The FARC, Colombia’s largest guerrilla group, have ruled out interrupting the peace process with the Colombian government during May’s presidential elections.
The rebel peace delegation, currently negotiating with the Colombian government in Havana, said Wednesday that they did not want a pause in the peace talks during the presidential elections, scheduled for 25 May, reported El Pais newspaper.
On the 66th anniversary of the assassination of Jorge Eliecer Gaitan, a liberal leader who sought land reform for Colombia, the FARC also reaffirmed their commitment to the peace process saying that, “of course the peace process must continue, it is the majority will of the Colombian people that in Colombia there is peace.”
FARC peace delegate, Pablo Catatumbo, quoted Gaitan before a closed door negotiation session with the government.
On April 9 1948, Jorge Eliecer Gaitan was assassinated sparking an almost revolutionary uprising that first laid waste to Bogota, and later the rest of country in a period known as “La Violencia.”
Gaitan had been a beacon of hope, providing what many Colombians believed would be an opportunity for true and representative democracy. His assassination was a tipping point which would eventually lead to the formation of the FARC and the beginning of Colombia’s ongoing armed conflict.
The FARC’s Twitter account quoted Gaitain and his cry for moral restoration and the defeat of the oligarchy.
Por la restauración moral ¡A la carga! Por vuestra victoria ¡A la carga! Por la derrota de la oligarquía ¡A la carga! pic.twitter.com/6qnT8qUrpk
— Diálogos Paz FARC (@FARC_EPaz) April 9, 2014
FARC negotiators have been engaged in bilateral peace talks with the Colombian government in Havana, Cuba, since November 2012.
MORE: FARC ‘optimistic’ about peace talks
The negotiation teams are currently debating illicit drugs, the third of six points discussed in this peace process.
The government and the FARC have come to agreements upon the significant points of land reform and political participation.