MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Colombia’s FARC pledge to join peace talks “without hatred or arrogance”

FARC leader Rodrigo Londono, known by his war alias as Timochenko

Colombia's FARC rebel leader said the group would join peace talks with the government “without hatred or arrogance” in its first response to President Juan Manuel Santos' announcement of imminent negotiations.

The prospect of talks, likely to take place in Norway and Cuba, has raised Colombians' hopes of an end to five decades of bloodshed - though past governments' failures to end Latin America's longest-running insurgency show the path is not easy.

In a video posted on the Internet on Monday that swung from serious to mocking, a group of uniformed FARC rebels acknowledged the possible negotiations by singing and playing the bongos - but they also ridiculed Santos.

The group's leader Rodrigo Londono, known by his war alias as Timochenko, is edited onto the introduction of the song, telling the rebels: “We join the negotiating table without hatred or arrogance.”

In Monday's video, the FARC men and women sang, danced and played the guitar in an unidentified clearing, surrounded by trees and fence posts. Some dressed in olive-green uniform and others in black T-shirts and berets depicting Argentine revolutionary Ernesto “Che” Guevara,

“I'm off to Havana, this time to talk to he who accuses us of lying about peace, that bourgeois who tries but can't crush us,” they sang in the video, which can be seen at:

”That pedantic Chucky Santos who finds the need to ask (former Cuban leader) Fidel Castro to help with the FARC,“ they added, in reference to the murderous doll Chucky in the movie franchise ”Child's Play.“

Around Colombia, there has been cautious optimism since Santos' announcement, with many praising it as a bold move that would help bring further economic prosperity to the country and free rural areas from the fear of constant attacks.

Some, though, have dissented from that general mood. Most notably, former President Alvaro Uribe and his backers have slammed the move as pandering to ”terrorists.”

Santos, who has said military operations would continue while discussions are under way, has allegedly agreed that FARC leaders would not be extradited to a second nation to stand trial.

A previous attempt at peace under former President Andres Pastrana resulted in the FARC using the ceasefire to rebuild its military operations and establish a multi-billion dollar drug-trafficking network.