Former FARC fighters take up seats in Colombia Congress

by Abi
Jul 22, 2018

Former fighters from the guerrilla movement FARC took their seats in Colombia’s Congress in a swearing-in ceremony on Friday.

Under the terms of the 2016 peace deal between the FARC and the Colombian government, the group formed a political party, kept its famous acronym as the Revolutionary Alternative Common Force, and was awarded five seats each in the 108-member Senate and the 172-member lower house through 2026.

Two prominent FARC leaders were absent from the proceedings, with one - Zeuxis Pausias Hernandez, a FARC leader also known as Jesus Santrich - unable to take his seat because he is under arrest on charges of drug trafficking, leading to another leader - Ivan Marquez - withdrawing from his seat, in protest of Hernandez’s detention, accusing the government of breaching the peace deal.

Colombia’s outgoing president, Juan Manuel Santos won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2016 for brokering the peace deal.

See more on Al Jazeera.

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