Colombia’s oldest guerrilla group, the FARC, announced Monday that they will create their own political party if ongoing peace talks with the country’s government are successful.
Through a statement on the FARC’s website, the rebel group announced that clandestine organisation “The Bolivarian Movement for the New Colombia” (El Movimiento Bolivariano por la Nueva Colombia) will become a FARC affiliated political party if current peace talks between the guerrilla group and the Colombian government in Cuba prove successful.
According to the statement, at the end of the “dirty war and terror that has infiltrated Colombia” the new party will be “open” and “legal” and ready to walk the “road to peace,” referring to the five-decade long civil armed conflict that the country has experienced.
“Now more than ever we require more dedication, more commitment, more sacrifice from each and every one of us, irrespective of their place and battle station. Now more than ever we must do our work effectively as revolutionaries building a new country with room for the aspirations of the entire nation,” the statement read.
With the Legal Framework for Peace legislation Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos will have to give a ruling on May 20 as to the outline of FARC political participation — which may be allowed once the peace talks have been concluded.
MORE: Court orders Santos to explain FARC political participation deal days before elections
The statement was made on Monday to mark the 14th anniversary of the creation of the Bolivarian Movement and ended with the emphatic description of the flag of the movement with its “yellow, blue and red of emancipation, now raising its voice for the constituent remake of our country.”
The announcement follows previous suggestions by leading FARC members that the guerrilla group does have political aspirations.
The FARC have been in peace talks with the Colombian government in Havana, Cuba since 2012.
Sources
- Mensaje al Movimiento Bolivariano por la nueva Colombia (FARC-EP)
- Movimiento vinculado a las FARC será un partido político si se alcanza la paz (Terra)
- El Movimiento Bolivariano por la Nueva Colombia, un grupo clandestino vinculado a las Farc, será un partido político “abierto” y “legal” si se llega a un acuerdo de paz en el país (El Tiempo)
