Less than two months after a previous deal was rejected by the electorate, the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) have signed another peace accord. FARC leader Rodrigo Londoño (better known by his nom de guerre Timochenko) claimed the new agreement “put a definite end to the war so we can confront our differences in a civilized manner.”

Yet in the same week, three social-movement leaders were murdered by right-wing paramilitaries, showing the danger socialists still face in Colombia and the enormous threat that such attacks pose to the peace process.

The rejection of the initial deal in the October 2 referendum was a massive blow to President Juan Manuel Santos’s prestige and his long-running efforts to secure a peace deal with FARC after more than fifty years of conflict. In the aftermath of the vote it appeared that former president Álvaro Uribe, Santos’s former ally turned bitter rival, would reestablish control of Colombian politics and pursue a harder line against the guerrillas.