Colombia voters reject FARC peace deal

[Morphine Prince 109,671]

Voters in Colombia have rejected a landmark peace deal with Farc rebels in a shock referendum result, with 50.2% voting against it.

The deal was signed last week by President Juan Manuel Santos and Farc leader Timoleon Jimenez after nearly four years of negotiations.

But it needed to be ratified by Colombians in order to come into force.

Addressing the nation, President Santos said he accepted the result but would continue working to achieve peace.

Read more: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-37537252

 

[calmar 22,768]

Well I can see why they would reject it given how lenient the government of Colombia would be to former FARC fighters - a good amount of congressional seats, leniency and lack of traditional prison time for confessing, government monthly stipends and startup business aid, etc.

I understand the government a) needed to give FARC good incentives and b) Its constituents are people who would definitely need a lot of help. I dunno, I'm not Colombian, but I can see the reasoning for both sides as someone completely unaffected by the conflict or the ramifications of the referendum.

[Voltaire 4,531]

I work every day with a Colombian. Her support of "no" is largely because she does not want to see FARC included in the government. She sees them as a terrorist organization. 

I'd imagine this is the same for many other Colombians. 

It's not fair to say this is only about "peace" when there is enough fine print to cause such a disagreement. If this were purely about peace, it would have been practically unanimous.