Spotlight: Colombians ready to make or break historic peace deal

Colombia prepared on Saturday for a key plebiscite vote that will either make or break a historic peace deal designed to put an end to Latin America's longest running civil conflict.

At stake is a peace agreement nearly four years in the making between the government and the Armed Revolutionary Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrilla group.

On Sunday, the country's 35 million eligible voters will vote to either accept the deal and take the path towards reconciliation, according to the "Yes" camp, or reject the terms because they don't go far enough to punish the rebels for rising up against the state, as the "No" camp claims.

The plebiscite will pose the simple question: Do you support the final agreement to end the conflict and build a stable and lasting peace? Voters need only underline the words "Yes" or "No."

Polls released earlier this week showed the "Yes" camp leading with more than 60 percent of the votes.

To ratify the deal, at least 13 percent of the electorate, or 4,536,992 voters, must turn out to vote.

In the run up to the plebiscite, both sides campaigned intensely, with Colombia's President Juan Manuel Santos and FARC leaders leading the drive to vote "Yes."

During the campaign, Santos urged Colombians to vote, saying "when you vote 'Yes,' and 'Yes' wins the plebiscite, the FARC disappears as an armed group."

The agreement obliges the rebels to renounce armed struggle, but offers them an opportunity to transition to a political party or movement, or simply rejoin civilian life.

In turn, the government has pledged to promote rural development and agrarian reform, one of the main demands of the FARC, which was founded more than 50 years ago by poor landless peasants who took up arms to change the system.

Both sides must also work together to address crimes and issues related to drug trafficking, as well as locate and identify the many missing, and make reparations to victims of the fighting, among other things.

The FARC made reparations a central part of its pre-poll campaign, visiting communities that had come under attack from rebel fighters, and asking for forgiveness.

In a moving ceremony on Saturday, FARC commander Ivan Marquez met with survivors of one such attack 22 years ago in the district of La Chinita in Apartado, a town in west Antioquia department.

"With a heart full of remorse, (I have come) to humbly ask for your forgiveness for all of the pain we caused during this war," Marquez told those gathered, according to Colombia's Caracol news service.

Speaking on behalf of the victims, Silvia Berrocal responded: "Twenty-two years ago, our relatives died here. Today we bid our relatives a definitive farewell, and we also have new hope and reconciliation."

The street where the attack occurred had since been known as The Massacre, but has now been renamed The Hope, Caracol reported.

A day earlier, the FARC delivered a statue of Christ to a community whose church it had accidentally bombed in 2002, killing 79 people, according to the English-language news service Colombia Reports.

Also Saturday, the FARC announced it would use all its assets to make reparations to the victims.

Santos welcomed the announcement via Twitter, as did the government's head negotiator to the peace talks Humberto de la Calle.

Leading the "No" vote was ex-president and Senator Alvaro Uribe, a conservative hardliner whose government tried to eradicate the FARC militarily, with financial backing from the United States.

In a speech on Friday, Uribe said "there is no demonstration of repentance" on the part of the FARC.

He also warned that allowing the FARC to enter politics paved the way for one of the military commanders to one day become president. Endit