23-06-2016: Latin American Weekly Report

The end of the world’s longest running armed conflict is within sight. Colombia’s President Juan Manuel Santos is attending a ceremony in Cuba as we go to press to sign an accord with the maximum leader of the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (Farc), ‘Timochenko’ (Rodrigo Londoño Echeverri), to implement a definitive bilateral ceasefire and guer- rilla disarmament and demobilisation. This is a major advance and prompted Santos to take the risk of setting another deadline for the comple- tion of peace negotiations. The new date is 20 July. Some outstanding issues need to be resolved, but Santos has already moved on to discussing a refer- endum on the final accord, warning that failure to approve it would see the Farc return to urban attacks and increased taxes to finance the cost of the war. Supporters and opponents alike condemned his remarks.