Colombia president aims for FARC peace talks in a week

Negotiations with the government are fast-approaching and Colombia’s FARC rebels have released a video showing a comical take on upcoming talks.

FARC leader Rodrigo Londono, who also went under the pseudonym Timoleon Jiminez, says he is willing to join the process “without hatred or arrogance”.

However, this does not mean the guerillas approve of the government. The lyrics to the tune sung by uniformed FARC members in the video mock Colombia’s president and say FARC cannot be crushed.

Preliminary talks are already underway ahead of a formal, full-fledged peace process, according to conservative President Juan Manuel Santos.

Santos told reporters that he expects negotiations with FARC to begin in a weeks’ time. Colombian press reports state peace talks will take place in Cuba and in Norway.

FARC, a communist-inspired organisation labelled terrorists by the US and Europe, is Latin America’s longest running rebel insurgency. Funded by the drug trade, the group has mounted attacks and kidnappings for decades and remains a force in rural areas.

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