Colombian rebels suspend talks with government

BOGOTA, Colombia

Leftist guerrilla holdouts in Colombia who refused to disarm when the rebel army FARC accepted a peace accord in 2016 walked out of talks with the government on Sunday.

Less than a month after these negotiations began, the FARC dissidents complained that the government of leftist President Gustavo Petro had failed to live up to what the dissidents called promises it had made. But the holdouts did not specify what these pledges were.

"Today, we declare the dialogue and the agenda with the government suspended," this faction called the Central General Staff said in a statement.

The talks began October 16 in the city of Tibu in the country's northeast, an area surrounded by crops for making cocaine and hard-hit by violence between the guerrillas and the army.

The parties also agreed to observe a ceasefire until January 15, and the statement issued Sunday said this truce still holds.

The government's goal was to demobilize some 3,500 fighters and put an end, once and for all, to their armed insurgency.

Petro took office last August with a vow to bring "total peace" to a country battered by decades of civil conflict between the state and various left-wing guerrilla groups, right-wing paramilitaries and drug traffickers.

On his initiative, the government wants to give the dissidents a second chance to lay down arms after rejecting the 2016 peace agreement with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), of which they were then a part.

That deal saw about 7,000 FARC fighters give up arms and attempt to reintegrate into civilian life, though a faction under guerrilla leader Nestor Gregorio Vera opted to keep fighting.

Petro suffered a setback earlier this week in his effort to bring peace to Colombia.

Another rebel group, the National Liberation Army, which is also negotiating with the government, confessed to kidnapping the father of a star Colombian football player, Luis Diaz.