The Colombian government and FARC rebels scrambled Monday to save a peace deal after voters narrowly rejected it in a referendum, throwing the four-year-old peace process into uncertainty. The shock result prompted the government's chief peace negotiator to offer his resignation - possibly paving the way for fresh talks - as the leader of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) vowed the rebels were prepared to "fix" the deal.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who had offered a UN team to oversee the disarmament process, said he had "urgently" sent his Colombia envoy to Havana, where the peace talks were held, for new consultations. Still, the outcome left no clear way forward to end a half-century conflict that has claimed more than 260,000 lives.
"Colombia is in uncertain territory," said Angelika Retteberg, an expert on the peace process at the University of the Andes in Bogota. The peace deal had been hailed as historic from the time it was concluded on August 24 to the moment it was signed last week in the presence of UN chief Ban and US Secretary of State John Kerry.