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FARC pushes back date for final Colombia peace treaty

Xinhua, March 3, 2016 Adjust font size:

The hope of reaching a final peace agreement between Colombian government and the FARC guerrilla movement in March has gone up in flames after envoys to peace talks in Havana stated Wednesday this would not happen before the end of the year.

The FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) negotiation team in Havana stated that they feel a final end to over 50 years of conflict could be negotiated by the end of 2016. However, this torpedoed an earlier estimate by the Colombian government that a final deal could be signed on Mar. 23.

In a press release, the head of the FARC team, Ivan Marquez, expressed "certainty" that a peace agreement would eventually put an end to the war.

However, this is contingent on finding compromise on a number of areas, including disarmament and the political rehabilitation of FARC members.

Additionally, Marques stated that the FARC stands fully ready to work on a calendar for the peace process, in order to reach a final agreement "as soon as possible."

Colombian government did not immediately respond to Marquez's statement.

The Mar. 23 date set by the government had long been seen as unworkable, as a Gallup poll released Tuesday showed that 80 percent of Colombians did not believe a peace agreement could be worked out by then.

Delegations from FARC and the Colombian government have been undergoing peace talks in the Cuban capital since November 2012 and, after 46 rounds of talks, they reached a consensus in issues referring to comprehensive agricultural development, political participation, illegal drugs and ways to compensate the victims of the conflict.

According to figures from Colombia's Historical Memory Center, the armed conflict in the South American country has left 220,000 people dead, 45,000 missing people and around 6 million displaced people.

The guerrilla movement and Colombia's government are addressing the finer details surrounding the end of the conflict, countersigning mechanisms and the verification of the final peace agreement.

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