The supreme leader of Colombia’s FARC rebel group, “Timochenko,” said Sunday that he suspended the political training of troops in light of alleged recent attacks by the military.
Timochenko announced earlier this month that he would stop military training and replace this by political education programs for members of his rebel group.
The switching from military to political training was an effort made by the group to support ongoing peace talks with the government that since November 2012 has been seeking to end 51 years of armed conflict that has left 260,000 Colombians dead and 6 million displaced.
“Due to military offensives in several areas, political and cultural courses have had to be suspended,” read the tweet, in which President Juan Manuel Santos’ name was tagged.
Conflict monitoring group CERAC, which has been monitoring efforts of both warring parties to deescalate the conflict, did not confirm the attack. In its latest report, published on October 21, it said the military had ceased offensives targeting the FARC.
Both the FARC and the government recently came to an agreement on a transitional justice deal, a crucial component of the peace process, and announced that the final deal will be signed before 23 March 2016.