Colombia’s largest rebel group, FARC, announced Friday the end of the armed strike which has paralyzed western Colombia for over a week.
The rebels said the strike, which began in the Choco department on the first of February, would end on 5PM Saturday, eleven days sooner than originally planned.
During the eight-day long shutdown, transport companies refused to carry goods and passengers to and from cities like Quibdo, Medellin and Pereira, citing the threat of FARC attacks. According to Marino Quintero, a transport company president, some 200,000 passengers could have been unable to travel from and to Choco during the armed strike.
FARC rebels said Friday they launched the strike in order for the Colombian people to see “the abandonment and humanitarian crisis which the region is living due to the exploitation […] and the corruption generated by the State,” according to a statement from the FARC’s Ivan Rios Bloc published on the official rebel webpage.
