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.
Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos named close ally Federico Renjifo as energy and mining minister in part of a Cabinet shuffle as the leader begins pursuing a peace process with FARC rebels.
Cuba will be the permanent seat for the peace dialogue between the government of Colombia and the FARC guerrilla group, talks which will have the support from Norway, Venezuela and Chile according to a broadcasting station from Bogotá.
Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos has confirmed his government is holding exploratory talks with the country's largest rebel group, the FARC. In an address on state TV, Mr Santos said he was fulfilling his duty to seek peace. Media reports say a deal on further talks was reached in Cuba with the help of Venezuela and Norway.
Colombia's government will soon begin talks that could lead to formal negotiations for peace with the country's biggest guerrilla group, known as the FARC, according to a Colombian intelligence source.
Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos moved Energy Minister Mauricio Cardenas to head the finance post on Thursday in a surprise move. At the midpoint of his four-year term, Santos asked all 16 ministers to resign, including Finance Minister Juan Carlos Echeverry, and set the stage for a cabinet shuffle aimed at shoring up his slumping approval ratings.
Colombia's largest rebel group has blown up a section of the 220.000-barrel-per-day-capacity Caño Limon-Covenas oil pipeline, Ecopetrol and the army said, in the latest in a series of attacks on oil infrastructure.
Colombia's Congress on Thursday passed a law that could pave the way for peace talks with Marxist oriented guerrillas, raising hopes for an end to the war, but drawing criticism from human rights groups that say the law is too lenient toward rebel leaders.
Former Colombian president Alvaro Uribe will carry on with his activities in Argentina as planned, despite the fact a bomb was found in a Buenos Aires theatre where he is expected to give a conference, according to sources close to the event organization
A bomb targeting a hard-line former Colombian interior minister killed two of his bodyguards and injured at least 31 others in the heart of Bogotá’s uptown commercial district Tuesday, authorities said.