COLOMBIA/FILE: Progress in peace talks between Colombian government, FARC rebels will bring peace, Bogota Archbishop says

Record ID: 349702

  • Title: COLOMBIA/FILE: Progress in peace talks between Colombian government, FARC rebels will bring peace, Bogota Archbishop says
  • Date: 28th May 2013
  • Summary: UBATE, COLOMBIA (FILE) (REUTERS) GENERAL VIEW OF FARMLAND IN MOUNTAINS VARIOUS OF FARMERS PLOUGHING THE LAND
  • Embargoed: 12th June 2013 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Cuba
  • Country: Cuba
  • Topics: Conflict,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVAE8LLREB5HAV3HBKAOLTVNULL7
  • Story Text: Church official says recent headway made in peace talks between Colombian government and the Marxist-led FARC rebels will set a solid base for future peace in the country.


    The Archbishop of Bogota said on Tuesday (May 28) that FARC rebels and the Colombian government were setting a solid base for peace in the near future after the two sides announced this weekend that they had reached an agreement on the critical issue of agrarian reform.
    The accord calls for the economic and social development of rural areas as well as providing land to the people living there, which addresses one of the main issues that led the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), to form in 1964 as a communist agrarian reform movement.
    Cardinal Ruben Salazar, Archbishop of Bogota, said the agreement was of great importance.
    "This first agreement on agrarian reform has great importance because it truly allows the setting of a solid base for the construction of peace in the immediate future," he told reporters during a news conference.
    The government promised to build up services and infrastructure in rural areas as it tries to end what many see as the country's long history of social and economic inequality.
    "What we have agreed to in this accord will be the beginning of radical transformations in the rural and agrarian reality of Colombia, with equity and democracy," said the joint statement, which was read at the end of the ninth round of the talks, which began November 19 in Havana.
    Lead government negotiator Humberto de la Calle said that the agreement would take effect only if an overall peace accord is achieved, which has been the guiding principal of the talks since the beginning.
    The rebels warned that "certain points" in the agrarian reform accord "necessarily will have to be retaken before the completion of the final agreement," but said a path was being opened for "the people to act, to mobilize themselves in defense of their rights."
    It was not disclosed how much land would be given out. De la Calle said there would be "an ambitious program of restitution and adjudication of lands" to the rural poor, but that private landowners would not lose their property.
    Nevertheless, Salazar said the agreement would change the country's history.
    "If land is distributed equally in the country, if the land is truly for the benefit of the country and for all people, for food sustainability, the country without doubt will give an enormous twist in its history and we'll be able to truly consolidate a much more equal and supportive society," he said.
    Salazar added the future looked bright for other agreements.
    "This undoubtedly leads us Colombians to think that from now on after this first agreement, we'll be able to see a faster rhythm in the peace talks and we'll be able to have solid peace as soon as possible."
    Many potential obstacles remain, starting with the next agenda item - the delicate subject of political participation for the FARC.
    More than 100,000 people have died and millions have been displaced in the war that is now Latin America's longest-running insurgency.
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