The administration of Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos is holding secret peace negotiations with the country’s largest guerrilla group FARC in Cuba, said former president Alvaro Uribe Sunday.
During a speech in the northern Colombian city of Sincelejo, Uribe said “it’s incomprehensible, the security deteriorates and the government is negotiating with the terrorist group FARC in Cuba.”
The former head of state did not give further information on the alleged negotiations between the government and the country’s largest guerrilla group.
No member of the current administration publicly responded to Uribe’s comment Sunday.
Santos has never admitted to talks with the 48-year-old insurgency. In June, the president said it was too soon for peace talks.
“Only when we are absolutely convinced that the circumstances are right that this dialogue will be under our control, then we will think of opening a dialogue,” said the president.
Santos’ predecessor has always openly rejected peace talks with the FARC. However, in a 2010 diplomatic cable, the U.S. embassy in Bogota reported that the Uribe administration was “preparing ‘roadmaps’ for the next administration on how best to pursue peace agreements with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the National Liberation Army (ELN).
According to the embassy, then-Peace Commissioner Frank Pearl “acknowledged that the GOC had communicated with both groups in order to develop the road maps and build confidence.”
Since then, the Santos administration approved a bill that would allow displaced farmers to return to land stolen primarily by paramilitary groups, one of the demands of the FARC, and the FARC vowed to end kidnapping, one of the demands of the government.
The last open peace talks between the Colombian government and rebels were held between 1999 and 2002.