The Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia will sign a new peace accord in the capital city of Bogota on Thursday, according to an Agence France-Presse report Tuesday evening.
Both parties have negotiated changes to the original truce after a referendum to finalize the end to a half-century of war failed to pass last month, in part because it allowed rebels to hold public office and serve punishments outside of prison.
Legislators will now decide how to go about approving the revised deal between the government and the Marxist FARC group. Interior Minister Juan Fernando Cristo said the law does not require President Juan Manuel Santos to hold a new referendum, enabling the Congress to approve the 310-page document.
Government officials said they studied at least 500 proposals from the opposition when rewriting the deal. De la Calle said the new proposal addressed 80 percent of those concerns.
This new deal allows rebels to hold public office, though anyone who confesses to having committed a war crime will be forced to live outside of urban areas for five to eight years.
The 52-year war has resulted in the deaths of 220,000 people and left millions of residents displaced due to the destruction.
