Colombia's president suspends air attacks on FARC camps

[Zorro]

Source: AP

Colombia's government took its biggest step yet toward an eventual end to hostilities in a half-century conflict by ordering an immediate halt to aerial bombings of guerrilla camps belonging to the nation's largest rebel group.

President Juan Manuel Santos, in a nationally televised address Tuesday night, said he made the decision in virtue of progress that is being made in negotiations started in 2012 with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia and the rebels' adherence to a unilateral ceasefire it declared in December.

The president said the ban on aerial bombings would initially last a month but could be extended if the FARC continues to keep its guns down. He said aerial raids against the National Liberation Army would continue uninterrupted until such time the nation's second-largest group decided to join the peace process.

The decision, which had been rumored for weeks, removes from the battlefield one of the government's most-successful tools in its fight against the rebels. Since 2008, three members of the FARC's ruling secretariat and countless rebel troops have been killed as a result of surprise jungle raids involving the use of smart bombs.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/colombias-president-suspends-air-attacks-farc-camps-010637636.html

---

This is a hopeful step. It will be interesting to see how the FARC responds; it will indicate how serious they are to working towards a peaceful resolution.

[COLGATE4]

1. It's good to be hopeful. But I have my doubts. This has been a

repeated tactic of FARC for years. They go into pronlonged, never-ending "Peace" negotiations with the government, attempting to secure that the armed forces won't engage them. They are particularly keen now on stopping aerial bombardment, precisely because this has been the one military tactic that has really hurt them. They use the time gained for the negotiations to rearm, re-equip and recruit and, once they have built their strength back up, the negotiations never come to fruition. At least three former Colombian Presidents have learned that lesson. I hope that Santos isn't the fourth.

[Comrade Grumpy]

2. They've been negotiating under the auspices of the Cubans for about two years now.

Let's hope both sides negotiate in good faith.