BOGOTA, Colombia -- Top commanders from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia are preparing to gather one final time to ratify a peace accord reached last week with government negotiators and map out its political strategy without weapons.
"The historic importance of this event merits the people of Colombia and the world see firsthand the development and conclusions of what will be the last conference of our armed organization," the the rebel group said in a statement Saturday inviting journalists to cover the 10th conference.
The conference will take place Sept. 13-19 in the jungles of San Vicente del Caguan, an area where the rebels have long been dominant and which was the center of a Switzerland-size demilitarized zone ceded to the the rebels during the last attempt at peace more than a decade ago.
About 200 delegates are expected to attend, including 29 members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces' central command, a top decision-making body.
The 297-page peace accord reached last week in Cuba seeks to end Latin America's oldest guerrilla war, which has caused more than 220,000 deaths and driven 5 million people from their homes over five decades. As part of the deal, the rebels must turn over their weapons within six months after the deal is formally signed and instead seek to convince skeptical Colombians that the group is ready to play by the rules of democracy.
In exchange, the rebel group's still unnamed future political movement will be granted a minimum 10 congressional seats -- five in the lower House, five in the Senate -- for two legislative periods. In addition, 16 lower House seats will be created for grass-roots activists in rural areas traditionally neglected by the state and in which existing political parties will be banned from running candidates, a move critics of the peace process say will further boost the rebels' post-conflict political power.
After 2026, those arrangements will end and the former rebels will have to demonstrate their political strength at the ballot box.
The rebel group last held a major gathering in 2007, in the midst of a U.S.-backed military campaign that decimated its ranks and led to the killing of several top commanders.
Colombians also will be given a chance to ratify the accord in a national referendum Oct. 2. Polls say most Colombians despise the rebel group but are likely to endorse the deal.
A Section on 08/28/2016