Less than two weeks after the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) declared a unilateral 30-day “ceasefire”, 10 members of the left-wing rebel group have been killed in a bombing raid conducted by the Colombian military.

The operation, which took place in the mountainous central region of Meta province last Friday, was described as having dealt a “significant blow” to the guerrilla group by Juan Carlos Pinzon, Colombia’s defence minister.

Amongst the dead was 15-year FARC veteran and regional commander Pedro Lain Parra Suns, also known as Jhon 26.

Earlier this month, FARC announced a 30-day “ceasefire” as of 15 December. The guerrillas were hoping that the government of President Juan Manuel Santos would reciprocate in order to move forward with the peace process.

But Santos’s government has vowed to continue fighting the rebels until a peace deal is signed.

According to government figures, some six million people have been affected by the 50-year conflict between FARC and the Colombian government either through displacement, murder, forced disappearances or other atrocities.

Peace talks

The peace talks, being held in Havana with the support of Cuba and Norway as guarantors and Venezuela and Chile as observers, were formalised on 26 August 2012 when Colombian government delegates and FARC representatives signed the “General Agreement for the Termination of the Conflict and the Construction of a Stable and Lasting Peace”.

Thanks to the agreement, direct and uninterrupted talks were established, the key elements of which include agricultural development and the issue of land use and access, institutional reforms, an end to FARC’s involvement in Colombia’s multi-billion drug trade, and compensation for those affected by the conflict.

On 6 November, 2013, the peace talks reached a major breakthrough when the terms of FARC’s future participation in Colombian politics were agreed once the rebel group lays down its arms.

Following a joint statement, Iván Márquez, the FARC’s spokesperson, read from a document which said that while there is still a long way to go, the November agreement provides the “optimism needed to keep moving forward with the talks until a peace deal is signed and the conflict is ended.”

In an article published in the Colombian newspaper El Tiempo.com, Humberto de la Calle, the Colombian government’s chief negotiator, recognised the agreement’s significance, stating that it strengthens “the spirit of reform” and that “the end of the conflict should lead to the transformation needed to build a stable and lasting peace.”

Support

However, levels of support for the peace process vary. According to a survey conducted by the Democracy Observatory of the University of The Andes, the Americas Barometer, Vanderbilt University and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), while 53.7 per cent of Colombians support the peace process, 32.6 per cent do not.

And of those living in the “conflict zone”, that level of support rises to 59.1 per cent while those opposing the peace process falls to 27.1 per cent.

Juan Carlos Rodríguez Raga, director of Colombia’s Democracy Observatory, explained to the magazine Semana.com that Colombians support a negotiated solution but “are much less willing to make concessions in terms of justice and political participation” and “are also reticent to pardon, or to accept the pardoning of the crimes committed by FARC members, even if they confess to their crimes.”

Although public opinion is close to the rebels’ position with regard to agricultural reform, Rodríguez Raga goes on to explain that this does not mean the FARC “is going to have any electoral success, because people’s negative image of [FARC] will be hard to clean up.”

The peace process in Colombia has become the main issue being debated by the candidates of the forthcoming presidential elections in May 2014, with a split between those who support the Havana talks, given that they have forced the rebels to sit down at the negotiating table, and those who see the talks as a trap for the government, as they allow the FARC to regroup.

Whilst the negotiators in Cuba continue with their efforts to establish a new framework to strengthen democracy through greater transparency, inclusion and pluralism, the political climate in Colombia ahead of the presidential elections seems to be heating up, especially following the decision by Colombia’s Inspector General, Alejandro Ordóñez, to sack the leftist mayor of Bogota, Gustavo Petro.

Meanwhile, the peace process – needed to put a permanent end to a long and bloody national conflict – remains under pressure and fraught with obstacles.