The ongoing peace talks between the Colombian government and FARC guerrillas should not extend beyond November 2013, according to president Juan Manuel Santos Sunday.
“This cannot be a process of years but months. This means that it should last no longer than…November of next year at the latest,” said Santos. He also warned the public, “to be patient and not demand immediate results, because the [negotiating] table is a complex table, a table where we are discussing some very complex issues.”
This is the first time the Colombian head of state has made public any kind of deadline for the latest peace process, which was inaugurated in Norway last October.
Speaking from Cartagena, Santos added that, “there will be no peace” if FARC try to “make their revolution by decree…in Cuba.”
The first round of negotiations between the two warring sides began in the Cuban capital of Havana of November 19 and ended ten days later. Talks are set to resume on December 5.
FARC is Colombia’s largest insurgent group and has been at war with the state for nearly 50 years.