FARC leader “Timochenko” on Tuesday said that he has given orders to all guerrillas to end all purchases of weapons and ammunition as peace talks to end half a decade of armed conflict with the state continue.
The FARC leader took to Twitter to make the announcement, stating that “on September 30, 2015 I gave the order to all structures to suspend the purchase of arms and ammunition.”
Both the FARC and the military have been trying to de-escalate violence ahead of a possible truce and subsequent peace deal that negotiators hope to reach before the end of March.
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The FARC on July 20 agreed to uphold a unilateral ceasefire after which the government ordered the suspension of air strikes and significantly reduced ground operations.
Timochenko, whose real name is Rodrigo Londoño, said in October that he was consulting his fellow rebel leaders about a possible suspension of recruitment of new fighters.
“At these heights of the process and its evolution I think that we should suspend recruitment. I won’t decide. I am in consultations,” Timochenko explained on Twitter.
The FARC never confirmed a suspension of fighters was eventually agreed.
The rebels and the government are currently negotiating a bilateral and definite ceasefire which in effect would end the conflict ahead of the formal signing of a peace accord.
If successful, the peace talks that have been ongoing since November 2012 will end the FARC’s 51-year-long armed resistance against the state and will convert the rebel group into a political movement.