FARC vow effort to reach peace in Colombia in 2013

A spokesman for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) pledged in Cuba on 13 March that the FARC would do "everything possible" to reach a peace agreement with the government and end decades of intermittent conflict in Colombia, also thanking the Venezuelan leader's promises to aid negotiations. Venezuela has been a facilitating power in the current process of talks between the Colombian state and the FARC in Havana; on 12 March the Acting President Nicolás Maduro pledged he would put himself "at the service" of peace talks if elected to president in April. The FARC's chief negotiator in Havana, the guerrilla dubbed Iván Márquez, said "thank you very much President Maduro, we are going to work hard here in Havana and see how we go forward" toward an agreement, El Espectador and EFE reported. The sides began the seventh round of talks on 11 March in what was described as a positive mood, after reaching incipient agreements on the first theme of talks, rural land use, El Espectador reported. The daily reported that FARC negotiators made new proposals on 13 March intended to "dignify" rural work, including reforming rural work conditions and the creation of a "universal and unconditional" minimum wage. Inside Colombia the sides continued their military actions, with state forces recently striking at the FARC in several districts. On 13 March the FARC killed two policemen and injured another in an ambush in the southern district of Saladoblanco, in the department of Huila, Medellín's El Mundo reported. A mine presumably placed by the FARC separately injured three soldiers on 13 March in the north-western district of Toledo, El Mundo reported. The armed forces of Colombia would continue to "decimate" the FARC, the Colombian Defence Minister was reported as saying on 14 March; Juan Carlos Pinzón said the FARC were now only present on "10-12 per cent" of the national territory, where they were being "vigorously attacked" by state forces, the broadcaster Caracol reported, without specifying where the minister spoke.