Colombia's president suspends air attacks on FARC camps
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Colombia*s government took its biggest step yet toward an eventual end to hostilities in a half-century conflict by ordering an immediate halt to aerial bombings of guerrilla camps belonging to the nation*s largest rebel group.
President Juan Manuel Santos, in a nationally televised address Tuesday night, said he made the decision in virtue of progress that is being made in negotiations started in 2012 with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia and the rebels' adherence to a unilateral ceasefire it declared in December. The president said the ban on aerial bombings would initially last a month but could be extended if the FARC continues to keep its guns down. He said aerial raids against the National Liberation Army would continue uninterrupted until such time the nation*s second-largest group decided to join the peace process.
