CARTAGENA, Colombia (Reuters) - Colombia’s center-right government and the Marxist FARC rebel group signed a peace deal on Monday to end a half-century war that killed a quarter of a million people and once took the Andean country to the brink of collapse.

After four years of peace talks in Cuba, President Juan Manuel Santos, 65, and rebel leader Timochenko - the nom de guerre for 57-year-old Rodrigo Londono - warmly shook hands on Colombian soil for the first time and signed the accord with a pen made from a bullet casing.

A crowd of dignitaries chanted: “Long live Colombia, long live peace” as Santos handed Timochenko a white dove pin. One man waved a large Colombian flag that had an extra white stripe in homage to the peace deal.

“The horrible night of violence that has covered us with its shadow for more than half a century is over,” Santos said through tears. “We open our hearts to a new dawn, to a brilliant sun full of possibilities that has appeared in the Colombian sky.”

Colombians will vote on Sunday on whether to ratify the agreement, but opinion polls show it should pass easily.

Attendees at the event, many of whom also wept, observed a minute of silence in memory of those killed, maimed, raped, kidnapped and displaced during the war.

The end of Latin America’s longest-running war will turn the FARC guerrillas into a political party fighting at the ballot box instead of the battlefield they have occupied since 1964.

“No one should doubt that we will conduct politics without arms,” said Timochenko, who asked for forgiveness from FARC victims. “We are all prepared to disarm in our minds and our hearts.”

Guests at the ceremony in the Caribbean coastal city of Cartagena were asked to wear white and included United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Cuban President Raul Castro and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry.

Showing its support for the peace deal, the European Union on Monday removed the FARC from its list of terrorist groups.

Kerry said Washington would also review whether to take the FARC off its terrorism list, and has pledged $390 million for Colombia next year to support the peace process.

“Anybody can pick up a gun, blow things up, hurt other people, but it doesn’t take you anywhere. ... Peace is hard work,” he said of a rare diplomatic good news story for the Obama administration as it contends with the seeming intractable war in Syria and other conflicts.

FIERCE WAR

In the worst days of the war, attacks shook the capital, Bogota, which rebels threatened to overrun, and battles between the guerrillas, paramilitaries, drug gangs and the army raged in the countryside, parts of which remain sown with landmines.

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos (L) and Marxist rebel leader Timochenko shake hands after signing an accord ending a half-century war that killed a quarter of a million people, in Cartagena, Colombia September 26, 2016. REUTERS/John Vizcaino

Thousands of civilians were killed in massacres, especially in rural areas, as the warring sides sought to prevent people from collaborating with or supporting enemy forces.

Despite widespread relief at an end to the bloodshed and kidnappings of the past 52 years, the deal has caused divisions within Latin America’s fourth-largest economy.

Former President Alvaro Uribe and others are angry the accord allows rebels to enter parliament without serving any jail time.

In Cartagena on Monday, huge billboards urged a “yes” vote in the referendum, while Uribe led hundreds of supporters with umbrellas in the colors of the Colombian flag urging voters to back “no.”

The FARC, or Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, which began as a peasant revolt, became a big player in the cocaine trade and at its strongest had 20,000 fighters. Now, its some 7,000 fighters must hand over their weapons to the United Nations within 180 days.

Colombians are nervous over how the rebels will integrate into society, but most are optimistic peace will bring more benefits than problems.

“This is the moment, it’s now or never,” said 50-year-old lawyer Melquis Pulecio, as he watched the ceremony with thousands of others on a big screen in central Bogota. “We are tired of this war - we were born to war.”

Colombia has performed better economically than its neighbors in recent years, and peace should reduce the government’s security spending and open new areas of the country for mining and oil companies.

Slideshow (8 Images)

But criminal gangs may try to fill the void in rebel-held areas, landmines hinder development and rural poverty remains a huge challenge.

With peace achieved, Santos, a member of a wealthy Bogota family, will likely use his political capital to push for tax reforms and other measures to compensate for a drop in oil income caused by a fall in energy prices.

“It’s such an important day,” said Duvier, a nom de guerre for a 25-year-old rebel attending a FARC congress last week in the southern Yari Plains that ratified the peace accord. “Now we can fight politically, without blood, without war.”</s>Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos and Marxist rebel leader Timochenko used a pen made from a bullet on Monday to sign an accord ending a half-century war that killed a quarter of a million people.

After four years of peace talks in Cuba, Santos, 65, and Timochenko - the nom de guerre for 57-year-old revolutionary Rodrigo Londono - shook hands on Colombian soil for the first time in front of hundreds of dignitaries.

One man waved a large Colombian flag that had an extra white stripe in homage to the peace deal.

The end of Latin America’s longest-running war will turn the FARC guerrillas into a political party fighting at the ballot box instead of the battlefield they have occupied since 1964.

Related: How a Colombian-Canadian helped broker the historic peace deal between the government and FARC

Guests at the ceremony in the Caribbean coastal city of Cartagena were asked to wear white and included United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Cuban President Raul Castro and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry.

Showing its support for the peace deal, the European Union on Monday removed the FARC from its list of terror groups.

Kerry said Washington will also review whether to take the FARC off its terror list, and has pledged $390 million for Colombia next year to support the peace process.

“Anybody can pick up a gun, blow things up, hurt other people, but it doesn’t take you anywhere ... Peace is hard work,” he said of a rare diplomatic good news story for the Obama administration as it contends with the seeming intractable war in Syria and other conflicts.

Despite widespread relief at an end to the bloodshed and kidnappings of the past 52 years, the deal has caused divisions within Latin America’s fourth-largest economy.

Influential former President Alvaro Uribe and others are angry the accord allows rebels to enter parliament without serving any jail time.

Colombians will vote on Oct. 2 on whether to ratify the agreement, but polls show it should pass easily.

In Cartagena on Monday, huge billboards urged a “yes” vote, while Uribe led hundreds of supporters with umbrellas in the colors of the Colombian flag urging voters to back “no.”

The FARC, or Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, began as a peasant revolt, became a big player in the cocaine trade and at its strongest had 20,000 fighters. Now its some 7,000 fighters must hand over their weapons to the United Nations within 180 days.

Colombians are nervous over how the rebels will integrate into society, but most are optimistic peace will bring more benefits than problems.

“I can’t believe this day has finally come,” said an excited Juan Gamarra, 43, who sells jewelry in Cartagena.

Colombia has performed better economically than its neighbors in recent years, and peace should reduce the government’s security spending and open new areas of the country for mining and oil companies.

But criminal gangs may try to fill the void in rebel-held areas, landmines hinder development and rural poverty remains a huge challenge.

With peace achieved, Santos, a member of a wealthy Bogota family, will likely use his political capital to push for tax reforms and other measures to compensate for a drop in oil income caused by a fall in energy prices.

Big screens were set up around the nation of 49 million people so that thousands could watch the ceremony live.

“It’s such an important day,” said Duvier, a nom de guerre for a 25-year-old rebel attending a FARC congress last week in the southern Yari Plains that ratified the peace accord. “Now we can fight politically, without blood, without war.”</s>Colombia’s government and the leftist FARC rebels prepared to sign a historic peace accord Monday to end a half-century civil war that has killed hundreds of thousands.

A solemn ceremony on the Caribbean coast witnessed by international dignitaries will set the seal on a four-year process to end Latin America’s last major armed conflict.

“Today we are experiencing the happiness of a new dawn for Colombia,” President Juan Manuel Santos said on Twitter.

He called it “a new stage in our history — one of a country in peace!”

He will sign the accord at 5:00 pm (2200 GMT) with his former enemy, FARC leader Timoleon Jimenez, at a ceremony in the colourful colonial city of Cartagena, the government said.

Santos opened the day’s events with a tribute to the Colombian military and police.

A prayer service for peace and reconciliation was scheduled later at an 18th-century Catholic church in Cartagena’s old town, led by the Vatican’s Secretary of State Pietro Parolin.

The guests at the signing will include UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, US Secretary of State John Kerry and an array of Latin American leaders.

They include Cuban President Raul Castro, whose country hosted the nearly four-year-long peace talks.</s>A demonstrator yells "No to the plebiscite" to protest the government's peace agreement with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), to be signed later in the day in Cartagena, Colombia, Monday. Colombians will be given the final say on endorsing or rejecting the accord in an Oct. 2 referendum. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)</s>CARTAGENA, Colombia -- Colombia's government and the country's largest rebel movement on Monday signed a peace accord aimed at ending an era that saw more than 220,000 deaths, 8 million people made homeless and countless human-rights violations.

Underlining the significance of the deal, President Juan Manuel Santos and Rodrigo Londono, the top commander of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, signed the accord Monday night in the colonial city of Cartagena. Fifteen Latin American presidents as well as U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry were on hand to witness the signing.

The more than 2,500 guests at the ceremony capping South America's oldest armed conflict were asked to wear white as a sign of peace, and Santos and Londono signed the 297-page accord with pens made from recycled shells used in combat.

Many in the audience had tears in their eyes, and shouts rose urging Santos and Londono to "Hug, hug, hug!" In the end, the two men clasped hands and smiled effusively. Then Santos removed from his lapel a pin shaped like a white dove that he's been wearing for years and handed it over to his former adversary, who fastened it on his own shirt.

Addressing the FARC leaders onstage, Santos said, "When you begin your journey back to society, when you begin your conversion into a political movement, I, as head of state of the fatherland we all love, want to welcome you to democracy."

Londono, best known by his alias Timochenko, called Santos "a courageous partner" and hailed the accord as not only a victory for Colombia but also an example to war-ravaged Syria and the Palestinians and Israelis of what can be achieved through dialogue.

He also praised the FARC's fighters as heroes of the downtrodden and then called out for forgiveness of the group's crimes, which range from kidnapping of civilians to its laying of land mines that have claimed thousands of victims.

"I apologize for all the pain that we have caused," he said.

Earlier Monday, Santos and the foreign dignitaries attended a Mass celebrated by Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican's secretary of state, at a baroque church named for St. Peter Claver, a 17th-century Jesuit priest revered as the "slave of slaves" for his role aiding thousands of African slaves transported to the New World as chattel.

In a homily, Pope Francis' envoy praised Colombians for overcoming the pain of the bloody conflict to find common ground with the rebels.

"All of us here today are conscious of the fact we're at the end of a negotiation, but also the beginning of a still-open process of change that requires the contribution and respect of all Colombians," the cardinal said.

Across the country Colombians marked the occasion with a host of activities, from peace concerts by popular artists to a street party in the capital, Bogota, where the signing ceremony was to be broadcast live on a giant screen. It was also celebrated by hundreds of guerrillas gathered in a remote region of southern Colombia where last week top commanders ratified the accord in what they said would be their last conference as a guerrilla army.

The signing won't close the deal, however. Colombians will be given the final say on endorsing or rejecting the accord in an Oct. 2 referendum. Opinion polls point to an almost-certain victory for the yes vote, but some analysts warn that a closer-than-expected finish or low voter turnout could bode poorly for the tough task the country faces in implementing the accord.

Among the key challenges will be judging the war crimes of guerrillas as well as state actors. Under terms of the accord, rebels who lay down their weapons and confess their abuses will be spared jail time and be allowed to provide reparations to their victims by carrying out development work in areas hard hit by the conflict.

That has angered some victims and conservative opponents of Santos, a few hundred of whom took to the streets Monday to protest what they consider the government's excessive leniency toward guerrilla leaders responsible for scores of atrocities in a conflict fueled by the country's cocaine trade.

To shouts of "Santos is a coward!" former President Alvaro Uribe, the architect of the decade-long, U.S.-backed military offensive that forced the FARC to the negotiating table, said the peace deal puts Colombia on a path to becoming a leftist dictatorship in the mold of Cuba or Venezuela -- two countries that, along with Norway, played a vital role sponsoring the four-year-long talks.

"The democratic world would never allow [Osama] bin Laden or those belonging to [the Islamic State] to become president, so why does Colombia have to allow the election of the terrorists who've kidnapped 11,700 children or raped 6,800 women?" he told protesters gathered in a working-class neighborhood on the outskirts of Cartagena.

The stiff domestic opposition contrasts with widespread acclaim abroad for the accord. On Monday, European Union foreign policy coordinator Federica Mogherini said that with the signing of the peace agreement, the EU would suspend the FARC from its list of terrorist organizations.

The FARC was established in 1964 by self-defense groups and communist activists who joined forces to resist a government military onslaught. Reflecting that history, the final accord commits the government to addressing unequal land distribution that has been at the heart of Colombia's conflict.

But as the war dragged on, and insurgencies elsewhere in Latin America were defeated, the FARC slipped deeper and deeper into Colombia's lucrative cocaine trade -- to the point that President George W. Bush's administration in 2006 called it the world's biggest drug cartel.

As part of the peace process, the FARC has sworn off narcotics trafficking and agreed to work with the government to provide alternative development in areas where coca growing has flourished.

Only if the accord passes the referendum will the FARC's roughly 7,000 fighters begin moving to 28 designated zones where, over the next six months, they are to turn over their weapons to U.N.-sponsored observers.

Information for this article was contributed by Vivian Salama, Pedro Mendoza, Libardo Cardona and Cesar Garcia of The Associated Press.</s>CARTAGENA, Colombia — Colombia takes a big step Monday toward emerging from its decades-long nightmare of bloody violence when the government and the country's largest rebel movement sign a peace accord that emerged from four years of negotiations.

The significance of the deal can't be overstated: Colombia's five-decade conflict, partly fueled by the nation's cocaine trade, has killed more than 220,000 people and driven 8 million from their homes.

Underlining the importance of the day, Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos and the top commander of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, of FARC, a rebel fighter known by the alias Timochenko, will sign the accord in the colonial city of Cartagena. Fifteen Latin American presidents as well as U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry are to witness the signing.

In a ceremony charged with symbolism, the more than 2,500 guests have been asked to wear white as a sign of peace and Santos will sign the 297-page accord with a pen made from a recycled shell used in combat.

The signing won't close the deal, however. Colombians are being given the final say on endorsing or rejecting the accord in an Oct. 2 referendum. Opinion polls point to an almost-certain victory for the "yes" vote, but some analysts warn that a closer-than-expected finish or low voter turnout could bode poorly for the many challenges the country faces in implementing the ambitious accord.

Among the biggest and most controversial steps will be judging the war crimes of guerrillas as well as state actors. Under terms of the accord, rebels who lay down their weapons and confess their abuses will be spared jail time and will be allowed to provide reparations to their victims by carrying out development work in areas hard hit by the conflict.

A few hundred opponents of the deal took to the streets Monday to protest what they consider the government's excessive leniency toward guerrilla leaders responsible for scores of atrocities.

To shouts of "Santos is a traitor," conservative former President Alvaro Uribe, the architect of the decade-long, U.S.-backed military offensive that forced the FARC to the negotiating table, said that the peace deal puts Colombia on the path to becoming a leftist dictatorship in the mold of Cuba or Venezuela.

"The democratic world would never allow bin Laden or those belonging to ISIS to become president, so why does Colombia have to allow the election of the terrorists who've kidnapped 11,700 children or raped 6,800 women?" he told protesters gathered in a working-class neighborhood on the outskirts of Cartagena.

The government has also committed itself to addressing unequal land distribution, which has been a longstanding FARC demand harkening back to its roots as a peasant army in 1964, and the administration agreed to work with the guerrillas to provide alternative development to tens of thousands of families that depend on the cocaine trade.

Only if the accord passes the referendum will the FARC's roughly 7,000 fighters begin moving to 28 designated zones where over the next six months they are to turn over their weapons to U.N.-sponsored observers.

Negotiations, which had been expected to take a few months, stretched over more than four years and had to overcome a number of crises, from the military's killing of the FARC's then top commander, known as Alfonso Cano, shortly after he authorized a secret back channel with the government to the rebels' capture of an army general who until a few months ago would have been a trophy prisoner.

"What's good about the fact that it lasted four years is that it was a very thorough process," Norwegian Foreign Minister Borge Brende told The Associated Press in an interview ahead of the ceremony. Norway and Cuba were co-sponsors of the negotiation that began in Oslo in 2012 and then shifted to Havana.

"The mindset of everyone has changed," Brende said. "I feel very genuinely that President Santos and Commander Timochenko want this to work and not go into the blame game."</s>CARTAGENA, Colombia — More than 220,000 deaths, 8 million homeless and countless human rights violations: These are the tragic toll of South America's oldest armed conflict, which begins to wind down with the signing Monday of a historic agreement between Colombia's government and the country's largest rebel movement to end a half-century of hostilities.

Underlining the significance of the deal, President Juan Manuel Santos and the top commander of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, a rebel fighter known by the alias Timochenko, were to sign the accord in the colonial city of Cartagena. Fifteen Latin American presidents as well as U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry were on hand to witness the signing.

In a ceremony charged with symbolism befitting an historic moment that generations of Colombians thought they would never see, the more than 2,500 guests were asked to wear white as a sign of peace and Santos was to sign the 297-page accord with a pen made from a recycled shell used in combat.

Earlier Monday, Santos and the foreign dignitaries attended a Mass celebrated by Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican's secretary of state, at a baroque church named for St. Peter Claver, a 17th-century Jesuit priest revered as the "slave of slaves" for his role aiding thousands of African slaves brought to the New World as chattel.

"All of us here today are conscious of the fact we're at the end of a negotiation, but also the beginning of a still open process of change that requires the contribution and respect of all Colombians," the cardinal said.

Across the country Colombians marked the occasion with a host of activities, from peace concerts by top-name artists to a street party in the capital, Bogota, where the signing ceremony was to be broadcast live on a giant screen. It was also celebrated by hundreds of guerrillas gathered in a remote region of southern Colombia where last week top commanders ratified the accord in what they said would be their last conference as a guerrilla army.

The signing won't close the deal, however. Colombians will be given the final say on endorsing or rejecting the accord in an Oct. 2 referendum. Opinion polls point to an almost-certain victory for the "yes" vote, but some analysts warn that a closer-than-expected finish or low voter turnout could bode poorly for the tough task the country faces in implementing the ambitious accord.

Among the biggest challenges will be judging the war crimes of guerrillas as well as state actors. Under terms of the accord, rebels who lay down their weapons and confess their abuses will be spared jail time and be allowed to provide reparations to their victims by carrying out development work in areas hard hit by the conflict.

That has angered some victims and conservative opponents of Santos, a few hundred of whom took to the streets Monday to protest what they consider the government's excessive leniency toward guerrilla leaders responsible for scores of atrocities in a conflict fueled by the country's cocaine trade.

To shouts of "Santos is a coward!" former President Alvaro Uribe, the architect of the decade-long, U.S.-backed military offensive that forced the FARC to the negotiating table, said the peace deal puts Colombia on the path to becoming a leftist dictatorship in the of Cuba or Venezuela — two countries that along with Norway played a vital role sponsoring the four-year-long talks.

"The democratic world would never allow bin Laden or those belonging to ISIS to become president, so why does Colombia have to allow the election of the terrorists who've kidnapped 11,700 children or raped 6,800 women?" he told protesters gathered in a working-class on the outskirts of Cartagena.

The stiff domestic opposition contrasts with widespread acclaim abroad for the accord — a rare example in a war-torn world of what can be achieved through dialogue. On Monday, European Union foreign policy Federica Mogherini said that with the signing of the peace agreement, the EU would suspend the FARC from its list of terrorist organizations.

"We clearly are ready to review and make judgments as the facts come in," he told reporters. "We don't want to leave people on the list if they don't belong."

The FARC was established in 1964 by self- groups and communist activists who joined forces to resist a government military onslaught. Reflecting that history, the final accord commits the government to addressing unequal land distribution that has been at the heart of Colombia's conflict.

But as the war dragged on, and insurgencies elsewhere in Latin America were defeated, the FARC slipped deeper and deeper into Colombia's lucrative cocaine trade — to the point that President George W. Bush's administration in 2006 called it the world's biggest drug cartel.

Only if the accord passes the referendum will the FARC's roughly 7,000 fighters begin moving to 28 designated zones where, over the next six months, they are to turn over their weapons to U.N.-sponsored observers.

Negotiations, which had been expected to take a few months, stretched over more than four years and had to overcome a number of crises, from the military's killing of the guerrilla group's then top commander, known as Alfonso Cano, shortly after he authorized a secret back channel with the government, to the rebels' capture of an army general who until a few months ago would have been a trophy prisoner.

"What's good about the fact that it lasted four years is that it was a very thorough process," Norwegian Foreign Minister Borge Brende told The Associated Press in an interview before Monday's signing. Norway and Cuba were co-sponsors of the negotiations that began in Oslo in 2012 and then shifted to Havana.</s>(CNN) A conflict that lasted over five decades. An estimated 220,000 people killed. Five million displaced.

These staggering figures will be on their way to being consigned to history as the Colombian government buries the hatchet with its long-time nemesis, the Marxist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia rebel group, better known by its Spanish acronym, FARC.

In a symbolic gesture, the pens that will be used to sign the historic peace deal, years in the making, have been made from recycled bullets once used in the conflict. An inscription on the side of the pens reads: "Bullets wrote our past. Education, our future."

The two sides, joined by leaders from the US, Mexico, El Salvador, Uruguay, the UN and Cuba are due to come together in the coastal colonial city of Cartagena to sign the accord on Monday.

The rebels voted unanimously to approve a deal that was finalized in August to end the 52-year-old conflict, Latin America's longest-running.

It still needs to be ratified by voters, who will consider the agreement in a single-issue referendum on October 2.

The treaty, which President Juan Manuel Santos and FARC leader Rodrigo Londoño, better known as Timochenko, will sign, requires rebels to give up their weapons and participate in a transitional justice process toward reintegration.

If and when it is approved by the electorate, the FARC will cease to be a rebel group but will instead enter into politics as a left-wing party.

The treaty grants the FARC 10 political seats, but it remains to be seen if the rebel group, founded on Marxist ideologies of class struggle, can effectively transition into a political platform.

While the deal symbolizes a chance for future generations to come of age in peace, the deal also signals a new chapter for the region. The longest running war in the Americas will finally be over, bringing an end to armed political conflict in Latin America.

However, not all groups are bound by the peace deal. The second most powerful group following the FARC, the National Liberation Army (ELN), has announced interest in the peace deal but refused to end its practice of kidnapping.

End of an era for armed conflict in Latin America

Latin America has slowly been freeing itself from the shadows of the Cold War as countries such as Colombia, Guatemala, Bolivia and Chile -- with the help of the US -- fought off rebel guerillas.

"Across the region, the Cold War is over," said Cynthia Arnson, director of the Latin America Program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. Now, "guerrilla war is no longer seen as a reasonable way to contest power."

The FARC started in 1964 and, like their mentors in Cuba, was committed to redistributing the wealth, even if it meant by force.

But half a century later, now funded by a sophisticated cocaine trafficking network and armed with child soldiers, the rallying cries to protect an agrarian society begin to sound antiquated and obsolete.

According to Arnson, public approval for the FARC has never polled more than 5%.

For Jorge Bermudez, a retiree in Bogota, the peace deal is good in theory, but he remains wary.

"Even speaking with the guerrilla fighters, they can't hide that what they have done for the last 52 years is massacre, kidnappings and extortion," she said in an interview with CNN Español's Fernando Ramos while covering the final FARC conference last week.

"This is a group that didn't have the popular support practically and that has summoned the country to countless tragedies."

"To this terrorist group, they also give impunity, and political legitimacy to all its actors, including those responsible for massacres (and) the most severe offenses, and crimes against humanity," he said in a video posted to Twitter in August.

Meanwhile, FARC leaders press that there is no peace without amnesty.

As world leaders cheer the historic signing of a peace deal that ends the longest running war in the Americas, the rest of the peace process is now in the hands of Colombians.</s>Colombia’s centre-right government and the Marxist Farc rebel group signed a peace deal on Monday, ending a half-century war that killed a quarter of a million people and once took the Andean country to the brink of collapse.

After four years of peace talks in Cuba, President Juan Manuel Santos (65) and rebel leader Timochenko – the nom de guerre for 57-year-old Rodrigo Londono – warmly shook hands on Colombian soil for the first time and signed the accord with a pen made from a bullet casing.

A crowd of dignitaries chanted “long live Colombia, long live peace” as Mr Santos handed Mr Timochenko a white dove pin. One man waved a large Colombian flag that had an extra white stripe in homage to the peace deal.

“The horrible night of violence that has covered us with its shadow for more than half a century is over,” Mr Santos said. “We open our hearts to a new dawn, to a brilliant sun full of possibilities that has appeared in the Colombian sky.”

Attendees observed a minute of silence in memory of those killed, maimed, raped, kidnapped and displaced during the war.

The end of Latin America’s longest-running war will turn the Farc guerrillas into a political party fighting at the ballot box instead of the battlefield they have occupied since 1964.

“No one should doubt that we will conduct politics without arms,” said Mr Timochenko, who asked for forgiveness from Farc victims. “We are all prepared to disarm in our minds and our hearts.”

Guests at the ceremony in the Caribbean coastal city of Cartagena were asked to wear white and included United Nations secretary general Ban Ki-moon, Cuban president Raul Castro and US secretary of state John Kerry.

Showing its support for the peace deal, the European Union on Monday removed the Farc from its list of terror groups.

Mr Kerry said Washington will also review whether to take the Farc off its terror list, and has pledged $390 million (€350 million) for Colombia next year to support the peace process.

“Anybody can pick up a gun, blow things up, hurt other people, but it doesn’t take you anywhere . . . Peace is hard work,” he said of a rare diplomatic good news story for the Obama administration as it contends with the seeming intractable war in Syria and other conflicts.

Despite widespread relief at an end to the bloodshed and kidnappings of the past 52 years, the deal has caused divisions within Latin America’s fourth-largest economy.

Influential former president Alvaro Uribe and others are angry the accord allows rebels to enter parliament without serving any jail time.

Colombians will vote on October 2nd on whether to ratify the agreement, but polls show it should pass easily.

In Cartagena on Monday, huge billboards urged a Yes vote, while Mr Uribe led hundreds of supporters with umbrellas in the colors of the Colombian flag urging voters to back No.

The Farc, or Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, began as a peasant revolt, became a big player in the cocaine trade and at its strongest had 20,000 fighters. Now its some 7,000 fighters must hand over their weapons to the United Nations within 180 days.

Colombians are nervous over how the rebels will integrate into society, but most are optimistic peace will bring more benefits than problems.

“This is the moment, it’s now or never,” said lawyer Melquis Pulecio (50), as he watched the ceremony with thousands of others on a big screen in central Bogota. “We are tired of this war – we were born to war.”

Colombia has performed better economically than its neighbours in recent years, and peace should reduce the government’s security spending and open new areas of the country for mining and oil companies.

Big screens were set up around the nation of 49 million people so that thousands could watch the ceremony live.

“It’s such an important day,” said Duvier, a nom de guerre for a 25-year-old rebel attending a Farc congress last week in the southern Yari Plains that ratified the peace accord. “Now we can fight politically, without blood, without war.”</s>By Joshua Goodman and Andrea Rodriguez, Associated Press

CARTAGENA, Colombia — After a half-century of combat that spilled blood across this South American nation, Colombians have embarked on a new, but difficult path to settle their political differences with the signing of a historic peace accord between the government and leftist rebels.

The first test after Monday’s signing is a weekend referendum in which voters are being asked to ratify or reject the deal. If it passes, as expected, Colombia will move on to the thornier and still uncertain task of reconciliation.

President Juan Manuel Santos and Rodrigo Londono, top commander of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, formally signed the agreement before a crowd of 2,500 foreign dignitaries and special guests, including U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry.

Many in the audience, all dressed in white, had tears in their eyes as Santos removed from his lapel a pin shaped like a white dove that he has been wearing for years and handed it over to his former adversary, who fastened it to his own shirt.

It was one of many symbolic gestures during the 90-minute ceremony overlooking the colonial ramparts of Cartagena that filled Colombians with hope and optimism for the arduous work ahead implementing a 297-page accord that took four grueling years to negotiate.

If the accord is accepted by Colombian voters in Sunday’s referendum, as polls say it will, the FARC’s estimated 7,000 fighters would have to turn over their weapons gradually to a team of United Nations-sponsored observers within six months.

A much tougher challenge will be reconciliation, a process that will require rebels and state actors who want to avoid jail to confess their war crimes committed during a 52-year conflict marred by brutalities on both sides.

In Brussels, the European Union announced Tuesday that it has suspended its sanctions against the FARC, which has been on the bloc’s “terrorist list” since 2002. The sanction have allowed the EU to freeze the assets of people, groups and entities linked to the FARC and stop Europeans making funds or economic resources available to it.

Longer term, the two sides have drafted an ambitious agenda to hasten the development of Colombia’s long-neglected countryside and rid it of illegal coca crops that starting in the 1980s strengthened the FARC — and some say morally corrupted it — while other insurgencies across Latin America fell to the wayside.

Londono, best known by his alias Timochenko, called Santos “a courageous partner” and proclaimed there was no turning back on the FARC’s decision to abandon Colombia’s jungles.

“Let no one doubt that we are going into politics without weapons,” he said before ending his speech with a simple but loudly applauded appeal for forgiveness

“I apologize for all the pain that we have caused,” he said.

Santos, who for years was the FARC’s top military opponent, was equally emphatic that he would honor his promise to promote pluralism and open up Colombia’s traditionally elite-driven political system.

“As head of state of the fatherland we all love, I want to welcome you to democracy,” he said. Earlier, he led the crowd in chants of “No more war! No more war! No more war!”

Across the country, Colombians celebrated with a host of activities, from peace concerts to a street party in the capital, Bogota, where the signing ceremony was broadcast live on a giant screen.

The signing was greeted with wild cheers followed by calls for Timochenko to be president from about 1,000 FARC rebels in the Yari Plains, a remote area of southern Colombia where the group recently concluded its last congress as a guerrilla army by endorsing the deal.

But there were also sporadic protests, including one in Cartagena led by conservative former President Alvaro Uribe, whose decade-long, U.S.-backed military offensive forced the FARC to the negotiating table. Shouting “Santos is a coward,” the few hundred Uribe supporters vowed that if they gain power when the presidents steps down in 2018 they will undo an accord they say is harbinger of a Cuba-style leftist dictatorship.

The stiff domestic opposition, which will make implementation even tougher, contrasts with almost universal acclaim abroad for the accord. On Monday, European Union foreign policy coordinator Federica Mogherini said that with the signing of the peace agreement, the EU would suspend the FARC from its list of terrorist organizations.

The U.S. has yet to follow suit but Kerry said he is open to reconsidering its status.

“We clearly are ready to review and make judgments as the facts come in,” he told reporters. “We don’t want to leave people on the list if they don’t belong.”

Colombians’ distrust of the FARC runs deep. Many families have been touched by rebel kidnappings and it will take years to heal the wounds from a conflict that claimed 220,000 lives and drove 8 million people from their homes.

The rebels are equally skeptical of the government on which they will now depend for protection, a fact underscored by Timochenko’s startled look when a low flyover by three fighter jets unexpectedly interrupted his speech.

“This time they came to salute peace instead of unload bombs,” he joked upon resuming.

Timochenko took over as the FARC’s commander in 2011 after an aerial attack killed his predecessor shortly after he authorized a secret backchannel dialogue with the government.

For all of the challenges ahead, though, many Colombians who thought peace would never come were carried away with emotion.

“This is something I waited for my whole life — that I dreamed of every day,” said Leon Valencia, a former guerrilla who is one of the most respected experts on Colombia’s conflict. “It’s like when you’re waiting for a child that is finally born, or seeing an old lover or when your favorite team scores a goal.”

Associated Press writers Vivian Salama and Pedro Mendoza in Cartagena, Cesar Garcia in Yari Plains and Libardo Cardona in Bogota contributed to this report.
Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos and FARC guerrilla leader Rodrigo Londoño, also known as Timochenko, sign a peace accord in Cartagena, ending the longest running armed conflict in the Western Hemisphere. The final agreement will be submitted to popular ratification in a referendum on October 2.