Colombia’s largest rebel group, the FARC, said Sunday the peace talks between the rebels and the government were in “limbo” due to President Juan Manuel Santos’ meeting with Venezuela’s opposition leader.
“The theme of Venezuela, accompanying country and facilitator of the process, was very sensitive for the FARC, which sees in the Venezuelans a principal factor of confidence…if it was not for Venezuela there would not be a peace process in Havana,” the statement said.
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In late May, opposition leader Henrique Capriles met with Santos, spurring the fury by Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro who accused the Colombian government of derailing the peace process by meeting with Capriles.
MORE: Santos and Capriles talk tensions in Venezuela
The FARC criticized Santos for taking Colombia into the free-trade Pacific Alliance Bloc and for expressing interest in joining NATO.
“They are not few those who believe that the visit of the United States’ vice-president Joe Biden to Bogota was the origin of Santos’ outburst [against the FARC] and they associate it with a Washington plan lead by a Troy’s Horse known as the Pacific Alliance, which, led by Washington, seeks to destabilize and derail [left-wing] governments like those in Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia and Uruguay, among others. what could motivate Santos to announce Colombia’s fantasist entry into NATO? To threaten Venezuela and Brazil?”
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The FARC once again called for a bilateral ceasefire with the government and accused the country’s Minister of Defense, Juan Carlos Pinzon, of acting as a “sniper against the peace talks.”
“It is contradictory to want to go down in history as the president who achieved peace and at the same time launch a chain of attacks against the peace process. The cold-blooded murder of [FARC former commander-in-chief] Alfonso Cano, the champion commander of reconciliation, is already an indelible stain. Apart from this no one understands why the government rejects the necessary bilateral truce suggested by the FARC since the beginning of the conversations…over the past six months the minister of defense has acted like a sectarian sniper against the peace talks.”
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FARC and government negotiators will reunite on June 11 to discuss the second point on the agenda at the ongoing peace talks; the political participation of the rebels in a future post-conflict.
Sources
- Declaración de las FARC-EP: Entre el cielo y el infierno (FARC homepage)
- Farc critican a Santos y señalan que el proceso de paz está en un limbo (El Colombiano)