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General Javier Flórez, head of the Joint Chief of Staff of the military forces, will lead a military commission tasked with negotiating a bilateral ceasefire with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).
Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos made the announcement on Thursday, and said other members of the commission would soon be named as well.
Flórez carried out the military operation which killed FARC leader Jorge Briceño (AKA “Mono Jojoy”) in September 2010. The general also participated in the March 2008 bombing of a FARC camp located just over the border in the Ecuadorian jungle which killed the guerrilla army’s number two man, Raúl Reyes.
Florez will be accompanied in Havana by high-ranking members of Colombia’s Army, Navy, Air Force, and Police, all part of the subcommittee organized to discuss the ceasefire and the FARC’s transition back to civilian life, according to a statement from President Santos.
The special subcommittee will establish a timeline for an eventual disarmament and definitive ceasefire through a review and analysis of similar conflicts that were ended peacefully, according to a joint-statement provided on the FARC’s website.
Peace talks will recess on Friday and will resume for a renewed round of negotiation on September 1. Negotiations between the Colombian government and the FARC have been ongoing since November 2012.
Sources: Infobae, Colombia Reports.
