BOGOTA, Colombia — Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos signed a revised peace agreement with the country’s largest rebel movement on Thursday, making a second attempt within months to end a half-century of hostilities.

Santos and Rodrigo Londono, leader of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, signed the 310-page accord at Bogota’s historic Colon Theater – nearly two months after the original deal was surprisingly rejected in a referendum.

After signing with a pen crafted from the shell of an assault rifle bullet, they clasped hands to shouts of “Yes we could!”

Thursday’s hastily organized ceremony was a far more modest and somber event than the one in September, in the colonial city of Cartagena, where the two men signed an accord in front of an audience of foreign leaders and United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, all of whom were dressed in white to symbolize peace.

Santos looked and sounded tired after a two-month political roller coaster that saw him rise from the humiliating defeat to win this year’s Nobel Peace Prize. This time the deal will be sent directly to Congress without a public referendum.

He tried to inject a dose of optimism about the hobbled accord whose outlook for implementation is shrouded in uncertainty.

“In 150 days – only 150 days – all of the FARC’s weapons will be in the hands of the United Nations,” he said during the only part of his speech that drew applause from the audience of a few hundred local politicians and officials.

FARC leader Londono used his address to call for a transitional government to ensure the accord is effectively implemented, a suggestion immediately denounced by the opposition as a veiled attempt to extend Santos’ tenure past elections in 2018, when he’ll be constitutionally banned from competing. The rebel leader also congratulated Donald Trump on his victory and called on him to continue strong U.S. support for a path to peace.


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