Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos said Friday that congress will debate the proposed peace deal with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) before it becomes law. The announcement was made during a broadcast of the Organization of American States as they voted to support the Colombian president’s push to bring peace to the country by passing a resolution [press release]. Santos reiterated the promise on his Twitter feed, stating the debate in congress would occur [Tweet] on Wednesday. He later linked to an op-ed [El Espectador report, in Spanish], which argued the congressional debate is the best way to implement the peace deal, even though it not was not the way originally planned. The debate was spurred to action due the ceasefire between the parties being contingent on the peace deal, which has been called into question after two FARC rebels were recently killed.

The Colombian government and the FARC reached a peace agreement[JURIST report] last Saturday to end the guerrilla warfare that has been plaguing the country for more than five decades. Colombian voters in October narrowly rejected [JURIST report] the previous peace deal negotiated between Santos and Timoleon Jimenez, the leader of the FARC. The Colombian government and the FARC signed a ceasefire [JURIST report] in June, marking an end to more than 50 years of armed conflict between the two groups.