HAVANA: Colombia’s government and Marxist FARC rebels on Saturday started talks on how to retool a peace deal, rejected in a referendum last month that would end Latin America’s longest civil war.
“Meeting of delegates and advisers to Government and FARC in Havana.
Starting constructive dialogue. Let’s get peace done,” the government side said on Twitter.
“It’s an optimistic atmosphere. Let’s get peace,” the lead FARC negotiator Timoleon Jimenez (Timochenko) tweeted.
The sides are “trying to find common ground,” he said.
Santos — who has staked his legacy on making peace — had extended the army’s ceasefire to December 31 if no solution to the impasse is found by then.
The FARC, which had criticized Santos’s deadline, has also confirmed its willingness to continue negotiations and maintain a bilateral ceasefire.
