Former Colombian President Alavaro Uribe has described the failed peace deal with leftist rebels as “weak” following a meeting with President Juan Manuel Santos.
Uribe, who led the campaign against the accord, said the deal had to be for everyone not half the population.
Tens of thousands of demonstrators have held marches urging the government and Farc not to go back to war.
Colombians narrowly rejected the deal in a referendum on Sunday.
President Santos is scrambling to salvage the deal, which opponents said was too soft on the Farc guerrillas.
Government negotiators have already returned to Havana for further talks with Farc leaders.
However Santos said peace was “close” and that he would continue meeting opponents to try to salvage the deal.
His meeting with Uribe was believed to be the first since he was sworn in as president six years ago. The one-time allies became bitter rivals after President Santos decided to negotiate with the Farc.
Santos has been supported by demonstrators who rallied in 14 cities demanding that the deal be saved.
Twenty-six public and private universities took part in the marches, organised by students on social media.
Many carried candles and white flags and walked silently, while some carried pictures of loved ones who were among the 220,000 killed during more than 50 years of conflict.
For their part, the Farc have said that “peace is here to stay”.
On Tuesday, President Santos announced that he would extend a bilateral ceasefire between the Farc and government forces until the end of October.
This prompted Farc leader Timochenko to tweet: “@JuanManSantos announces that the ceasefire with the @FARC_EPueblo will last until 31 October, and from then onwards does the war continue?”
But Colombia’s ministry of defence released a statement on Wednesday clarifying that the ceasefire had been extended “initially” until October 31 and that it could well be extended beyond that date.
No comments:
Post a Comment