Colombia in talks with rebels to save peace accord

Havana: Colombia’s government and Marxist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebels have started talks on how to retool a peace deal, rejected in a referendum last month, that would end Latin America’s longest civil war.

“Meeting of delegates and advisers to Government and FARC in Havana. Starting constructive dialogue. Let’s get peace done,” the government side said on Twitter on Saturday.

“It’s an optimistic atmosphere. Let’s get peace,” the lead FARC negotiator Timoleon Jimenez (Timochenko) tweeted.

President Juan Manuel Santos – who has staked his legacy on making peace – has extended the army’s ceasefire to Dec 31 if no solution to the impasse is found by then.

FARC, which had criticised Santos’ deadline, has also confirmed its willingness to continue negotiations and maintain a bilateral ceasefire.

Santos won the Nobel Peace Prize just a few days after voters shot down the historic accord in a referendum that would have ended more than 52 years of conflict.

Since the accord’s rejection on Oct 2, Santos has held marathon talks with political figures, including the country’s former president Alvaro Uribe – who led opposition to the agreement – as well as religious leaders and victims of the armed conflict. — AFP