Colombia’s Congress approved the revised peace accord between the government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia on Wednesday night, according to multiple reports. The deal ends a 52-year war that resulted in the deaths of 220,000 people and left millions of residents displaced.
The Senate and lower house both unanimously ratified the deal, which was signed last Thursday in the capital city of Bogota.
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.
