Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies
©Associated Press
© St. Petersburg Times, published December 3, 2000
BOGOTA, Colombia -- A government peace envoy has met with the leader of the nation's largest rebel group to try to resuscitate talks aimed at ending Colombia's 36-year war.
The six-hour meeting Friday between peace envoy Camilo Gomez and Manuel Marulanda, the chief of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, produced no breakthroughs to end an escalating conflict that kills some 3,000 people a year.
But Gomez told reporters that the two will meet again next week to find a way to re-establish talks before Thursday. On that date, the government must decide if it will take back the Switzerland-size swath of territory it relinquished to the FARC two years ago to jump-start peace talks.
Representatives from President Andres Pastrana's government have been meeting with FARC leaders in that so-called demilitarized zone since the government pulled out its soldiers, but have failed to make substantial breakthroughs.
The Friday meeting was the first time the sides have talked since the FARC froze peace talks on Nov. 14. after accusing the government of being soft on rightist militias. They also criticized a U.S.-sponsored $1.3-billion anti-narcotics plan aimed at wresting control of Colombian drug crops from FARC rebels, who protect and tax them.