Colombia’s Senate president said Thursday the country’s largest rebel group FARC should be allowed to become political party if peace talks with the government progress.
According to U Party Senator Roy Barreras, “if the peace process progresses and those in arms bet on democracy, congress should construct the ways for their participation,” he said.
The Senate president said he hoped to “replace bullets with words … change armed groups in political parties.”
Barreras said he will try to include the possibility for the FARC to become a political party in a pending political reform bill.
FARC have already said that it has not ruled out presenting a candidate in the 2014 presidential elections.
FARC emissary “Andres Paris” said that “If the peace process continues and generates the political conditions to participate in elections, we could think of that possibility.”
The rebel group that has been fighting the Colombian state since 1964 will begin peace talks with the government on October 8 in the Norwegian capital of Oslo.
