Colombia’s armed conflict between the State and the FARC will not be ended militarily, but through peace talks, said the country’s armed forces commander Thursday.
“It’s not about killing them all,” armed forces commander General Edgar Cely told journalists.
“I think this will end or trigger a dialogue, because in the end we are convinced that it is not about killing all members of the FARC,” said Cely.
To reach peace talks, the armed forces must primarily combat drug trafficking, which according to Cely is the main source of income of the leftist guerrilla group.
The FARC was formed in 1964 and has fought the Colombian state since 1964. The guerrilla group is considered a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union and funds its armed organization by extortion, drug trafficking and according to authorities, increasingly in the illegal mining of gold.
