The Colombian government, led by President Juan Manuel Santos (L) and the FARC rebel group have been undergoing intense peace negotiations mediated by Cuban President Raul Castro (C) since 2012 in Havana. Santos on Monday said the peace process is reaching a conclusion, while former Colombian President Álvaro Uribe recently increased efforts against the peace campaign. Santos and a FARC negotiator shook hands in September over a preliminary peace agreement. Photo courtesy of FARC- EP/Diálogos Paz
BOGOTA, June 6 (UPI) -- Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos on Monday said the peace process between the government and the FARC rebel group is in the "final phase" though a former president is working to destabilize the effort.
"I'd say we're in the final phase, in those mechanical details," Santos told Spain's ABC newspaper. "The key issues have already been resolved: the issue of justice, the respect for the rights of victims and we are in how they will disarm, deadlines, where they will gather while disarmament is developed and how a transition will be carried out in which a guerilla group will be integrated into the legal and civil life."
Santos also said he would be happy if former Colombian President Álvaro Uribe joined the peace process. Uribe has been critical of Santos' peace dealings with the FARC rebels. On Saturday, Uribe launched a national signature-gathering drive that calls for "civil resistance" against the peace agreement.
Santos served as Uribe's defense minister from 2006 until 2009. Peace talks have been taking place between the government and the FARC in Havana, Cuba, since 2012.
Uribe, who served as president from 2002 until 2010, argues the Colombia peace deal grants impunity to the guerilla group.
"Many Colombians have come to sign this letter because ... we don't accept that under the agreements in Havana kidnappers, drug traffickers and rapists of girls won't spend one day in prison and will also have political eligibility," Uribe said while speaking in Medellin over the weekend.
Santos said his peace deal, which will establish a special judicial system to carry out punishment of war crimes, is similar to one Uribe previously proposed.
"He wanted to do exactly the same," Santos said. "We possess all the cards, all the evidence, that what we are doing is exactly what President Uribe wanted. He even went further. He made offers that we have not done. Believe me, I have wanted in every possible way to build bridges ... I also know that he will quickly realize that his fears are not valid -- they have him misinformed or he is interested in misinforming."
More than 220,000 people have died and 5 million have been internally displaced due to the Colombian conflict since the FARC's founding in 1964. The militant rebel group, known officially as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, has been involved in drug-trafficking, kidnapping and other illicit activity to fund its insurgency campaign.
