The supreme leader of the FARC, “Timochenko,” on Tuesday called on Colombia President Juan Manuel Santos to promote seeking consensus on issues related to ongoing peace talks.
In a press release published on the FARC’s website, Timochenko (nom de guerre of Rodrigo Londoño) condemned Santos for telling the UN General Assembly on Tuesday the FARC was like a “dead cow on the road.”
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According to the FARC’s commander in chief, Santos spoke with a “serious and irresponsible bias” that are detrimental to a possible success of the peace talks.
“The decisions, the accords, will have to be the product of consensus. You can not pretend to be sitting at a negotiations table and that only one of the parties deserves attention. If — as Santos has repeatedly preached — talks are held with the enemy, if peace consists of building bridges between adversaries, the economic and democratic models — the real causes of the social and armed conflict — must necessarily be modified,” said Timochenko.
Instead of seeking consensus between the warring parties, Santos is creating division by unjustly putting the blame of suffering caused in the conflict with the FARC, said Timochenko, claiming that “the responsibility for the conflict will have to be taken by us.”
“State terrorism, the extrajudicial executions, paramilitarism, displacement and the other horrors, according to him are only attributable to us. The US interests, the Colombian oligarchy, its armed forces, its antisocial and violent policies, its corruption and repressions are completely unrelated and innocent,” added the FARC leader.
Adding to Santos’ allegedly detrimental discourse, Timochenko also criticized the Colombian government for implementing post-conflict legislation without debating this with the FARC, while rejecting proposals made by the rebels for example regarding amendments in the constitution.
To counter Santos’ alleged “discourse and media offensive” against the FARC, the rebel leader said he had “authorized our representatives in Havana [,Cuba where the peace talks are held,] to prepare a report” “with the exclusive purpose of showing the country and the world what is really happening.”
Delegates of the FARC and the Colombian government have been in formal talks since November last year. While the office of the Peace Commissioner has confirmed there exists no real deadline, the president has always publicly said the talks must be concluded before the end of the year, before the race for the 2014 elections take off. The FARC has rejected this deadline.
Sources
- Tanta retórica hace daño, Santos (FARC-EP)