• Submitted by: lena campos
• Society
• 12 / 29 / 2012

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The head of the Colombian government negotiators, Humberto de la Calle, meeting at peace talks with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People's Army (FARC-EP) asserted today that those talks have "their own dynamics and schedule."

Neither of the two sides has set a deadline for discussions about the land problem, the first point on the agenda, he said.

In statements to the official El Tiempo daily newspaper De la Calle refuted implicitly the assertions from Interior Ministry Fernando Carrillo, who told media that by Easter of 2013, there would be concrete agreements about integral agricultural development.

In that reference, De la Calle held that "Minister Carrillo simply expressed a wish," but "neither the president (Juan Manuel Santos) nor the government delegation has put a deadline on that point." He recalled the words from the Colombian head of State on Monday, when he said he hoped "that in weeks, in a couple of months, both sides may announce progress in the agricultural issue."

Santos reiterated at the time, the steps taken so far. "We wish we could make progress at a faster pace, but we are making it anyway. I keep being moderately optimistic," he told the RCN radio station.

"We'd hope that within a year we could say that after 50 years we finally have peace in Colombia," the president said.

The bilateral negotiation round began on November 19 in Havana, Cuba, the permanent host of the talks after they officially opened in Oslo, the capital city of Norway, on October 18.

source: Prensa Latina