FARC, Colombian government to sign peace agreement

(Vatican Radio) Colombia’s president Juan Manuel Santos has announced that the signing date for the final peace agreement between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) will be on 26 September.

Listen to James Blears’ report:

Many in Colombia and elsewhere thought this day would never ever come. It has taken 52 years of heartache and anguish, which has torn a nation asunder, for it to finally be whole again.

More than quarter of a million are dead, 45,000 thousand missing, seven million displaced.  President Juan Manuel Santos put the initialing ceremony into perspective by calling it the most important event of  his life.

Within one hundred and eighty days of the inked accord, the FARC will have handed over all their weapons over to United Nations Peacekeepers.

On 2 October there will be the much anticipated Peace Referendum.  An initial poll indicated that only 13 percent of voters approved the Peace Accord.  Now it is tangible reality,  almost 60 percent are prepared to vote in favor of it.