- Title: Opposition leader Uribe dissatisfied with Colombia´s new peace deal
- Date: 24th November 2016
- Summary: BOGOTA, COLOMBIA (NOVEMBER 24, 2016) (REUTERS) EXTERIOR OF COLOMBIAN CONGRESS BUILDING FORMER COLOMBIAN PRESIDENT, SENATOR AND OPPOSITION LEADER, ALVARO URIBE, ARRIVING IN SENATE PROTESTERS IN GALLERY OF SENATE HOLDING SIGNS READING (IN SPANISH): "WITHOUT DEMOCRACY" AND "AGREEMENTS YES BUT NOT LIKE THIS" URIBE SITTING URIBE SPEAKING WITH SENATE COLLEAGUE CLOSE-UP OF SIGN READING (IN SPANISH): "AGREEMENTS YES BUT NOT LIKE THIS" GENERAL VIEW OF SENATE IN SESSION (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) COLOMBIAN SENATOR AND OPPOSITION LEADER, ALVARO URIBE, SAYING: "I do not think that it is bad or it does harm to say that this is not the route towards ratification. We will participate in the debates. In what can be improved with your will, we will accompany you, there are some topics in which there are fundamental differences. The government decided to ignore the national pact which would have been appropriate, and we, in all clarity, have to say to you that for the political responsibility of many Colombians, we will seek a mechanism of popular participation, to honour the defence of points which the government did not want to accept." URIBE SPEAKING IN SENATE (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) COLOMBIAN SENATOR AND OPPOSITION LEADER, ALVARO URIBE, SAYING: "Think about it, if this is what they have done with the FARC, what will the country do then with its dissidents, what will it do with the ELN, what will it do with 3500 criminal groups, with 150-170,000 hectares of drug trafficking?" GENERAL VIEW OF SENATE (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) COLOMBIAN SENATOR AND OPPOSITION LEADER, ALVARO URIBE, SAYING: "In the context of this process, we understood that the ratification of the agreement would be in line with that the President had proposed, through a mechanism of direct democracy, we think that this falls badly on the Colombian people." SENATORS APPLAUDING URIBE CLOSE-UP OF SIGN READING (IN SPANISH): "#NO TO THE RABBIT" (A PHRASE SUGGESTING THE GOVERNMENT CHEATED THE COUNTRY WITH THE AMENDED DEAL) SENATORS HOLDING SIGNS GENERAL VIEW OF SENATE
- Embargoed: 9th December 2016 23:21
- Keywords: peace FARC Colombia Uribe opposition
- Location: BOGOTA, COLOMBIA
- City: BOGOTA, COLOMBIA
- Country: Colombia
- Topics: Conflicts/War/Peace
- Reuters ID: LVA00159T2S7B
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Colombia´s influential former president and opposition leader, Alvaro Uribe, voiced his fury in the Senate on Thursday (November 24) against the idea that the government will ratify a new peace deal with Marxist FARC rebels in Congress instead of holding another public vote.
Uribe spoke shortly after President Juan Manuel Santos signed an amended peace agreement with head of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, Rodrigo Londono alias Timochenko, in an understated ceremony in Bogota.
Santos had always promised Colombians would have the final word in a referendum, but is sidestepping that for the revised deal, after a narrow majority rejected the original deal in the October 2 referendum.
"I do not think that it is bad or it does harm to say that this is not the route towards ratification. We will participate in the debates. In what can be improved with your will, we will accompany you, there are some topics in which there are fundamental differences. The government decided to ignore the national pact which would have been appropriate, and we, in all clarity, have to say to you that for the political responsibility of many Colombians, we will seek a mechanism of popular participation, to honour the defence of points which the government did not want to accept," said Uribe, who has also urged street protests.
The expanded and highly complex new 310-page document makes only small modifications to the original text, such as clarifying private property rights and detailing more fully how the rebels would be confined in rural areas for crimes committed during the war.
Despite widespread relief at an end to conflict, Colombia's conservative opposition is angry because, like the original agreement, the new deal will not jail FARC leaders who committed crimes like kidnappings and massacres, and it allows them to hold political office.
"Think about it, if this is what they have done with the FARC, what will the country do then with its dissidents, what will it do with the ELN, what will it do with 3500 criminal groups, with 150-170,000 hectares of drug trafficking?" said Uribe.
"In the context of this process, we understood that the ratification of the agreement would be in line with that the President had proposed, through a mechanism of direct democracy, we think that this falls badly on the Colombian people," Uribe added, disappointed that the "No" camp had not been satisfied in its demands.
Santos sent the deal straight to Congress for a vote next week, in which approval is likely to be speedy given the government majority.
The government and FARC worked together in Cuba for four years to negotiate an end to the region's longest-running conflict that has killed more than 220,000 and displaced millions in the Andean nation. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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