U.S. urges Colombia to make quick progress to peace
U.S. urges Colombia to make quick progress to peace
By Patricia Zengerle
BOGOTA Fri Dec 12, 2014 3:49pm EST
(Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry urged Colombian negotiators on Friday to move quickly in peace talks aimed at ending 50 years of war so that the Andean country can move on and achieve "enormous potential".
Colombia's government has been in talks with leftist FARC rebels for more than two years in a bid to draw a line under a conflict which has killed more than 200,000 and stirred optimism through agreements already made on about half the talks' agenda.
"I would urge everybody to use time to advantage and to move. Because as with any negotiation, they cannot be open-ended," Kerry told reporters after meeting President Juan Manuel Santos on a brief visit to Bogota.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/12/12/us-colombia-usa-kerry-idUSKBN0JQ24L20141212?rpc=401
(Short article, no more at link.)
Why the pressure now? The U.S. government surely didn't mind the civil war continuing indefinitely, not one bit. Pleased as punch to keep throwing boat-loads of US taxpayers' hard-earned dollars at the Colombian government and military yearly, as well as sending advisors, instructors, materials, equipment frequently. Colombia has been, as Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld said, our "forward operating location."
