Colombia has agreed to scale down military action if the guerrilla group known as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia suspends all attacks.
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“We reaffirm our decision to relinquish weapons”, FARC representative Ricardo Tellez said on Thursday.
For the first time since peace talks began 2012 the Colombian authorities agree to reduce military activity.
Farc suspended that ceasefire on 22 May.
Optimism that had grown over the peace talks, boosted by the FARC’s agreement to clear landmines, was shattered after the FARC ambushed and killed 11 soldiers in the southwest in April.
FARC rebels had been observing a unilateral ceasefire since December, and it led to relative calm.
Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos wrote, in Spanish, on his Twitter account: “We appreciate the gesture of a unilateral ceasefire by the FARC, but more is needed, especially concrete commitments to speed up the negotiations”. Even if on 20 July the FARC ceases its operations against the Armed Forces of Colombia, there is still the possibility that it may not halt its extorting practices against civilians or its attacks on the country’s energy infrastructure, which carry repercussions for the environment and population alike. The government responded by resuming aerial bombings of rebel positions.
Colombia’s civil strife dates back to 1964 and has drawn in left-wing guerrillas, right-wing paramilitaries and drug gangs, killing more than 220,000 people and uprooting as many as 6 million. Marquez said no one could hide the fact that government and FARC had reached three partial agreements, were drafting a new agreement on victims and that the de-mining of certain territories of ordinance and other unexploded devices was underway.
The army confirmed Wednesday the missing soldier is being held by the FARC.
Since the start of the peace talks, the rebels have repeatedly called for a two-way truce.
The FARC will decide within the month if it will extend its ceasefire while both parties will revisit the agreement in four months, mediators and spokesmen said.
FARC leader Iván Márquez said, “With this, we seek to generate favourable conditions to advance with our counterpart to work toward a definitive, bilateral ceasefire”.
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The unilateral ceasefire announced by the FARC is a breath of fresh air for the negotiations’ prospects – the previous truce saw a drop in levels of violence unseen since the mid-1980s.
