FARC announces unilateral cease

This initiative from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC-EP) was announced from Havana, Cuba, where peace talks have been taking place between representatives of the revolutionary forces and the government of Colombia.

The FARC-EP communicate to all our Blocks, Fronts, Columns, Companies and other political military structures, as well as the Bolivarian and popular militias and subordinate structures, that starting at 00:00 a.m. on July 20, the order is to cease all offensive actions against the armed forces of the State and of public and private infrastructure.

The said order follows the call of the guarantor countries, Cuba and Norway, and accompanying countries Venezuela and Chile, of the peace talks underway in Havana, and of the avalanche of public petitions, letters and messages through social networks addressed to our Peace Delegation by countless personalities and social and political organizations, churches, community action boards and popular movements in general; therefore it constitutes a serious commitment of our organization, for whose strict fulfillment are responsible each of the leaders and members of the FARC-EP.

This practical measure, of a humanitarian character, constitutes a new gesture on our part with the intention of reaching a pact with the national government on more and more effective formulae of de-escalation of the conflict. We trust therefore that it is regarded and valued in all its dimensions, so that there is no unfortunate repetition of events that only harm the peace and reconciliation purposes.

No unit of the FARC-EP is forced to let itself be struck by enemy forces and has every right to exercise self-defense in case of attack.

We call on all the personalities, institutions, political movements, popular and social forces that have raised this truly national outcry, to present themselves in an active away in the defense of this new hope that we initiate today in Colombia. No one can steal [from] Colombians their right to live in peace, so it is urgent to close the path to sectors clamoring for war, for bloody solutions, for repression and persecution of the popular movement and its leadership.

The Broad Front for Peace, the Constituent Process, churches and other organizations and interested forces in the oversight of the ceasefire have our trust and collaboration. We believe that the national Government must surround with full guarantees the exercise of this patriotic function, and at the same time advance with greater conviction toward genuine national harmony, based both in the definitive prohibition of violence as in social justice, democracy and sovereignty.

National Secretariat Of FARC-EP

Havana, July 19, 2015