Around 100 rebels from the National Coordinating Committee of the Bolivarian Army — a splinter group of the FARC, which disarmed in 2016 after decades of conflict — laid down their weapons in the southern Colombian department of Putumayo (a remote jungle region bordering Ecuador and Peru) on Thursday, in the most significant advance yet under President Gustavo Petro's "total peace" initiative. The guerrillas deposited their rifles into a container marked "I bet on life, I fulfill my commitment to peace," in a gesture intended as a first step toward formal disarmament and negotiations over their legal status. The handover comes just days before a presidential run-off election that could determine the policy's future, with Petro's ally Iván Cepeda pledging to continue the peace process and far-right candidate Abelardo de la Espriella opposing it.