Colombia's Santos says support of Venezuela, Cuba key to peace talks [View all]

[Judi Lynn]

Colombia's Santos says support of Venezuela, Cuba key to peace talks
Scott Malone Reuters
7:50 p.m. EDT, September 25, 2013


CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts (Reuters) - The support of Venezuela and Cuba will play a key role in Colombia's efforts to reach a negotiated end to Latin America's last major guerilla war, Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos said on Wednesday.

Santos, who 10 months ago launched a round of talks with the left-wing FARC rebels, said he believed talks in Havana could bring an end to a 50-year conflict that has taken the lives of more than 220,000 people, mostly civilians.

"Venezuela and Cuba are helping us, they are saying, 'Get rid of warfare; today it's an anachronism,'" Santos told an academic audience at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, outside Boston. "They know that through armed struggle they will not achieve anything. They will not achieve power."

Even if the talks, due to resume on October 3, succeed, Colombia will face challenges in re-integrating members of the resistance into mainstream society, rather than allowing people accustomed to violence to slide into lives of crime, Santos said.

More:
http://www.courant.com/news/nation-world/sns-rt-us-usa-colombia-santos-20130925,0,3264189.story