A historic midnight cease-fire on Sunday is set to end a 52-year-old war between the Colombian state and rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). Hundreds of thousands of Colombians have died since 1964 as rebel armies and gangs battled in the jungles in what is considered Latin America's last major civil armed conflict.
"The end of the conflict has arrived!" President Juan Manuel Santos exulted on his Twitter account Friday, after signing a decree to halt military operations against the FARC.
The measure goes into effect at midnight (0500 GMT Monday), five days after the conclusion of peace negotiations underway in Havana since November 2012.
Peace "is beginning to be a reality," FARC leader Rodrigo Londono, better known by the nom de guerre Timoleon Jimenez or "Timochenko," wrote on Twitter.
The FARC declared a unilateral cease-fire in July 2015. But Sunday night's cease-fire is the first in which both sides have committed to a definitive end to the fighting.
"The cease-fire is really one more seal on the end of the conflict. It is the test of fire," said Carlos Alfonso Velazquez, a security expert at the University of La Sabana.
Santos and Timochenko are due to sign a final, full peace agreement sometime between September 20 and 26.
Santos has said the signing could take place at UN headquarters in New York, or in Havana or Bogota.
The cease-fire and definitive end of hostilities will be followed by a six-month demobilisation process. Guerrilla fighters will gather at collection points and give up their weapons under UN supervision.
Beginning Monday, Villegas said, "corridors" will be identified for the FARC's estimated 7,500 guerrillas to move toward 22 zones and six encampments.
Guerrillas who refuse to demobilise and disarm "will be pursued with all the strength of the state forces," Santos told El Espectador newspaper.
Before the demobilisation, the FARC will convene its leaders and troops one last time before transforming into "a legal political movement," according to a statement made public on Saturday.
The rebel gathering will be held from September 13-19 in an expanse of grasslands surrounded by jungles near the former guerrilla stronghold of San Vicente del Caguan in southern Colombia.