President Juan Manuel Santos and FARC commander-in-chief Rodrigo Londono Echeverri signed an historic peace agreement Monday at a ceremony that ended the longest conflict in the Western hemisphere.
"We have lived and we have suffered for 52 years through an armed conflict between sons of the same nation," Santos said before an audience of global dignitaries. "We say it loud and clear, no more war."
The document was signed with a pen made from a bullet to symbolize the transition from bullets to education and future.
Fifteen heads of state, including Raul Castro of Cuba, the host nation for the peace talks since November 2011, Spanish King Juan Carlos, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and UN chief Ban Ki-Moon.
"In the name of the FARC, I apologize for all the pain that we have caused in this war," Echeverri, who is known by the alias Timochenko, said at the ceremony. "The peace accord is a victory of the Colombian people and the international community," he added.
“This process really began almost six years ago,” Santos told the media Sunday. “The first contact took place in December 2010. Then the first direct contact was in March 2011. From here on we were engaged in a difficult negotiation, but never losing sight of the clear objective.”
Despite the positive atmosphere and fanfare taking place at the Cartagena’s Convention Center where the accord was signed, former president and outspoken opponent to the agreement, Sen. Alvaro Uribe, was amongst approximately 2,000 protestors in the city making their voices heard.
“We are here to say no to the terrorists, no to this bad agreement, no to this signing,” Uribe told his followers.
Santos was unfazed by the protest. "Every peace agreement is imperfect and this is the best possible. I prefer an imperfect accord which saves lives to a perfect war which continues sowing death and pain in our country," he said.