BOGOTA, Colombia -- Colombia's president is moving quickly to hold a national referendum on a peace deal meant to end a half-century of bloody conflict with leftist rebels, delivering the final text of the deal to Congress on Thursday and declaring a definitive cease-fire with the guerrillas.
"The armed conflict with the [Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia] is ending," President Juan Manuel Santos said on the steps of the Congress building while declaring a definitive end to military action against the rebels.
Members of his family and Cabinet walked with him the short distance from his official residence to hand-deliver the 297-page accord to lawmakers, a move required for Colombia to hold a national referendum on the peace deal that Santos announced for Oct. 2.
The rebel group declared a unilateral cease-fire more than a year ago, but Santos refused to grant a formal truce until talks wrapped up, though he ended aerial bombardments of guerrilla camps.
The peace agreement was announced Wednesday after more than four years of grueling negotiations in Cuba. The cease-fire will take effect at midnight Monday, Santos said.
Colombians celebrated the historic agreement even while expressing doubts about whether the guerrillas they've grown to loathe will honor their commitments to lay down their weapons, confess human-rights abuses and help eradicate illegal coca crops that helped fuel Colombia's conflict after insurgencies elsewhere in Latin America were defeated.
The five-decade conflict has killed more than 220,000 people and driven more than 5 million from their homes.
Last-minute government concessions included guarantees that the rebel group's still-unnamed political movement will have a minimum of 10 seats in Congress for two legislative periods.
After 2026, the former rebels must prove their political strength at the ballot box.
"We've won the most beautiful of all battles: the peace of Colombia," the rebel group's chief negotiator, known as Ivan Marquez, said at the announcement in Havana.
Congratulations poured in from regional governments and the United Nations, which will play a key role keeping the peace. U.S. President Barack Obama also welcomed the deal.
The U.N. Security Council scheduled a meeting this morning to discuss the body's role in helping Colombia implement the deal.
"There is an important task ahead for the U.N. to assist the government of Colombia in implementing the peace agreement, which is a historic occasion," Britain's deputy U.N. Ambassador Peter Wilson told reporters Thursday.
The accord commits Colombia's government to carrying out aggressive land reform, overhauling its anti-narcotics strategy and greatly expanding the state's presence in long-neglected areas.
The rebel group was forced to the negotiating table in 2012 after a decade of heavy battlefield losses inflicted by the U.S.-backed military.
Several top rebel commanders were killed and its ranks thinned by half to the current 7,000 guerrillas.
Polls say most Colombians despise the rebel group, but surveys also indicate Colombians will likely endorse a deal.
The most contentious agreement would let rebels who confess their crimes avoid jail and instead serve reduced sentences of no more than eight years by helping rebuild communities hit by the conflict.
"There are no other words to describe that than as a pinata of impunity," said Jose Miguel Vivanco, the Americas director for Human Rights Watch.
After the agreement is signed -- the date is still unknown -- the rebel group will begin mobilizing its troops to 31 zones scattered across Colombia.
Ninety days later they are supposed to begin handing weapons over to U.N.-sponsored monitors.
Over the 13 months since the rebels declared a unilateral cease-fire and the government reciprocated with an unofficial truce, violence has fallen to the lowest level since the movement was created 52 years ago by outlaw peasant groups joined by communist activists.
Information for this article was contributed by Andrea Rodriguez, Cesar Garcia and Libardo Cardona of The Associated Press.
A Section on 08/26/2016