• Live
    • Audio Only
  • google plus
  • facebook
  • twitter
News > Latin America

United Nations Confirms Complete FARC Disarmament in Colombia

  • Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos (L) with the head of the United Nations Mission in Colombia Jean Arnault (R).

    Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos (L) with the head of the United Nations Mission in Colombia Jean Arnault (R). | Photo: EFE

Published 23 September 2017
Opinion

The U.N. reports that 100 percent of the weapons belonging to the FARC were delivered and destroyed.

The United Nations has confirmed that all weapons previously owned by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, FARC, were delivered and later destroyed as part of the peace agreement in Colombia.

RELATED:
Ninth FARC Member Killed in Colombia Despite Peace Process

The former guerrilla group handed in some 9,000 weapons and has turned into a political party. Now known as the Revolutionary Alternative Force for the Commons, the newly-formed party will participate in regional elections, although they haven't confirmed if they will present a candidate for the presidential elections. 

The head of the U.N. Mission in Colombia, Jean Arnault, said he was hopeful that this would set a new stage of peace in the South American nation.

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos said the move is part of a process intended to end years of internal armed conflict.

"Today is a very important day, the process of abandonment of weapons is over," Santos said in the town of Funza in the capital city of Bogota. 

"I was handed the last weapon, an AR-15 assault rifle, and it is already totally unusable, as are all weapons that were delivered in this process."

All of the weapons were destroyed and their materials will be used to build three different monuments. One will be built in Colombia, in a place to be determined, another one will be placed in Havana, Cuba, where the peace talks were hosted.

The third monument will be located at the U.N. headquarters in New York City.

"Every process was followed, the rigor imposed by the international procedure of the United Nations," Santos said. "Each weapon was registered, everything followed a process."

Comment
0
Comments
Post with no comments.