Colombians narrowly rejected a peace deal with Marxist guerrillas in a referendum on Sunday, plunging the nation into uncertainty and dashing President Juan Manuel Santos’ painstakingly negotiated plan to end the 52-year war. It remains to be seen whether the Farc will finally put down their guns and accept less favourable terms: Colombia’s capacity for violence of both the far left and the far right is undiminished, and Timochenko’s authority has been shaken by this shock result, as Santos’s: Uribe’s party lost no time in calling for the president to step down. “We ask that there is no violence,” said the Senator, “that the FARC are protected and that they cease all crime, including drug trafficking and extortion.” It was important for Mr. Uribe to make the point that the vote was not against peace or for war, but that it was for a different kind of peace. Few expected the turnout to be as low as it was — under 40 per cent, fewer than the percentage that came to the polls in 2014 to elect Colombia’s current President, Juan Manuel Santos — and for the vote to go against the peace agreement. Under the accord, the FARC, which began as a peasant revolt in 1964, would have been able to compete in the 2018 presidential and legislative elections and have 10 unelected congressional seats guaranteed through 2026. At a base level, it was a clash between the two most powerful figures in Colombian politics: Santos and his arch-nemesis, conservative former president and senator Álvaro Uribe, who led the campaign against the peace deal.
FARC leader Rodrigo Londoño (Timoleón) says his troops will honor its commitments to the Colombian government, including the permanent cease-fire, despite voters rejection of the peace accord in Sunday's referendum. President Juan Manuel Santos calls the country's political parties to an emergency meeting.