Colombia’s constitutional court ruled Wednesday that the coming three governments are legally bound to executing a peace deal made with FARC guerrillas last year.
The judicial shield for the peace process is a relief for President Juan Manuel Santos, who spent most of his two terms in office negotiating and executing peace after more than half a century of armed conflict with the rebels.
The court ruling disallows future governments to amend the peace deal once Congress passes all elements.
The peace process is currently opposed by a conservative minority in Congress consisting of the hard-right Democratic Center and the center-right Radical Change.
These parties are among the parties that have suffered the most by criminal investigations into ties between Colombia’s ruling class and paramilitary death squads.
The Democratic Center had vowed to “shred that fucking deal to pieces” if winning the presidential elections. This has been made impossible by the court.
The court had been studying the peace deal since its signing in December last year and is yet to study important elements like the transitional justice system currently debated in Congress.
The peace deal, which allowed the FARC to enter politics, puts an end to more than 50 years of armed conflict that has killed more than 265,000 Colombians. Another 7 million Colombians were displaced by the violence.