Leading FARC negotiator “Ivan Marquez” said on Tuesday the peace talks with the government were advancing despite reports of rifts with the government regarding the group’s latest kidnappings.
“I think like in no other moment, we feel the parts we are advancing in the construction of an agreement [in] a really important theme like that of land, we are working hard, the things are going well,” said the rebel commander according to El Espectador.
Marquez said the operation to free two soldiers and one policeman held by FARC guerrillas “was almost done” and awaiting logistical support.
“We believe the guerrilla [western] Bloc has asked for an intervention from the Red Cross and Colombians for Peace,” said Marquez according to newspaper El Colombiano.
PROFILE: ‘Ivan Marquez’
On Tuesday, president Juan Manuel Santos said, “We are doing well, despite what people say, we are doing well with our conversations with the FARC.”
On Sunday, FARC leaders stated in a press release that the negotiations in Havana, Cuba continued “in normal mode” and that “no one ha[d] threatened to withdraw,” despite heavy government criticism due to a series of FARC kidnappings of soldiers and civilians alike.
The press release went on to state that the Colombian “ultra-right” wanted to ruin the peace process and search for a “military solution” to the conflict.
“The impression is that some [leading] external and internal interests pressure with force for [a] military solution of the conflict,” FARC leader Rodrigo Londoño Echeverry, alias “Timochenko,” reportedly said in a communique to the media.
PROFILE: Rodrigo Londoño Echeverry, alias “Timochenko”
Meanwhile, combat between left-wing rebels and state forces continued on Monday and Tuesday.
On Monday, FARC rebels killed two policemen and wounded two more in an ambush in the western part of the Antioquia department. One day before, in the southwestern Valle del Cauca department, FARC guerrillas lured members of the Colombian army into a minefield, killing two soldiers and wounding three. In the south-central Huila department, a large number of FARC rebels surrounded a police station on Monday, causing heavy destruction and killing one policeman. As of Tuesday afternoon, reports indicated that a remote police station in the western Choco department was under fire from FARC guerrillas.
An official from Quibdo, Choco told Colombia’s state-owned National Radio Tuesday that traffic on the roads in Choco has been reduced by 90 percent due to the ongoing FARC shutdown of the western part of the country.
