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Santos rejects Farc truce

COLOMBIA’S government rebuffed a unilateral truce declared by the Farc rebel group today, saying that any conditions were unacceptable until a peace deal was reached.

President Juan Manuel Santos said he could not accept the rebels’ demand that the truce be verified by outside bodies.

Farc announced an indefinite, unilateral ceasefire on Wednesday, saying that its fighters would refrain from staging attacks so long as they were not targeted by the US-backed military.

The rebels expressed hope that the ceasefire, beginning at midnight on December 20, would “transform into an armistice.”

Farc had said it would seek the support of several Latin American nations and the international Red Cross to verify its enforcement.

It is unclear where the government’s response leaves the ceasefire.

In two years of talks, Mr Santos’s government has always rejected any two-way truce.

Although Farc has declared temporary ceasefires before, this is the first time it has offered to indefinitely lay down weapons since the 1980s. 

The two sides have already reached agreements on agrarian reform, political participation for Farc and how to jointly combat illicit drugs.

But some of the thorniest issues remain unresolved, including how Farc will lay down its arms and whether its commanders will face prosecution.

Thousands of Colombians led by former president Alvaro Uribe marched in the capital Bogota and other cities over the weekend to reject any amnesty for rebel leaders.

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