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Colombia’s Farc rebels to meet Kerry in Cuba during Obama trip

Meeting will be first time US secretary of state has met Farc negotiators

FARC rebels rest on a window of a local store at a small village in the mountains of Colombia. Photograph: Federico Rios Escobar/The New York Times
FARC rebels rest on a window of a local store at a small village in the mountains of Colombia. Photograph: Federico Rios Escobar/The New York Times
Mon Mar 21 2016 - 09:34

Members of Colombia's Marxist Farc guerrillas will meet US secretary of state John Kerry in Cuba, a spokeswoman for Colombia's government peace negotiators said on Sunday, adding a twist to a historic visit to the island by US president Barack Obama.

The meeting with Mr Kerry on Monday will be the first time a US secretary of state has met the negotiators from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, who have been talking peace with the Colombian government in Havana for more than three years.

“At around 4pm, the meeting between Kerry and the Farc delegation will take place,” after the Colombian government delegation meet him, the spokeswoman said.

A source at Colombia's Office of the High Commissioner for Peace said the rebels and Colombian government negotiators would also go to an exhibition game between Major League Baseball's Tampa Bay Rays and Cuba's national team on Tuesday.

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That game will be attended by Mr Obama, who on Sunday became the first sitting US president to visit Cuba in nearly 90 years.

But FARC negotiator Pastor Alape said he was not aware of an invitation to attend the baseball game. He said that before meeting with Mr Kerry, the rebels would meet the US special envoy for Colombian peace talks, Bernard Aronson, to agree on an agenda.

The United States sees the Colombian peace talks hosted in Havana as an example of how restoring normal relations with Cuba can help its wider goals in Latin America.

Latin America’s longest war has killed some 220,000 people and displaced millions of others since 1964. The government and rebels are attempting to reach a deal that would be placed before Colombian voters for approval, with a UN mission supervising rebel disarmament.

Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos and Farc leader Rodrigo Londono, better known by the nom de guerre Timochenko, had set a self-imposed March 23 deadline to reach a comprehensive pact but have since conceded that goal may not be reached.

Washington designated the Farc as a foreign terrorist organization in 1997, and many of its leaders have been indicted in the United States on charges of cocaine trafficking.

Reuters