Women hold anti-weapon signs during a peace march in Bogotá in 2002. AP Photo/Arima cubillos/All rights reserved
The General Agreement signed on August, 26, 2012 between the government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) – i.e., the roadmap for the current talks in Havana - expressly provides for an unnamed procedure of public endorsement (refrendación)of the agreements reached in the peace negotiations.
Both parties have publicly expressed their views on the issue, revealing their differences. While Juan Manuel Santos’s government suggested a referendum and then a plebiscite as a possible means for the endorsement, the guerrillas have insisted on convening a constituent assembly and, more recently, making a special agreement under International Humanitarian Law with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
