Colombian voters shot down a peace deal aimed at ending the country’s half-century civil war with Marxist rebels in a referendum Sunday.
Colombia Reports, an English-language Colombian news outlet, reported 50.22 percent of Colombians voted against ratifying the peace deal and 49.77 percent of voters voted in favor. About 98 percent of votes had been counted as of 6:15 p.m. Sunday.
Media reports indicated the referendum was widely expected to be approved, but there was underlying resentment among Colombians who felt the FARC rebels would not be punished enough by the peace deal.
The peace deal would have allowed the FARC rebels to serve in the country’s legislature as a political group. The deal would have also included land reforms, changes to its anti-narcotics strategy and the expansion of the government to help rural parts of the country.
The negotiations lasted four years and about 220,000 people have died during the violence. About 5 million others were displaced.
It’s unclear what will happen to the peace negotiations after the peace deal was shot down in the referendum.
