Colombia Reports
Colombia’s largest rebel group FARC on Wednesday announced to resume a unilateral ceasefire on July 20, two months after suspending one they had called in December.
The FARC rebels announced the renewed ceasefire on their peace delegation’s Twitter account.
According to the tweet sent by the guerrilla group’s delegation in the Cuban capital of Havana, “the FARC decrees a unilateral ceasefire starting July 20, 2015 for the period of a month.”
July 20 is Colombia’s Independence Day.
#ultimahora @FARC_EPaz decreta cese al fuego unilateral a partir del 20 de julio de 2015, extendido por un mes. #CeseAlFuegoBilateralYa
— Diálogos Paz FARC (@FARC_EPaz) July 8, 2015
The announcement came a day after the sponsor countries of ongoing peace talks with the government called for an “urgent” deescalation of conflict violence that has caused major crises across the country and has been undermining popular support for the talks that seek to end more than 50 years of violence.
Guarantors at Colombia peace talks call for ‘urgent’ reduction of violence
The FARC had already called a unilateral ceasefire that began on December 20 last year. However, when one of their units broke the ceasefire and the military bombed a rebel camp killing 27, the guerrillas resumed attacks on May 22.
The conflict
Causes
Inequality
Political exclusion
Weak, corrupt state
Violence aggravators
Drug trafficking
International actors
The group has been engaged in peace talks with the Colombian government since November 2012.
The rebels and the administration of President Juan Manuel Santos have since agreed on the guerrilla group’s future participation in politics, far-stretching rural reforms and the rebels’ abandonment of drug trafficking, one of their main sources of finances.
However, the negotiators seemed to have gotten stuck while negotiating the last two points of the agenda, “Victims” and “End of Conflict.”
Both parties have been accused of having committed thousands of war crimes and have yet to figure out how to respond to the more than 7 million war victims.
Neither party is willing to take full responsibility for the mass victimization. The FARC has so far refused to spend “one day” in prison and the government has yet to admit responsibility for crimes committed by the state.
Thousands have been displaced since the FARC resumed attacks, and a combination of FARC attacks and military offensives has caused a humanitarian crisis in the southwest of Colombia, according to NGO Doctors Without Borders.
‘Humanitarian crisis’ in southwest Colombia due to conflict violence
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