel movement said Sunday its fighters will permanently cease hostilities with the government beginning with the first minute of Monday, as a result of their peace accord ending one of the world’s longest-running conflicts.

Rodrigo Londono, leader of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), made the announcement in Havana, where the two sides negotiated for four years before announcing the peace deal Wednesday.

“Never again will parents be burying their sons and daughters killed in the war,” said Londono, who is also known as Timoshenko. “All rivalries and grudges will remain in the past.”

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos announced on Friday that his military would cease attacks on the FARC beginning Monday.

Colombia is expected to hold a national referendum Oct. 2 to give voters the chance to approve the deal for ending a half-century of political violence that has claimed more than 220,000 lives and driven more than 5 million people from their homes

After the agreement is signed, FARC guerrillas are supposed to begin handing their weapons over to United Nations-sponsored monitors. </s> BOGOTA: Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos said that a ceasefire with FARC rebels will end on October 31, as both sides scramble to find a solution to the half-century conflict after voters rejected a peace deal.

The chief of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) Rodrigo Londono, better known as Timoleon “Timochenko” Jimenez, promptly took to Twitter to ask “And after that, the war continues?”

Just a day earlier, he had vowed the guerrillas would continue to observe the ceasefire despite the referendum results.

“I hope we can move forward… to realize the necessary agreement to find a solution to this conflict,” Santos said in a televised address from the presidential palace.

As part of his efforts to salvage the peace deal on which he has staked his legacy, Santos plans to meet with his former boss and current nemesis Alvaro Uribe at the presidential palace at 11:30 am (1630 GMT) Wednesday, officials said.

The high-stakes meeting comes after Colombians on Sunday narrowly voted against a deal Uribe had condemned as too lenient on the leftist guerrillas — throwing the nearly four-year-old peace process into disarray and giving the former president a major victory.

Santos is fighting on two fronts after the unexpected result: he must find a compromise solution acceptable to both the hardliners in Uribe’s camp and the FARC.

The government and the FARC have had a ceasefire in place since August 29, five days after the two sides clinched a peace deal following five years of arduous negotiations in Cuba. The ceasefire had originally been intended to be permanent.

The government’s chief peace negotiator, Humberto de la Calle, has returned to Havana to see whether the FARC is open to revising the deal.

“The decision on whether to open up the agreements is a decision that falls to the FARC,” Foreign Minister Maria Angela Holguin told a press conference.

Santos has named Holguin, de la Calle and Defense Minister Luis Carlos Villegas to hold talks with the opposition on salvaging the deal.

Holguin said the government is “fully ready” to listen to the deal’s opponents.

She admitted the government was left scrambling by the surprise referendum result, which flew in the face of opinion polls.

“There was no Plan B. We believed the country wanted peace,” she said.

A United Nations mission tasked with overseeing the disarmament process was also left adrift.

“The mandate for the UN political mission… is for a peace deal. At this point, we don’t have a peace deal,” Holguin told journalists.

The meeting between Santos and Uribe comes after the latter’s right-wing party, the Democratic Center, snubbed emergency talks that Santos convened Monday at the presidential palace to chart a way forward with the country’s top political leaders.

The two men have a complicated history.

Santos served as Uribe’s defense minister from 2006 to 2009, leading a major army offensive against the FARC.

But he shifted gears after succeeding Uribe in 2010, opening peace talks with the weakened rebels — and provoking a falling-out with his former boss, who branded him a traitor.

Santos will also meet with former president Andres Pastrana (1998-2002), another major opponent of the peace deal, an hour before Uribe, his office said.

Both meetings will be held behind closed doors.

Santos said on Twitter he had invited the two former presidents “to dialogue… in a constructive spirit.”

His last known meeting with Uribe was in January 2011, after his government began secret talks with the FARC.

After formal talks with the rebels opened in Cuba in November 2012, Santos repeatedly offered to meet his predecessor, but no sit-down materialized.

The Colombia conflict has killed more than 260,000 people and left 45,000 missing over half a century, drawing in several leftist guerrilla groups, right-wing paramilitaries and drug gangs.

The FARC, the oldest and largest rebel group, was set to relaunch as a political party under the peace deal. AFP </s> BOGOTA, Colombia — A referendum defeat for a peace deal with leftist rebels leaves Colombians with no Plan B to save an accord that sought to bring an end to a half century of hostilities.

Instead of winning by an almost two-to-one margin Sunday as pre-election polls had predicted, those favoring the accord with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia lost by a razor-thin margin, 49.8 percent to 50.2 percent for those against the deal.

Both President Juan Manuel Santos and leaders of the FARC, after four years of negotiations, vowed to push ahead, giving no hint they want to resume a war that has already killed 220,000 people and displaced 8 million.

"I won't give up. I'll continue search for peace until the last moment of my mandate," Santos said in a televised address appealing for calm.

Santos has ordered his negotiators to return to Cuba on Monday to confer with FARC's top leaders.

"The FARC deeply regret that the destructive power of those who sow hatred and revenge have influenced the Colombian people's opinion," the FARC's top commander, a guerrilla known as Timochenko, told reporters.

Foreign leaders had heralded the accord as a model for a world beset by political violence and terrorism. Many heads of state as well as U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry were present when Santos and Timochenko signed the deal less than a week ago.

Norway, which along with Cuba co-sponsored the talks, said it would be willing to further facilitate peace talks. </s> A permanent ceasefire is taking effect in Colombia, in the latest step to bring an end to 52 years of bloody combat between the government and the country’s biggest rebel group.

The commander of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) announced on Sunday that his fighters would cease hostilities beginning at 12.01am on Monday. as a result of the peace deal reached by the two sides during the week.

Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos made a similar announcement on Friday, saying the military would halt attacks on the Farc beginning on Monday.

Farc leader Rodrigo Londono, also known as Timochenko, made his announcement in Havana, Cuba, where rebel and government negotiators talked for four years to reach the deal on ending one of the world’s longest-running conflicts.

“Never again will parents be burying their sons and daughters killed in the war,” he said. “All rivalries and grudges will remain in the past.”

Colombia is expected to hold a national referendum on October 2nd to give voters the chance to approve the accord, which would end political violence that has claimed more than 220,000 lives and driven more than five million people from their homes over five decades.

Polls say most Colombians loathe the rebel group but are likely to endorse the deal anyway.

Top Farc commanders are planning to gather one final time in mid-September to ratify the deal.

Under the 297-page accord, Farc guerrillas are supposed to turn over their weapons within six months after the deal is formally signed. In return, the Farc’s still unnamed future political movement will be given a minimum 10 congressional seats — five in the lower house, five in the senate — for two legislative periods.

In addition, 16 lower house seats will be created for grassroots activists in rural areas traditionally neglected by the state and in which existing political parties will be banned from running candidates.

But critics of the peace process say that will further boost the rebels’ post-conflict political power.

After 2026, both arrangements would end and the former rebels would have to demonstrate their political strength at the ballot box.

Not all hostilities are ending under the deal with the Farc. The much-smaller National Liberation Army remains active in Colombia, although it is pursuing its own peace deal with the government. </s> BOGOTA: Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos said a ceasefire with the country’s FARC guerillas has been extended until December 31 but that he hopes to have “a new agreement” for peace before that date.

“I have made the decision to extend the bilateral ceasefire until December 31. Let this be clear: This is not an ultimatum nor a deadline, but I hope that the entire process of obtaining a new agreement will be complete well before then,” the president said in a televised address.

The announcement came as Santos held fresh meetings with the opposition and members of the public, seeking a solution to the political fallout caused by voters who rejected the peace accord negotiated between the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the government.

Santos — who has staked his legacy on making peace — had previously said that the army would halt its ceasefire at the end of this month if no solution to the impasse was found by then.

The FARC, which had criticized Santos’ deadline, has also confirmed its willingness to continue negotiations and maintain a bilateral ceasefire.

Santos said he made the decision to extend the ceasefire after a student at one of the meetings told him that “in the army and among the guerrillas there are young people who are aware of what is happening, who hope not to have to return to shooting.”

In his address Santos urged Colombians to “achieve forever an end to the violence, the return of the displaced to their homes.”

The Colombian leader won the Nobel Peace Prize just a few days after voters shot down the historic accord in a referendum that would have ended more than 52 years of conflict.

The prize appeared to encourage the peacemakers.

Since the accord’s rejection, Santos has held marathon talks with political figures including the country’s former president Alvaro Uribe — who led opposition to the agreement — as well as religious leaders and victims of the armed conflict.

The government on Thursday also welcomed the leader of the Organization of American States, Luis Almagro, who urged Colombian leaders to commit to reaching a “prompt and urgent solution” to swiftly implement a peace agreement with the FARC. AFP </s> Colombians narrowly rejected a peace deal with Marxist guerrillas in a referendum on Sunday, plunging the nation into uncertainty and dashing President Juan Manuel Santos’ painstakingly negotiated plan to end the 52-year war.

The surprise victory for the “no” camp poured cold water on international joy, from the White House to the Vatican, at what had seemed to be the end of the longest-running conflict in the Americas.

The “no” camp won by 50.21 percent to 49.78 percent. Voter turnout was only 37 percent, perhaps partly owing to torrential rain through the country.

Both sides in the war immediately sought to reassure the world they would try to revive their peace plan.

Santos, 65, said a ceasefire already negotiated would remain in place, that he would sit down on Monday with the victorious “no” camp to discuss the way forward, and send his chief negotiator back to Cuba to meet with FARC rebel leaders.

“I will not give up, I will keep seeking peace until the last day of my term because that is the way to leave a better nation for our children,” said Santos, who cannot seek re-election when his second term ends in August 2018.

The commander of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, known by his nom de guerre, Timochenko, gave a similar message from Havana, where peace negotiations have taken place over the last four years.

“The FARC reiterates its disposition to use only words as a weapon to build toward the future,” said Timochenko, whose real name is Rodrigo Londono. “To the Colombian people who dream of peace, count on us, peace will triumph.”

Santos recently said a “no” vote would mean a return to war, and opinion polls had predicted he would win comfortably.

Traditionally conservative Colombian voters, in favor of peace in principle but unhappy at perceived soft treatment for the guerrillas, confounded those forecasts.

Opponents of the pact believed it was too lenient on the FARC rebels by allowing them to re-enter society, form a political party and escape jail sentences.

“I voted no. I don’t want to teach my children that everything can be forgiven,” said Bogota engineer Alejandro Jaramillo, 35.

Opponents want a renegotiation of the deal with rebel leaders serving jail time and receiving no free seats in Congress.

“This is a clear message. .. I ask all citizens to trust we will know how to handle this situation without agitation. We’ll work with the government to remake this accord,” said former Vice President Francisco Santos, a prominent “no” supporter.

“No” voters appeared more highly motivated, and some Colombians may have felt pressured to tell pollsters they were voting for peace despite private doubts.

Regions still riven by the conflict, including poor areas along the Pacific and Caribbean coasts, voted resoundingly in favor of the deal, but formerly violent interior regions pacified during the presidency of former leader Alvaro Uribe backed the “no” camp.

Uribe, still an influential figure in Colombia with a large following, led the “no” camp and the result was a huge victory for him.

The rebels, whose numbers were halved to about 7,000 in recent years because of a U.S.-backed military offensive, had agreed to turn in weapons and fight for power at the ballot box instead.

Under the accord, the FARC, which began as a peasant revolt in 1964, would have been able to compete in the 2018 presidential and legislative elections and have 10 unelected congressional seats guaranteed through 2026.

It would also have given up its role in the lucrative illegal drug trade and taken part in reforming rural Colombia.

But controversially, many rebel leaders who ordered killings, bombings and displacements would have had to appear before a special tribunal that could sentence them to alternative punishments like clearing landmines.

For decades, the FARC bankrolled the longest-running conflict in the Americas through the illegal drug trade, kidnapping and extortion.

Battles between the guerrillas, paramilitaries, drug gangs and the army raged in the countryside and there were atrocities committed on all sides.

The conflict took more than 220,000 lives and displaced millions of people. At one stage, the FARC was positioned close to the capital and the state was on the verge of collapse.

Supporters of the peace deal were stunned by the plebiscite result.

“How sad. It seems Colombia has forgotten about the cruelty of war, our deaths, our injured, our mutilated, our victims and the suffering we’ve all lived through with this war,” said Adriana Rivera, 43, a philosophy professor standing tearfully at the hotel of the “yes” campaign.

The vote was a disaster for Santos, who had hoped to turn his focus quickly to other matters including possible talks with the smaller ELN rebel group, a much-needed tax reform and other economic measures to compensate for a drop in oil income.

The government had hoped peace would lead to a boom in investment by commodities investors, in gold mines, oil and agriculture in Latin America’s fourth-largest economy.

After Sunday’s vote, companies will be rethinking the situation.

Although the “no” camp has broached the idea of fresh talks, the FARC has said no group sits at a negotiating table to agree to jail time.

“Today will be remembered by history as the moment Colombia turned its back on what could have been the end of a war that for more than 50 years devastated millions of lives,” said Erika Guevara-Rosas, Americas director for rights group Amnesty International. “Even though it was imperfect, the accord was a sure path to peace and justice.” – Reuters
FARC leader Rodrigo Londoño (Timoleón) says his troops will honor its commitments to the Colombian government, including the permanent cease-fire, despite voters rejection of the peace accord in Sunday's referendum. President Juan Manuel Santos calls the country's political parties to an emergency meeting.