The Colombian government and the guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombie (FARC) had agreed on the resumption of peace talks on December 10th, said Wednesday in Cuba’s Havana of Representatives and Norway, the guarantor countries of the Colombian peace process.
The parties considered that the crisis caused by the removal of General Ruben Alzate by the rebellion was “outdated.” They agreed on holding a session for new dialogue from December 10th to the 17th, which was announced to the press Cuban delegate, Jose Luis Ponce, after two days of meetings between representatives of Bogota and rebellion in the Havana.
The talks were suspended after the abduction by the rebel General Alzate, a corporal and an adviser to the military during a mission on November 16th in the province of Choco, on the Pacific coast as per the request of Bogota as a precondition for the resumption of dialogue. The release of these prisoners took place Sunday.
In order to proceed, they needed a comprehensive peace agreement for negotiations which all started in November 2012 in the Cuban capital, the peace talks with Marxist rebels aimed to solve the oldest conflict in Latin America, which has 220,000 people dead and 5.3 million displaced half a century, according to official figures. The talks have already partial agreements on rural development, the fight against drug trafficking and the involvement of guerrilla politics after a general agreement.
Once settled, the issue of reparations to victims was discussed at the time of the suspension will remain in addressing the effective end of the conflict and the terms of ratification of any comprehensive peace agreement.
It’s a truce which should become an armistice, said in a statement, announcing a unilateral cease-fire indefinitely. This announcement comes just days after the resumption of negotiations between the Colombian government and the representatives of the Marxist guerrillas in the Havana. Ongoing since the end of 2012, these talks were interrupted in early December after the crisis caused by the removal of General Ruben Alzatepar rebellion. This marks 5 decades of conflict where Colombian government are in talks to the Havana to end a conflict that more than half a century that killed so many and rendered so many homeless.