“May this be the last day of war,” were the words FARC Comandante Timoleón Jiménez chose to begin his comments following the signing of a ceasefire agreement with the Colombian government, going on to recall former Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, who he described as “a warrior for peace in Latin America and the Caribbean, without whose valuable initiative and efforts, this historic event would not have been possible.”

Jiménez noted that 52 years after the beginning of the conflict, the FARC had reached agreement with the Colombian government, which “leaves us at the threshold” of a final accord, allowing for a return to legal, democratic political life.

What Presidents from guarantor and accompanying countries present here can attest to is that this agreement is not a capitulation on the part of the insurgents, but rather a product of dialogue between two forces which have been in fighting for half a century, without being able to defeat the other, he said.

The guerrilla leader said that the signing of the accords cannot be interpreted as something imposed, that the process involved long discussions and times of frustration, but that anyone who denies the importance of these agreements is causing great harm to the country.

He expressed his confidence that final agreement was near, to put an end to the conflict and signal the beginning of lasting peace. Remaining to be resolved, he said, are a few key points, but that a struggle will be required to ensure that what is agreed is, in fact, implemented. An ongoing mobilization of the people, Jiménez insisted, will be necessary.

He said that the FARC-EP will be involved in the country’s political life, using peaceful, legal means, with the same rights afforded all political, noting that the Colombian government must ensure that citizens are not persecuted for their political positions.

He likewise emphasized the important role communities will play in ensuring the peace in rural areas, and eliminating unemployment, insecurity, the lack of public services, crime, and paramilitary groups.

Jiménez commented that those who will benefit the most from an agreement are future generations, and that is why the FARC is extending its hand to youth, to construct of a new country, to defend peace and reconciliation.

The FARC-EP Chief of Staff concluded his comments as he began, “We are confident that within a reasonable time, we will celebrate the signing of a final agreement. May this be the last day of war.”

Young officers, soldiers, civilian workers, reserves, and the general population participated in the training, to allow for evaluation of technical skills and weaponry.

Notable among the activities which took place on the 29th were exercises completed by students and professors at the José Antonio Echeverría Polytechnical Instiute and the University of Computer Sciences, who are members of the reserves affiliated with the Rescate de Sanguily tank unit.

Observing the maneuvers was Army Corps General Leopoldo Cintra Frías, Minister of the Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR), as participants demonstrated how they are maintaining skills acquired during their active military service.

Yasbrán Zayas Pozo, a mechanical engineering student, commented on the importance of the reserves saying, “Our principal mission as reservists is to be prepared in times of peace, to be able to face any eventuality. We have noted that this day of work has been well organized, we had the opportunity to rotate through all the practice areas, prepared with all appropriate security measures, and all the logistics were in place.”

Also attending this event was Head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Álvaro López Miera, among other FAR leaders.
(Granma)

In a statement read by the guerrilla delegation member Pablo Catatumbo, the FARC-EP alluded to the agreement with that objective that has been debated several months ago for many entities of the State powers of that South American country.

From the Conference Center in Havana, permanent venue of the dialogue, the insurgent team recalled the Constitutional Court has apparently hinted that it will rule on the agreement in late August.

The group recalled that in all cases, where transitional justice or legal frameworks have been applied as is intended in Colombia, the conflict overcame first and the winner applied its rules of the game with its government and its new jurisdictional apparatus.

However, the text added, they did not only officially declare in that South American nation that there is a conflict between two parties with responsibilities for each of them, but the confrontation continues.

According to the FARC-EP, “that government’s unilateral initiative the Constitutional Court debates today will play no positive role in the peace process, in which the FARC-EP have been committed.

The delegations of the insurgency and the government continue today the talks started on November, in which Cuba and Norway act as guarantors and Venezuela and Chile as companions.

The agenda of the talks includes, in addition of the agricultural issues (already discussed) and political participation (under discussion), other aspects such as care for victims, the drug problem, and the end of armed conflict.

Prior to the beginning of another day of peace talks with the government of Juan Manuel Santos, the guerrilla delegation member Ricardo Tellez alluded the issue by reading a statement from the Havana Conference Center, permanent venue of the talks.

According to the document, the group proposed that such restructuring, aimed to greater citizen, social, and popular participation, is accompanied by the design of a fourth power, the People’s Power.

Such power will be actively engaged with decision-making capacity and real and material incidence on different public issues, and comply with oversight functions and control over the different performances of the Sate, the guerrilla said.

The FARC-EP urged for the creation of the National Co

After a month of an active break, as the parties defined in a joint communiqué, the representative of the guerrilla and of the government of Juan Manuel Santos return to Havana’s International Conference Center, usual venue of peace talks, which began in November 19, 2012 with Cuba and Norway as guarantors.

According to the document, this break would allow both parties to work separately on the issues of the first topic of the agenda that deals with agricultural development, which has been the main talking point so far.

The communiqué underlined actions would be carry out to ready the political participation forum, to be held in April 28-30 in Bogota that will be attended by nearly 1,200 people.

The other four issues included in the agenda are the end of the armed conflict, the solution to the illegal drugs’ problem, the victims’ rights and verification and endorsing mechanisms of the agreements reached during the negotiations.

During this month in Colombia, several actions have been held to promote peace, including a mass demonstration with the participation of more than one million Colombians as well as a Congress for Peace, attended by more than 20,000 people from 16 countries.

“The FARC guerrillas are here in Havana determined to reach an agreement with the government, for the country’s sake, with citizen participation, politically resolving the conflict and overcoming war through diplomacy,” said Ivan Marquez, the FARC’s team leader at the negotiation table.

In statements published by the Pueblo Colombiano website: “To the negotiation table!” Marquez stated that nothing should disrupt the discussion on agricultural development, the first of the issues analyzed in the FARC-EP-Colombian government talks, begun in Cuba on November 19.

“It is more urgent to engage, tirelessly, in extinguishing the causes of the social fire spreading throughout Colombia,” he said, in regard to pressures and criteria from sectors of the South American country interested in accelerating the dialogue ahead of the 2014 elections.

Regarding this scenario, the guerrilla commander said that “peace is not a package of promises to discuss an agenda, but the tangible completion of changes that benefit the majority.”

The roundtable discussions at Havana’s Conference Center between the insurgency and the Government are currently in recess. The parties use recesses to carry out internal consultations and analysis of the progress of the process, which is centered on a six-item agenda, including issues such as political participation, the problem of drug trafficking, and care for victims.

The dialogue should be resumed in the third week of April, continuing with the issue of land rights, and expectations that discussions will progress to the issue of political participation.

About this issue, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People’s Army (FARC-EP) released six minimum proposals to improve the situation in these areas, in which dozens of previous proposals are included to promote agriculture and rural development.

Before retaking talks today with the delegation of the government of Juan Manuel Santos, guerrilla woman Tanja Nijmeijer read the document to the press, which establishes as a priority the universal and free elementary and junior high education for children and youth in the countryside.

In this sense, it includes eradicating illiteracy, and ensuring educational equipments, books, uniforms, transportation, and food.

Furthermore, the guerrilla’s program refers

to the encouragement to the technical and technological training of young people, with a special scholarship program, mainly agricultural or related disciplines.

The other reported proposals refer to a special program for the socio-economic research and a rural and agricultural census, encouragement to investigation-participatory action in rural communities, and the protection and strengthening of knowledge and ancestral and own learning.

Today’s agenda include the end of the sixth round of talks, which began on November 19 at the permanent venue of the Havana’s Conference Center, and statements from both parties are expected, as has been customary in previous periods.

More images in: Photos PL Venezuela’s role in the talks currently underway in Havana between the FARC-EP (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia – People’s Army) and the Colombian government “has been fundamental,” he emphasized.

Santrich, a member of the guerrilla force’s General Staff, also emphasized Cuba’s participation in the process, in an interview with Argentina’s Pagina 12, where he stressed that “it is something that gives us great confidence” especially considering that many governments throughout the continent have backed the peace talks.

Colombia is at the forefront of an entire neocolonial process that is being drafted at the White House, charged the guerrilla leader, who pointed out that militarization in that South American country is on the rise.

In less than two decades the resources directed to that war have doubled, said Santrich, adding that the FARC has always considered a bilateral ceasefire an essential component in generating a better environment for the talks.

“The government has not wanted to do it. We have proven our contribution to peace, through the two month long unilateral ceasefire we declared. Until January 20, we were operating under a unilateral ceasefire,” he said.

In another part of the interview, Santrich referred to the broad support the FARC-EP enjoys within the spectrum of popular organizations, as well as rural areas, where the population is more segregated and more oppressed.

“We view things with a great deal of confidence in our own forces, and are now trying to seek a peaceful resolution. But if the government definitively closes the door, we are internally strong, both by conviction and morally, as well as in the plans to carry the resistance struggle forward,” he stressed.

He also pointed out that although the Colombian guerrilla force has received severe blows, “we have delivered them as well,” as it fights the top level technological warfare employed by Colombia with the support of the United States, Israel and England.

“That is the enemy we are dealing with and we are ready and waiting, whether for a bilateral ceasefire, or in the attempt to continue seeking opportunities for peace in the middle of the confrontation. This has been demonstrated,” he insisted.

Santrich also said that the crisis of capitalism is irreversible and called for extending resistance in all its forms of expression.

That crisis is producing a global insurgency that is not necessarily armed, and definitively speaking, the extensive crisis of capitalism will drive itself off the precipice, he

Ivan Marquez, head of the FARC-EP delegation involved in peace talks with representatives of the Colombian government, said in a statement that the FARC will spare no effort at the negotiation table, and hopes that government will not consider “kicking over the table.”

The FARC-EP’s Central General Staff called the efforts to divert attention over the real causes and players responsible for land seizures in the South American nation – a combination of State and paramilitary violence – malicious and perverse.

The note states that the situation was conceived as a State policy in order to facilitate the handover of a good part of national territory to multinationals for exploitation, through unfair contracts, resulting in severe environmental damage.

The FARC-EP warned that such accusations are actually a pretext for a new cycle of dispossession accompanied by the criminalization of peasants.

The Colombian guerrilla group is urging the creation of a high-level commission to clarify the truth about the land supposedly taken by the insurgency, and that the commission should be composed of representatives from the national government, peasants, the FARC-EP, and the international community.

The FARC-EP also condemned the methods used by the government to discredit the insurgent group.

The parties are immersed in the sixth round of peace talks which began in Havana on November 19, under the format of three days of talks followed by one day of recess. The land issue is at the heart of the attempt to end decades of conflict in the South American country.

In addition to the agricultural issue, the agenda agreed by the FARC-EP and the government includes political participation, the end of the conflict, the drug trafficking problem, care for victims, and verification mechanisms and countersignature of any agreement reached at the negotiation table.

At the Havana’s Conference Center, permanent venue of the conversations, the parties come to this third day of talks of this fifth cycle, while the issue of truce comes to light again not only in Havana but also in Colombia, where the armed conflict has already intensified in several areas of the country for more than 50 years.

The guerrilla’s delegation head Ivan Marquez reiterated yesterday in a statement the FARC-EP willingness to establish the bilateral cessation of actions, and mentioned the suggestion of a truce made by Colombian politician Alvaro Leyva, published in the column “La Barca de Calderon,” in El Nuevo Siglo newspaper.

In the document, the FARC-EP agreed with the proposal made by Leyva, who seeks for decades a solution to the conflict based on dialogue.

In this regard, they said that although the ceasefire implies a great effort, it is an important step to demonstrate the desire for peace of each of the parties.

The issue of bilateral cease-fire has generated controversies during peace talks: the same day of its beginning, on November 19, the FARC-EP announced a unilateral ceasefire for 60 days, to promote a peaceful environment for the process, in which Cuba and Norway act as guarantors.