The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has offered Colombia help if and once its government reaches a peace agreement with rebel FARC, reported Spanish news agency EFE on Wednesday.
Colombian-born IDB president Luis Alberto Moreno announced help to confront post-conflict problems in the case of peace with the country’s oldest and largest guerrilla organization.
“We will accompany the Colombian government with what they ask for,” Moreno was quoted as saying by EFE.
According to the IDB president, his organization can help finance social projects in areas where the FARC traditionally has been strongest in order for the country “begins to prepare to resolve the problems in the areas where the violence originated.”
“I think that peace goes beyond the negotiations themselves,” said Moreno, adding that “peace is built in these cores” referring to areas where guerrilla violence has wreaked most havoc.
Negotiators of the FARC and government began a second cycle of talks regarding the rebels’ political participation earlier this week after successfully ending negotiations over agrarian reforms. The negotiating teams announced to be discussing the issue separately before joining each other at the peace negotiation table in Havana next week.
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If successful, the peace talks will end the FARC’s nearly half-a-century long war with the Colombian state.