Colombia's President Juan Manuel Santos on Thursday extended his ceasefire with Marxist FARC rebels through the end of the year as he seeks to revive a peace accord to end five decades of war after voters rejected the hard-fought deal in a referendum.
The original ceasefire, which was put in place in August, was nullified when the peace accord was rejected in plebiscite earlier this month. He had already extended it to Oct. 31.
Santos said he decided to extend the ceasefire further after meeting with student leaders who had organized two huge marches through Bogota to show support for a peace accord.
"One of the students reminded me, that in the army and in the guerrilla ranks, there are young people waiting to see what happens, hoping that they don't need to fire another shot," Santos said in a televised address. "For that reason, and at the request of the students, I have taken the decision to extend the ceasefire until Dec. 31."
The ceasefire can be extended further, but Santos said he hopes a new deal is approved long before then. Santos won the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for his efforts to end the war. They were outraged that the accord offered 10 congressional seats and non-traditional sentences like clearing landmines instead of prison cells in return for ending a conflict that has killed more than 220,000 people.
As part of ongoing peace process in the country, the Colombian government and the country's second-largest rebel group, the ELN, announced Monday they would launch negotiations on October 27 in Ecuador's capital, with President Juan Manuel Santos predicting "total peace."
