Wednesday, July 20, 2016 Colombia high Court approves peace plebisciteFormer president Uribe, critic of FARC negotiations, calls vote ‘a government trick,’ urges rejectionBOGOTÁ — A Colombian high court late Monday night ruled in favour of allowing a plebiscite to approve a peace deal being negotiated with Marxist FARC rebels that seeks to end more than five decades of war. A final peace accord could be signed in a question of weeks and the vote held by year-end. Yesterday Uribe, a leading critic of the government’s peace negotiations with the FARC, said that his Democratic Centre party had not decided whether to participate in the plebiscite on an eventual peace agreement endorsed late Monday night by the country’s own Constitutional Court. The Constitutional Court decision would allow the accords to be approved with 13 percent, or 4.4 million, of the electorate and would be a response to one question. Some 33 million of Colombia’s almost 49 million population are eligible to vote.

Source: Bueno Aires Herald July 20, 2016 03:10 UTC