Colombia on Friday marked a year since the signing of a landmark peace deal with Marxist FARC rebels, which President Juan Manuel Santos said had saved thousands of lives. Santos and FARC leader Rodrigo Londono returned to the same Bogota theater where they signed the deal a year ago to end Latin America's longest war. The mood was considerably less festive, however.
Londono, who for years as guerrilla leader went by the name of Timochenko, said the deal had failed to live up to the "immense expectations" it had raised. "What we are implementing is not the agreement that was signed here a year ago," he said.
He blamed congress, where Santos' government has a weak majority, for failing to implement rural and political reforms that were part of the deal. He accused it of betraying "the expectations of peoples who were hoping the accord would transform their lives for the better."