Pope meets Colombian leaders divided over FARC peace deal
- 7 years ago
Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, who won the Nobel peace prize for the deal with the FARC and opposition leader Alvaro Uribe, who rejected the agreement met with Pope Francis in the Vatican.
Argentinian pontiff Francis has helped broker diplomatic detentes in Cuba and Venezuela, met with the pair for twenty minutes.
Santos appealed for the support to end half a century of war with the Marxist rebels which has killed a quarter of a million people.
He presented the Pope with a pen made from a machine gun bullet which bore the inscription: “Bullets have written our past, education will write our future”.
Santos signed a modified peace deal in November, after voters rejected the original in a referendum. Uribe argues the new deal is not tough enough on the FARC. The opposition leader said he was attending the meeting out of respect for the first Latin American pontiff, but made no reference to the agreement.
Argentinian pontiff Francis has helped broker diplomatic detentes in Cuba and Venezuela, met with the pair for twenty minutes.
Santos appealed for the support to end half a century of war with the Marxist rebels which has killed a quarter of a million people.
He presented the Pope with a pen made from a machine gun bullet which bore the inscription: “Bullets have written our past, education will write our future”.
Santos signed a modified peace deal in November, after voters rejected the original in a referendum. Uribe argues the new deal is not tough enough on the FARC. The opposition leader said he was attending the meeting out of respect for the first Latin American pontiff, but made no reference to the agreement.