Colombia peace deal ratified
Colombia's Congress has given its stamp of approval to a peace accord aimed at ending a 52-year-old armed conflict with FARC guerrillas -- Latin America's longest -- but experts say implementing it will not be easy.
The lower house of the Congress approved the accord with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, by a unanimous vote late Wednesday, clearing one of the last legal hurdles for it to go into effect.
President Juan Manuel Santos hailed the deal's passage on Twitter, expressing "gratitude to Congress for historic backing for Colombians' hopes for peace."
But questions remain over the breadth of public support for the accord, despite four years of protracted negotiations in Havana between the Santos government and the FARC.
The sides were forced to quickly renegotiate the treaty and submit the revised version to Congress for approval after an earlier version was narrowly rejected in a national referendum October 2.
More than 260,000 people have died in the conflict, which drew in other guerrilla forces, right-wing paramilitary groups, drug traffickers and government troops.
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