Colombia's Santos Dubs New Legislature 'Congress of Peace'
Colombia's newly re-elected President Juan Manuel Santos installed a new legislature Sunday, calling it a "Congress of peace" and asking for its support in creating a post-conflict nation amid negotiations with the FARC.
Colombians re-elected Santos in mid-June in a cliffhanger poll seen as a referendum on peace talks to end Latin America's longest running armed conflict.
Evoking that mandate, Santos called on the legislature to further the talks and build agreements to halt the civil war which has raged since the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia guerrillas were founded in 1964.
He also called on the body to enact reforms that would help in "leaving behind war and hatred," and insisted that "this will be, without a doubt, the Congress of peace."
Popular former president Alvaro Uribe, who weakened the FARC militarily during his 2002-2010 presidency and is a fierce critic of the peace talks, was among those sworn in as senator.
Santos will find the new Congress a more hostile, divided and diverse body than during his first term.
After 19 months of talks in Havana, the Colombian government and FARC negotiators have reached agreement on three points of a six-point agenda.
But they must still agree on how to compensate victims of the conflict, how the rebels will disarm, and how to ratify their final agreement.
Santos' government has also recently begun peace talks with the country's second-largest guerrilla group, the National Liberation Army (ELN).
More than 220,000 people have been killed and more than five million others displaced since the FARC launched its war against the state fifty years ago.
Santos' term begins August 7 and will run until 2018.
Source: Agence France Presse
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