President Obama expresses support for peace process in Colombia

President Obama expressed support Tuesday for the Colombian government's efforts to end a decades-long conflict with nation's main leftist rebel group. 

Colombian President Santos announced that peace talks, which will start next month in Norway and move to Havana, between his government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, to end the violence that has left tens of thousands dead over nearly 50 years.

The agreement to conduct peace talks for the first in a decade will last "months, not years," Santos said in a nationally televised address Tuesday. 

“There comes a moment in history when you have to take risks to arrive at a solution,” Santos said. “This is one of those moments.”

The “Santos administration has demonstrated an unwavering commitment to seeking a durable peace and ensuring a better life for all Colombians through its security and social inclusion policies," Obama said in a statement. 

"The FARC should now take this opportunity to end its decades of terrorism and narcotics trafficking, and allow the Colombian people to continue building a democratic, prosperous, and just society," he said.

Continued violence in Colombia, especially against labor leaders, was the main reason why unions, including the AFL-CIO, along with many congressional Democrats opposed the U.S. free-trade agreement that went into effect with the Columbia in May. 

This framework, brokered after six months of direct negotiations in Cuba, would be designed to include a permanent cease-fire and more integration into the nation's political and, improving, economic fabric. 

"As the Santos administration works toward a resolution of the conflict, the United States reaffirms its longstanding defense and security partnership with Colombia and its commitment to work with Colombia to promote citizen security, respect for human rights, and economic prosperity for all its people," Obama said. 

Talks also will include an end to drug trafficking, a major funding source for the FARC's activities, and agricultural reform. 

Santos said the accord to start talks would be an avenue to "a definitive peace." 

The Colombia government and the FARC have failed four times in the past 50 years to end their conflict. 

The last talks in 2002 ended unresolved after three years, and many experts argued they left the FARC militarily stronger.

The agreement does not include a cease-fire or a demilitarized zone, conditions that have been granted in the past.

During a press conference in Havana, FARC leaders showed a recording of their 53-year-old leader Timoleon Jimenez saying that while there are concerns about the Colombian government's tactics,  “will play the same tricks as last time,” they agreed to the embark on the talks because “peace is worth taking on the most difficult challenges."

The FARC, Latin America's oldest and best-equipped rebel group, was formed in 1964 as a military wing of the Colombian Communist party. 

The group classified by the State Department as an international terrorist organization.

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