The
Vice President met last night with President Juan Manuel Santos of
Colombia in Cartagena, Colombia to discuss bilateral cooperation between
the United States and Colombia
and the next steps in the Colombian peace process.
The Vice President
congratulated President Santos on yesterday's vote in the Colombian
congress to approve the peace accord negotiated between the Colombian
government and the FARC. The Vice President also
praised the Colombian people who have worked with courage and
unflagging determination to reclaim their country, and whose
representatives have now voted to ratify the Colombian peace accord and
officially end the longest-running armed conflict in the Americas.
The Vice President reiterated the commitment of the United States to
support implementation of the peace accords, including demobilization
and disarmament of FARC combatants, protection of victims' rights, and
application of the transitional justice framework
in a transparent manner with the full engagement of civil society.
The
Vice President emphasized that continuing to engage critics of the
peace accord, as well as a renewed focus on counternarcotics, will be
essential to maintaining and broadening support
for the peace agreement in Colombia and the United States.
The Vice
President underscored the administration's continuing commitment to its
Fiscal Year 2017 budget request of $450 million, which includes $391
million in foreign assistance to implement President
Obama's "Peace Colombia" strategy. Both leaders hailed the fact that,
after 52 years of violence, it is now possible to envision a hemisphere
fully at peace.
Source: The White House, Office of the Vice President
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