Colombia expects to sign a peace agreement with FARC militants in early 2016. What would it mean? And would it end the violence?

Its a new year, and Colombia has high hopes that it will be a good one.

On September 24, 2015, Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos and leaders of the FARC guerrilla announced a breakthrough in peace negotiations that could end a conflict that has plagued the country since the 1960s. An agreement is expected in the early months of 2016.

But what would a peace on paper mean in the real world? On the one hand we’ve been told for years that Colombian rebel forces are essentially mercenaries, fighting to hold on to a foothold in the drug trade. We are taught that the guerilla is disjointed, sprinkled across Colombia’s geographically foreboding periphery. Yet we are asked to believe that the aging FARC leaders summoned to Havana are somehow powerful enough to broker a peace—that somehow political representation will end a conflict we thought was about controlling dirty money.

So what is the big idea? In this video chapter of The Crossroads Colombia I take a closer look at that the peace process can really accomplish:

See more of Colombia at the Crossroads:

Colombia: A New Day

Five Challenges to the Colombian Economy