BOGOTA—Colombia’s government and leftist rebels say they will sign a modified peace agreement Thursday despite strong resistance from former president Alvaro Uribe. The signing ceremony promises to be a more subdued event than the heavily symbolic one attended by several heads of state in September in the colonial city of Cartagena. Reflecting the more sombre mood in the country after the original deal was narrowly rejected by voters in a referendum, it will be held at the tiny Colon theatre in downtown Bogota. The decision to sign the accord and submit it to congress for approval was agreed to Tuesday by government peace negotiators and leaders of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia during a day of closed-door meetings at a heavily guarded Roman Catholic retreat in Bogota. It followed a seven-hour meeting Monday night in which government negotiators tried to persuade Uribe and other skeptics to support the accord that would put an end to a half-century of fighting with the FARCEver since the original deal’s defeat at the polls, the FARC and government negotiators have worked around the clock introducing some 50-plus changes to make it more acceptable to conservative Colombians who overwhelmingly despise the FARC.

Source: thestar November 23, 2016 03:42 UTC