FARC faces deadline for peace deal with gov’t

BOGOTA - Agence France-Presse

FARC negotiators were given a one-year deadline for a deal. AP photo

Colombian FARC militants faced yesterday a new deadline for striking a peace deal with the government after President Juan Manuel Santos warned they have less than a year to reach a negotiated end to Latin America’s longest-running insurgency.

“This has to be a process of months, rather than years. In other words, this should not last any longer than November next year at the latest,” the president said at an event in the Caribbean resort city of Cartagena.

“But it is important to be patient, and not demand immediate results, because... some very complicated issues are being discussed.” However, Santos did not specify what will happen if the newly-imposed deadline is not met.

The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), Latin America’s longest insurgency, started talks formally with Bogota on Oct. 18 in Norway. The talks moved to Havana on Nov. 19 and will resume this week. It is a conflict that has dragged on for almost a half century, with some 600,000 dead, 15,000 missing and four million people domestically displaced.