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Colombia Sets Time Limit for Talks with FARC

Colombia's President Juan Manuel Santos, November 30, 2012.
Colombia's President Juan Manuel Santos, November 30, 2012.
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VOA News
Colombia's president has set a time limit for peace talks with the rebels of Latin America's longest-running insurgency.

Juan Manuel Santos said Sunday the talks with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, should not last any longer than November of next year, at the latest.  

Negotiations between the two sides began in October in Norway and moved to Cuba last month.  Talks are set to reconvene Wednesday in Cuba.  

The first topic on the agenda is the complicated issue of land reform.  Other equally thorny topics will follow, including a mechanism to end hostilities, the political future of FARC, the illegal drug trade, and compensating victims of the conflict.

Colombia and FARC rebels have engaged in a bloody civil war that has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives.  Since 1964, the militant group has engaged in political kidnappings and carried out attacks on security forces in its battle against the government.

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