MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Santos denies any cease-fire: if peace talks don’t advance, “we get up from the table”
The Colombian president will not hold back the military or political offensive against FARC Colombia's government will not hold back militarily or politically in its offensive against Marxist-oriented drugs-funded rebels, President Juan Manuel Santos said on Sunday, after FARC guerrillas said his hostile attitude was threatening peace negotiations.
Latin America's longest-running insurgency has heated up in recent weeks after a series of kidnappings and conflicts across the country, while government and rebel negotiators meet in Cuba to try to reach a deal to end the five-decades-old war.
Both sides traded barbs this week, with Santos saying rebels should compensate thousands of farmers who were forced to flee their lands, and FARC leader Timochenko charging that Santos' statements were hampering delicate talks in Havana.
”The gauge for the government is in Cuba. As we move forward (with the peace process) we are satisfied. If we do not move forward, we get up from the table,“ Santos said in a weekly address broadcast on local television.
”Here there is no truce of any kind, not militarily, not judicial, not even verbal,” he said.
The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as the FARC, has repeatedly called for a bilateral ceasefire, which the government flatly rejects. The FARC ended a two-month unilateral ceasefire on Jan. 20.
Since then, fighting has heated up, especially in southern Colombia, where guerrillas maintain a strong presence, and which is a key route for smuggling drugs.
FARC have stepped up attacks against the oil and mining sectors, key industries for economic growth that have attracted huge foreign investment inflows since a 2002 military offensive pushed rebels into more remote hideouts.
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Read all commentsAnd those drugs end up in the U.S.A. Land of greed and corruption beyond imagination. Banking, housing, stock market, corporate fraud, politics, and even the judicial system (EG Judges Jones, McCree, etc). With over 2 million persons incarcerated (many of them fathers guilty of nothing but seeking 50% custody of their children), the U.S. locks up more innocent people than anywhere else on the planet. Like the New York five. But the U.S. feels free to interject itself regularly in other countries affairs and tell them exactly what they are doing wrong. At least FARC & the govt of Columbia are willing to meet in Cuba and talk. America just tries to bury it's problems & lock up the dissidents. Judicial abuses cause 20,000 U.S. fathers a year to commit suicide. It can only be a matter of time before cartels, gangs, organized crime, & spy networks discover how easy it is to find & contact these persons who have nothing left to lose then I fear greatly for our society.
Feb 25th, 2013 - 11:08 pm 0Ummm yeah the article is about Colombia not custody disputes in the US.
Feb 26th, 2013 - 10:08 pm 0Commenting for this story is now closed.
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