Colombian negotiator says new peace agreement to be ready by Nov. 20

Colombian senator, Roy Barreras, who is a member of the government's negotiation team with the FARC, said Thursday that a new peace agreement with the FARC would be ready by Nov. 20.

In an interview with Radio Caracol, Barreras said that "we will have a new agreement, which resolves most of the doubts Colombians have and will make them confident ... that the main proposal is to end the war, disarm the FARC, and let them rejoin society," he said.

"I see this as possible before November 20," he said.

The negotiating teams from the government and the FARC have restarted talks in Havana after the original peace agreement, hammered over four years of talks, was narrowly rejected in a national vote on Oct. 2.

The leaders of the "No" camp have been included in this latest round of talks and Barreras said important advances had been made to bring all sides closer together. According to the senator, the government presented the opposition's proposals to the FARC on Thursday.

Since the vote, the negotiators appointed by President Juan Manuel Santos have held regular meetings with the No camp, led by the Democratic Center party. The three most difficult areas concern the political participation of FARC members, reparations to victims and whether FARC guerrillas should be jailed.

While Barreras sounded confident, he warned that the new agreement must be negotiated quickly as there were risks of violence stirring up again in FARC-controlled areas. Endit