The choice on the ballot was simple: yes or no.

After years of negotiations between the Colombian government and FARC leaders in Havana, Cuba, a countrywide referendum on Sunday was set to ratify a peace agreement that would end the five-decade-long conflict.

Photographer Sebastián Liste, on assignment for National Geographic, visited the town of Quibdó on Sunday to document the plebescite process. In school buildings and town halls, citizens were given a ballot asking if they accept or reject the terms of the peace agreement. If ratified, the agreement would finally bring resolution to the longest continual conflict in the Western Hemisphere.

But as the votes were counted Sunday evening, the "no" votes emerged with a narrow victory: 50.2 percent to 49.8 percent,