Leaders of Colombia’s largest rebel group FARC criticized President Juan Manuel Santos on Tuesday for what they allege is his ineffective and self-interested conduct during the ongoing peace process between the government and the FARC to end the country’s 49-year armed conflict.
FARC supreme commander Timoleon Jimenez, alias “Timochenko,” said that the President is using the peace talks to the benefit of his re-election campaign.
MORE: Rumors emerge that peace process could be delayed or abandoned
In a letter entitled “Who is tired with the peace process?” Timochenko puts forward a series of criticisms of the peace process and the actions of the Santos administration in handling the situation.
In the concluding sections of the letter, he says, “it is not the Colombians nor the country that is tired of the peace process” but rather “the privileged circles and war-mongers, those that hate that we talk of sovereignty, genuine democracy, of alternative models of development. They make and deepen the war and terror against Colombia while accusing others of it.”
The negotiations, which are taking place in Havana, Cuba, will have been running for a year on November 18. So far the talks have only yielded an agreement on land reform; no agreements have yet been made on the issue of political participation, drug trafficking, the practicalities of the end of the armed conflict, and the rights of the victims of the conflict.
Sources
- Farc dicen que afán reeleccionista de Santos daña el proceso de paz (El Espectador)
- FARC peace talks a year on; no end in sight (Colombia Politics)
- UNRAVELLING IDEAS (I) (farc-epeace.org)