Colombian government, rebels to resume peace talks

Colombia's government and leftist FARC rebels resume peace talks in Cuba on Monday after a three-week break, under pressure to finally end their decades-long conflict. The longtime rivals launched the negotiations in October, their fourth attempt in three decades to end a conflict that has left 600,000 people dead, 15,000 missing and four million displaced since 1964. After a holiday break on December 22, the talks take on increasing urgency this year, as President Juan Manuel Santos has warned that the negotiations must conclude by November. Chief government negotiator Humberto de la Calle said Sunday that Bogota wanted to pick up the pace of its negotiations with Marxist FARC rebels. "We really need to get things moving. I want to make that known to people in general, as well as to the FARC," former vice president de la Calle told reporters before his departure for Havana. The guerrilla group declared a unilateral ceasefire until January 20, but the government has accused them of failing to respect it by planting landmines and attacking civilians and soldiers. It has continued its offensive against the rebels. "The Colombian public forces will continue to tirelessly pursue criminals, as the constitution and all the Colombian people demand," Defense Minister Juan Carlos Pinzon said Friday. "It does not matter whether they are FARC terrorists" or criminal gangs, he added. The Marxist rebels have said they will not extend their ceasefire unless the government declares one too. The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) took up arms in 1964 to protest against the concentration of land ownership in the country, but a string of military defeats has cut its ranks to 9,000 -- half of what it was in the late 1990s. The key issue in the dispute, rural development, will be on the agenda when talks resume on Monday. Christian Voelkel, an expert on Colombia at the independent International Crisis Group, said it was difficult to predict when the first preliminary agreements will be announced since the talks are behind closed doors. "But, without a doubt, pressure will increase in 2013 for the negotiation to show results due to the deadline given by President Juan Manuel Santos and the country's expectations," Voelkel said. In addition to land reform, the negotiations will include drug trafficking, political participation, disarmament and victims' rights. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez was considered a key facilitator in the process, but the ailing leftist leader has been out of the public eye since undergoing a fourth round of cancer surgery in Havana on December 11. "President Chavez, from his sickbed, has had the courtesy of intervening during some difficult moments, contributing with his enormous prestige to smooth things over," a rebel commander, Mauricio Jaramillo, said last week. Santos said his Venezuelan counterpart has been a "key person" in the talks, and "for this reason I wish him well, because we really need him." Political analyst Fernando Giraldo said Chavez is trusted by both Santos and the FARC and his absence creates a less favorable environment. "Chavez's opinion counts a lot for the FARC leadership and it is unclear whether another leader would have the same influence," Giraldo said.