Colombia orders air raids in response to FARC ambush

(Vatican Radio) Colombia's President Juan Manuel Santos has ordered bombing raids on the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) to resume, after one of their units ambushed and killed ten soldiers.

Click below to listen to correspondent James Blear’s report:

 
The ambush occurred in Colombia’s South Western region of Cauca.  In response to the incident, Colombia's President Juan Manuel Santos has described the ambush as calculated and a deliberate breach of the agreed suspension of bombing raids, which the Government announced last month.  One FARC leader has claimed the attack was not premeditated and the event is regretted.  The FARC has had long standing problems in controlling some of its more disparate and remote elements.

The FARC declared a unilateral ceasefire in December. But the Colombian Government has categorically refused to make it bi-lateral, insisting there are well documented examples of broken pledges once the FARC has been given breathing space to rest and regroup.
The Peace Talks between the two sides, which have been dragging on in Havana, Cuba since 2012,  still continue to plod along, with the hope of ending a conflict which has been dragging on since 1964.