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If Colombia was the recovering sick man of Latin America, it now looks to be relapsing. A peace deal set to end the war between the Colombian government and FARC, a leftist guerilla army, was rejected by a public referendum on October 2nd, 2016. The fate of Latin America's longest running conflict, with over 220,000 dead and 7 million more displaced, is now uncertain. The accord, negotiated by Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos and FARC leader Rodrigo Londoño-Echeverry, committed the FARC to becoming a non-violent political party. According to the drafted agreement, FARC's 6,800 strong army and additional militia forces were to be disarmed by the United Nations. Meanwhile, the Colombian state pledged to invest billions of dollars in development in formerly FARC controlled regions. Despite the deal's electoral defeat, both the FARC and the government are still committed to maintaining the peace. Negotiations have continued since the referendum to discuss the next stages of the process, which now must include the opponents of the peace deal. Polls expected the "yes" side to win in the referendum in favour of the peace deal. And yet “No” won, albeit by a thin margin of 50.2% to 49.8%. The voters' rejection of the peace deal reveals deep scars left by decades of war, with Colombians finding the more lenient terms of the peace deal hard to swallow. Indeed, the FARC practiced kidnapping, extortion, drug trafficking, and other atrocities. Yet, the peace accords would have allowed war criminals to avoid jail sentence by exchanging up to eight years of "restricted" liberty and community service, provided that they confess in court. Former Colombian president Álvaro Uribe led the cause against the peace agreement, demanding jail time for FARC war criminals and to bar them from public office. It remains to be seen how this sentiment, seemingly shared by many Colombians, will find its way into ongoing negations. Despite its flaws, the peace accord still offered Colombia the opportunity to end a conflict that for too long has defined the country. Colombians must now work to salvage the peace process and present an agreement acceptable to the whole nation. A tall order, to be sure, but definitely worth the struggle.