The peace talks between the government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People”s Army (FARC-EP) will have a five-day pause starting on Saturday, while Bogota is getting ready to hold an agrarian forum on Monday, as agreed by both parties.
Most of the 2,000 proposals gathered at the regional tables held in Colombia, enriched this second round of debates about the policy of comprehensive agrarian development, whose last round will end between December 19 and 21, at Havana’s Convention Center.
In addition to the activation of the website www.mesadeconversaciones.com.co on December 7, through which society sates its viewpoints about the six items on the agreed agenda, there is also a physical ballot that can be delivered in the city halls of all Colombian departments.
Both delegations described as essential the participation of society to continue building the plan agreed upon between the FARC-EP and the government of Juan Manuel Santos last August 26.
The last few days, characterized by reserve and discretion, the two delegations had the support of several specialists on agrarian issues, some from the National University Center of Thought of Colombia, who contributed “important elements to the diagnose and solutions of the severe agrarian and rural problems” of the nation.
In statements to Prensa Latina, guerrilla member Andres Paris, one of the five plenipotentiary delegates of FARC-EP, said that participants included Absalon Machado, Jairo Estrada, Francisco Gutierrez and Darios Fajardo.
In this second round, as it is usual since the beginning of the talks on November 19, representatives of the Santos administration preferred not to make statements to the press, and many times entered to the Convention Center, the venue of the talks, through a back door.
Meanwhile, FARC-EP took the opportunity to meet the press and send messages to the world, including a request for humanitarian agencies to take part urgently in the clarification of the massacres and disappearances in Colombia.
In its several interventions, the insurgent force urged Colombian Ministry of Defense Juan Carlos Pinzon “to cease hostility against the peace process”.
Prior to the agrarian forum, which will be attended by more than 200 business people and hundreds of peasants and popular leaders, both parties will take a break before declared the conclusion of this cycle on December 21.
