HAVANA — Colombia’s FARC guerrillas said Friday they are suspending their six-month-old unilateral ceasefire over a government air strike that killed 26 rebels.
“FARC suspend unilateral ceasefire,” said a blog post by the rebel delegation at peace talks to end the five-decade conflict.
It accused President Juan Manuel Santos’s government of forcing it to end the ceasefire with the air strike and ground attack Thursday in the western Cauca region and other attacks.
“We didn’t plan to suspend the ceasefire… but the incoherence of the Santos administration has achieved it, after five months of ground and air offensives against our units across the country.”
Santos had suspended air strikes against the FARC on March 11 in recognition of their ceasefire, but furiously ended the suspension on April 15 after FARC fighters killed 11 soldiers in a nighttime ambush in Cauca.
The FARC negotiators said they were still committed to continuing the two-year-old peace talks in Cuba, but reiterated their call for a bilateral ceasefire — which Santos has repeatedly refused to grant without a final peace deal.
“Against our will we have to pursue dialogue in the midst of confrontation,” they said.
“Although Santos has announced he will maintain the offensive, we insist on the need to grant the bilateral ceasefire the national majority has demanded with such insistence, for the health of the peace process and to avoid more victims.”
