Colombia’s largest rebel group FARC on Sunday denied being behind death threats sent to labor union leaders, following the recent circulation of a rebel pamphlet declaring union leaders “military objectives.”
MORE: FARC Threats To Labor Unions Endanger Colombia’s Peace Talks: Santos
“It is not FARC-EP policy to threaten, less so against social and workers leaders,” the FARC answered, while stating giving credibility to the alleged pamphlets was not proof of “sincere will” to encounter peaceful solutions to the armed conflict.
The FARC claimed not a single one of the organization’s blocs or fronts had issued threats against union leaders and said the pamphlet in question, attributed to the FARC’s Bogota-based Antonio Nariño Front, was “not more than an invention by sectors” who wanted to “sow discord and create noise in the media in favor of their mean-spirited interests.”
On Saturday, Santos said authorities had yet to determine whether or not recent pamphlets declaring workers’ unions “military objectives” were issued by the FARC. The president said this, if turned out to be true, could put the entire peace process between the rebels and the government at risk.
“I would like to believe it was not the FARC,” Santos said.
Santos said the alleged pamphlets could be the result of certain interests wanting to create discord to disrupt the peace negotiations.
“There are a lot of people who want to poison the process, lots of people who are circulating false information,” he said.
The Colombian government and the FARC rebels are currently negotiating in Havana, Cuba to put an end to nearly 50 years of armed conflict. Last Sunday, the warring parties reached a written agreement on agrarian reform and will on June 11 begin discussing the political participation of the FARC rebels in a situation of post-conflict.