BOGOTA, Colombia -- After five decades of war, more than four years of negotiations and two signing ceremonies, Colombia's Congress late Wednesday formally ratified a peace agreement allowing leftist rebels to enter politics.
The 310-page revised accord was approved unanimously by the lower house, which voted a day after the Senate approved the same text 75-0 following a protest walkout by the opposition led by former President Alvaro Uribe.
The accord introduces some 50 changes intended to assuage critics who led a campaign that saw Colombians narrowly reject the original accord in a referendum last month. President Juan Manuel Santos has said there won't be a second referendum.
Revisions range from a prohibition on foreign magistrates judging alleged crimes by government troops or by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia to a commitment from the rebels to forfeit assets, some amassed through drug trafficking, to help compensate their victims.
But the rebels wouldn't go along with the opposition's strongest demands -- jail sentences for rebel leaders behind atrocities and stricter limits on their future participation in politics.
Santos says ratification will set in motion the start of a six-month process in which the group's 8,000-plus guerrillas will concentrate in some 20 rural areas and turn over their weapons to United Nations monitors.
"Tomorrow a new era begins," Santos said Wednesday, celebrating the Senate's endorsement before the vote in the lower house.
A Section on 12/01/2016