The leaders of Colombia’s largest guerrilla group FARC must continue negotiations in the peace process if they wish to stay alive, warned the director of the National Police Thursday.
“For FARC leaders to stay alive, they have to be seated at the negotiating table in Havana, otherwise they will share the same fate as their accomplices and the drug traffickers who are in the safekeeping of the authorities,” said General Jose Roberto Leon Riaño.
Senior delegates from the Colombian government and FARC are currently trying to reach a peace accord in the Norwegian capital of Oslo. Talks pertaining to the actual implementation of the peace deal are expected to commence mid-November in Havana, Cuba.
Despite the possibility of an end to the armed conflict, the two warring parties have not ceased military operations.
Riaño’s latest comments came hours after two suspected FARC insurgents detonated a bomb Wednesday night in the town of Pradera, located in the southwestern Valle de Cauca department. The explosion killed both suspects and injured dozens more, including 14 minors.