Colombia's government is trying to give peace another chance. Even after voters in the country rejected Bogota's proposed peace deal with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in an Oct. 2 referendum, plenty of alternative paths to end the group's decadeslong insurgency remain. The question is whether the government, the FARC and the opposition Democratic Center party can agree on which path to take. Though all three are pushing for another round of negotiations in hopes of producing a lasting deal, reconciling their collective demands will be a tall order.
Further diminishing peace prospects, the FARC is at risk of losing its overall cohesion. Now that the first deal has failed, the rebels are racing against the clock to reach another agreement before a new government comes to power in 2018. Facing such a tight deadline, lower-level militant leaders may opt to split off from the FARC core instead...
