Colombians are increasingly pessimistic about the eventual outcome of ongoing peace talks between the government and rebel group FARC, a poll showed Wednesday.
Do you believe peace with the FARC will be signed? |
Do you agree with how Santos is conducting the peace talks? |
Do you believe the FARC has legitimate intentions to make peace? |
A survey conducted by Datexco for Colombian newspaper El Tiempo and radio station La W in July showed that 48% of Colombians do not believe that the government and the FARC are able to make peace. Another 45% said they were confident peace will be signed at the end of the negotiations that have been ongoing since late 2012.
The same poll showed that 50% disapproved of how Santos was conducting the peace talks. Some 46% said they approved.
Sixty-one percent of the respondents said they didn’t believe in the FARC’s desire for peace against 29% who do. The pollster failed to ask whether Colombians had faith in the government’s desire for peace.
The number of skeptics has reportedly increased from 50% in June, after a recent spate of violent attacks by the FARC.
President Juan Manuel Santos said last Tuesday that the FARC was digging its own grave with the attacks on Colombian infrastructure, adding that it could jeopardize the peace process.
MORE: ‘FARC is digging its own grave’ with attacks on infrastructure: Santos
The following day, a two-year-old child was killed and three family members injured during an alleged FARC attack on a town in the southwestern state of Cauca. While the attack was reportedly against state forces, improvised mortars hit a nearby farmhouse where a family was living.
MORE: ‘FARC attack’ in southwest Colombia kills small child, injures 3
Dissatisfaction with Santos’s handling of the negotiations in Havana rose from 46% in June, to 50% in July, according to the Datexco poll.
The FARC and the government have been engaged in talks in Havana, Cuba since late 2012. If successful, the talks will end 50 years of rebel violence.
Some 1000 Colombians from different social classes by Datexco.
Datexco called random households in the cities of Bogota, Medellin, Cali, Barranquilla, Bucaramanga and Cartagena.