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Colombia and FARC sign revised peace deal

Juan Manuel Santos and Rodrigo 'Timochenko' Londono inked the pact with a pen made from a bullet
Juan Manuel Santos and Rodrigo 'Timochenko' Londono inked the pact with a pen made from a bullet

Colombia's President Juan Manuel Santos and Marxist FARC rebel leader Rodrigo 'Timochenko' Londono have signed a revised peace accord in a far more sober ceremony than a first deal rejected last month by millions at a plebiscite.

They inked the pact to end 52 years of war in Latin America's fourth-largest economy with a pen made from a bullet at a Bogota theatre.

The new accord was put together in just over a month after the original pact was narrowly and unexpectedly defeated in a referendum on 2 October for being too lenient on the rebels.

The government and Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) have met in Cuba for the last four years to end the region's longest-running conflict that has killed more than 220,000 and displaced millions in the Andean nation.

Opposition leader and former president Alvaro Uribe spearheaded the push to reject the original accord and wanted deeper changes to the new version.

He is furious Mr Santos will ratify the new deal in Congress instead of holding another vote and is urging street protests.

The signing ceremony marked a six-month countdown for the 7,000-strong FARC to abandon weapons and form a political party.

Despite widespread relief at an end to conflict, many among Colombia's largely conservative residents are angry with the deal. Like the original agreement, the new document offers no jail time for FARC leaders who committed crimes such as kidnappings and massacres, and it allows them to hold political office.

Mr Santos, who won the Nobel Peace Prize last month for his peace efforts, wants to get the deal in place as quickly as possible to maintain a fragile bilateral ceasefire.

The expanded and highly complex new 310-page document makes only small modifications to the original text, such as clarifying private property rights and detailing more fully how the rebels would be confined in rural areas for crimes committed during the war.

The FARC, which began as a rebellion fighting rural poverty, has battled a dozen governments as well as right-wing paramilitary groups.

An end to the war with the FARC is unlikely to end violence in Colombia as the lucrative cocaine business has given rise to criminal gangs and traffickers.