Colombia and rebels will seek bilateral ceasefire

The move marks a significant step in peace talks between the two sides that began in November 2012 but have been hampered in recent months by an uptick in violence.

Earlier this month, Colombia’s top government negotiator had warned that time for a deal was running out.

“The national government will as of July 20 put in place a process of de-escalation of military actions in correspondence with a suspension of military action by the FARC“, the statement said.

Both sides hailed the reset of the talks. “Some day, it’s probable that they won’t find us around the table in Havana”, said Humberto De la Calle.

FARC says bilateral ceasefire, which means oxygen for the peace process, could no longer be delayed with inconsistent arguments.

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos wrote, in Spanish, on his Twitter account: “We appreciate the gesture of a unilateral ceasefire by the FARC, but more is needed, especially concrete commitments to speed up the negotiations”.

The armed strife in Colombia dates back to 1964, and has involved drug gangs and right-wing paramilitaries as well as the radical leftist FARC.

“In particular (the parties have decided) to agree without delay on the terms of the ceasefire, an end of hostilities and surrender of weapons including monitoring and a verification system”, Benitez said. The FARC ended their truce in May.

The talks in Havana are aimed at ending more than 50 years of conflict.

The historic agreement comes just days after the guarantor nations to the peace process – Norway and Cuba – called on both parties to agree to a truce. Chile and Venezuela are “escort” countries. All four had called for an urgent de-escalation of the violence that had spiked recently.

That led the government to resume air raids of FARC jungle bases in turn prompting the rebels to abandon a unilateral ceasefire.

The FARC unleashed a wave of bomb attacks on oil pipelines in recent weeks, rupturing them close to rivers and causing an environmental disaster that is expected to take two decades to clean up and has already reached the Pacific coastline.