No Ceasefire with FARC, Says Colombia's President
Colombia will not agree to a ceasefire with FARC rebels, the country's president stressed Saturday ahead of a resumption of peace talks.
Juan Manuel Santos said that, since the start of the talks last year, his government has put Latin America's longest-fighting insurgency on notice that there would be no truce until a five-point agenda had been agreed.
"So (now, too) the military offensive is maintained, it is strengthened because that is what is going to get us to the end of this conflict fastest," Santos said.
"If we let down our guard there will be no incentive to wrap up the conflict in any foreseeable future."
Peace talks between the rebels and the government opened last November in Cuba, the fourth attempt since the 1980s to end Latin America's longest-running armed conflict.
The next round of negotiations was scheduled to resume in Cuba's capital Havana on Sunday.
The half-century old guerrilla war has left 600,000 dead, more than 3.7 million displaced and 15,000 missing.
Formed in 1964, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC by its Spanish acronym, is the country's largest guerrilla group, with an estimated 8,000 fighters.
Source: Agence France Presse
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