HUNDREDS of thousands of Colombians marched in silence by torchlight on Wednesday calling on the country not to give up on the peace deal marginally rejected on Sunday.

The In Silence for Peace protests filled the streets of the capital Bogota and other cities across the country including Barranquilla, Cali, Cartagena, Quibdo, Bucaramanga, Santa Marta, Manizales and Medellin.

One banner read: “For everything that unites us and against everything that separates us.”

The demonstrations proceeded as President Juan Manuel Santos met his former boss, ex-president Alvaro Uribe — leader of the “No” campaign — in a bid to salvage the hard-won peace deal.

The People’s Congress, a coalition of hundreds of peasant groups, said in a statement on Tuesday that the meeting equated to a “pact between elites.”

The congress said: “We firmly reject the path of a closed and elitist pact of the right wing, which again excludes the common people and it is a sure way to a “new cycle of violence.”

As Mr Uribe’s defence minister from 2006 to 2009, Mr Santos was responsible for working with US forces and paramilitaries in the bloodthirsty “Plan Colombia” campaign against the Farc.

But since his election in 2010 he has trodden a more independent path towards peace with the communist rebels and Colombia’s left-wing neighbours.

Sunday’s referendum on the peace accord ending the 52-year civil war with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) was lost by a margin of just 0.4 per cent — 54,000 votes — on a 37 per cent turnout badly affected by Hurricane Matthew.

Mr Uribe’s claim that the peace deal would grant impunity to rebels accused of crimes — despite pledges to prosecute them — gained widespread traction.

While the majority of city-dwellers voted against the accord, rural residents, who bore the brunt of the fighting and far-right death squad atrocities, overwhelmingly supported it.

The Patriotic March movement, whose leading member Piedad Cordoba echoed Farc calls for a constituent assembly to implement the peace agreement this week, said the result should not be seen as a victory for those opposed to ending the war.

The group also called for further mobilisations next Friday.