Colombia: Government and FARC Announce Definitive Ceasefire Deal

However, while Mr. Santos said a peaceful conclusion to talks, which began in 2012, would usher the country into a new year, he has been accused of “intimidating” voters after he warned that should Colombia slip back into conflict taxes would have to go up.

However, Wednesday’s announcement comes after both sides of the conflict asked the United Nations for an worldwide observer mission to monitor and verify rebel disarmament, marking another milestone in peace talks.

Presidents Raul Castro of Cuba, Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela and Michelle Bachelet of Chile and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will attend the ceremony, the statement said.

The government in Colombia and members of the FARC guerrillas will formally announce dates for the end of the conflict and the commencement of a bilateral cease-fire Thursday.

Final points under discussion include a bilateral ceasefire, the decommissioning of the rebels’ weapons and guarantees for their safety once they down arms.

At an unprecedented meeting with the Farc leader known as Timochenko in Havana last September, the president set a deadline of 23 March 2016 for the talks to be concluded. “Tomorrow could be the last day of the war with FARC and the beginning of their end as a guerrilla group”, said Senator Claudia López.

Uribe singled out Santos’ prediction that tax hikes will be inevitable if peace is not consolidated because, he said, “War is more expensive than peace”.

“The UN is prepared to do whatever it can to strengthen the peace process”, said its deputy spokesman Farhan Haq on Wednesday.

The presidents of Cuba, Venezuela and Chile – the three nations sponsoring the now nearly four-year-old peace talks in Havana – were also expected to attend Thursday’s ceremony, and the Obama administration was sending its special envoy to the talks, former diplomat Bernard Aronson.

The means of implementation of the final peace deal remain to be settled.

“We are very close”.

They got a boost when the FARC declared a unilateral ceasefire a year ago.

At the time, Mr Santos said he did not want to rush into “signing a bad agreement”. The ELN agreed to a peace process with the government earlier this year but those talks have yet to start because of Santos’ insistence the group renounce kidnapping.

“We hope it will lead to a final agreement and the end of this long war”.

That move was followed by the government halting air raids on rebel camps and a de-escalation of offensive action by the security forces.