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ByJoshuaGoodman and Andrea Rodriguez The Associated Press BOGOTA, COLOMBIA As peace talks in Colombia ad- vanced over the past year, 7,000 rebel fighters began slowly emerging from their jungle hideouts hoping for, if not a hero's welcome, at least an outstretched hand from fellow Colombians tired of a half-century of bloody combat. But with the peace deal's shock defeat in a referen- dum on Sunday, the future of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia's rebels, who unanimously ratified the accord just days ago and began planning a return to civilian life, is now in limbo. For now, a return to the battlefield in a war that has already killed 220,000 peo- ple and displaced 8 mil- lion seems unlikely. Within hours of defeat, FARC leader Rodrigo Londono reaffirmed the group's com- mitment to peace, saying its only weapon going forward would be the power of its word. On Monday, he said his troops would honor its commitments to the gov- ernment and stick by a per- manent cease-fire. The government has vowed the same and Pres- ident Juan Manuel Santos quickly dispatched his ne- gotiators to Cuba on Mon- day to try to salvage the ac- cord. He also extended an olive branch to arch-rival former President Alvaro Uribe, inviting the hard- line conservative who led the opposition to the accord to join him in a bid to rene- gotiate and strengthen it. But the rebels' ambi- tion, enshrined in a 297- page document that would have allowed them to avoid jail time and form a politi- cal movement with seats in Congress, is now at risk. As part of the deal, rebels who confess their crimes to spe- cial peace tribunals were to be spared prison sentences and instead perform devel- opment work in areas hard- hit by the conflict. Colombians overwhelm- ingly loathe the FARC, who they blame for scores of crimes from drug-traffick- ing and the forced recruit- ment of child soldiers to kid- nappingandattacksoncivil- ians. That hatred was only reinforced by Sunday's re- sults. The FARC always op- posed Santos' idea of a refer- endum and instead favored ratifyingtheaccordinacon- stitutional convention. "In all these years the guerrillas caused a lot of damage," said Alcibiades Escue Musicue, the mayor of the mostly-indigenous town of Toribio, where the FARC in 2011 carried out a bus bomb attack on a mar- ket, killing three people and injuring dozens. "At same point they must have cal- culated this could happen." That contrasts with wide- spread international sup- port among foreign leaders who have heralded the ac- cord as a model for resolv- ing disputes in a world be- set by political violence and terrorism. Many heads of state, as well as U.N. Secre- tary-General Ban Ki-moon and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, were present when Santos and the FARC leader signed the deal less than a week ago in an elab- orate, emotion-filled cere- mony in the historic city of Cartagena. Noting that "democracy can be messy at times," White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Sunday's referendum "might be the latest example of that." "The good news is that all sides, including the vot- ers, I think are still focused on trying to reach this ne- gotiated peace," he said. But if the FARC was polit- ically weakened by the ref- erendum, it's not clear how many concessions it's now willing to make. Nobody ex- pects the rebels to turn in their weapons just to wind up in jail. On Monday, Londono warned that the referen- dum's results "don't have any legal effect whatsoever" because the peace accord was already signed and de- posited for storage with the Swiss Federal Council as a special humanitarian agreement between war- ring parties under the Ge- neva Conventions. "This confers it undeni- able and irrevocable legal effects," he said. PEACE DEAL DEFEAT A eremergingfromhideouts, Colombia's rebels now in limbo FERNANDOVERGARA—THEASSOCIATEDPRESS A man reads a newspaper with the headline that reads in Spanish: "Colombia said No" in Bogota, Colombia, on Monday. By Matthew Lee The Associated Press WASHINGTON In a sharp deterioration of relations, the U.S. on Monday sus- pendeddiplomaticcontacts with Russia over Syria, while Moscow halted co- operation on a joint pro- gram for disposal of weap- ons-grade plutonium. TheU.S.movefolloweda threat last week from Sec- retary of State John Kerry after new Russian and Syr- ian attacks on the city of Aleppo. The State Depart- ment said Russia had not lived up to the terms of an agreement last month to restore the cease-fire and ensure sustained deliver- ies of humanitarian aid to besieged cities. "This is not a decision that was taken lightly," State Department spokes- man John Kirby said in a statement. "Unfortunately, Russia failed to live up to its own commitments ... and was also either un- willing or unable to en- sure Syrian regime adher- ence to the arrangements to which Moscow agreed." "Rather, Russia and the Syrian regime have cho- sen to pursue a military course, inconsistent with the Cessation of Hostilities, as demonstrated by their intensified attacks against civilian areas, targeting of critical infrastructure such as hospitals, and prevent- ing humanitarian aid from reaching civilians in need, including through the Sep- tember 19 attack on a hu- manitarian aid convoy," he said. An airstrike last month hit a United Nations hu- manitarian aid convoy, killing 20 people. The United States has accused Russia of hitting the con- voy, but both Russia and Syria deny it. Monday's announce- ment came just hours af- ter Russian President Vladimir Putin suspended a Russia-U.S. deal on the disposal of weapons-grade plutonium, in a move that also underscored rising tensions between Wash- ington and Moscow. Putin's decree cited Washington's "unfriendly actions" and the United States' inability to ful- fill its obligations under the 2000 deal as reasons for the move. Under the agreement, which was ex- panded in 2006 and 2010, Russia and the U.S. each were to dispose of 34 met- ric tons of weapons-grade plutonium, enough mate- rial for about 17,000 nu- clear warheads. White House spokes- man Josh Earnest said patience had run out with Russia. "What is clear is that there is nothing more for the United States and Rus- sia to talk about with re- gard to stopping the ongo- ing violence in Syria and that is unfortunate," he told reporters. He said the U.S. would withdraw personnel that it had dispatched to take part in the creation of a joint U.S.-Russia center that was to have coordi- nated military cooperation and intelligence had the cease-fire taken hold. The suspension will not affect communications between the two countries aimed at de-conflicting counter-ter- rorism operations in Syria. Last week, amid the deteriorating conditions, Kerry threatened to sus- pend contacts with Russia unless "immediate" action was taken to ease the situ- ation. Despite no improve- ments, however, he did not order the suspension until Monday. TENSIONS US s us pe nd s co nt ac ts with Russia on Syria InPrintEveryTuesday-Thursday-Saturday Online:Publishes24/7 www.redbluffdailynews.com Threeadditionalonline locations at no extra cost! 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