FARC Says Plebiscite for Final Peace Deal will be a 'Disaster'

Guerrillas from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia or FARC said Thursday that the recent plebiscite passed in the Senate is damaging to the peace process and would be a “disaster” if enforced.

The comments come after the Senate passed Wednesday evening a plebiscite for the final peace agreements between the Colombian government and the FARC. The decision will allow citizens to vote on whether to accept the final peace agreement reached between the two sides, after discussions have been going on behind closed doors in Havana, Cuba for the past three years.

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The FARC responded by affirming their previous position on the matter, calling it a unilateral measure taken by the Colombian government after three years of trying to make bilateral decisions on all issues.

“That instrument of popular participation, has no binding capacity; it was slipped into the agreements in Havana,” said the FARC in a statement released on their website.

“The item was never considered in the talks. It is alien to the agenda. It produces no legal certainty nor are we committed to it ... Such an instrument cannot tie the fate of the final peace agreement. Doing so would be a disaster,” they added.

The two sides have set a deadline of March 23, 2016 to reach a final peace deal, what many believe would bring the country one step closer to achieving peace after over 50 years of civil war.

However, there remain many issues to address before either side will agree to a final deal. Aside from the FARC denying the plebiscite, they have also pushed for participation in national politics—which the government said will never happen—and demanded that paramilitaries groups in the country be demobilized.

Earlier this week, the government also denied the FARC's so-called request for demilitarized areas, saying, “We are not in this process to divide the country, nor to hand over ungovernable territories,” saying it will only speak of a single and indivisible Colombia.

In their statement Thursday, the FARC also commented to some of these concerns emphasizing that they have no intention of dividing the nation, and are completely committed to living in peace.

“In none of our proposals did we talk about 'demilitarized zones' ... Our interest is to live in communities and with communities ... Clearly, we will reinstate social life and all aspects it encompasses, in those terms, because it is in our interest to live with our families, not in pens, but in territories where peace reigns,” they said.