Colombia Farc guerrillas prepare for peace after 25 years

[Anthea]

Colombia Farc guerrillas prepare finally for peace

Perhaps ISIS will be next if someone stops bombing them long enough to actually talk to them

As the speedboat navigates its way along the winding course of the Naya River in western Colombia, the signs soon start to appear that you have entered Farc territory.

Banners have been posted every few kilometres, emblazoned with the faces of the leadership of Marxist guerrilla group the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia - both past and present.

They say: "52 years seeking peace," citing the length of Colombia's arduous civil war, one of the longest armed conflicts in the world.

One of the bloodiest too: as many as 220,000 lives are thought to have been lost during those years of fighting, which only now look like drawing to a close as a peace deal with the government moves ever closer.

We spend a couple of hot and muggy days in one of the riverside villages poking out among the banana and tropical cedar trees, killing time by drinking weak coffee and playing cards until our contact appears.

Part of the rebel army's civilian support network, he ushers us back on to a boat and takes us deeper into the jungle.

A day later, a group of guerrillas are waiting for us at the bottom of a rocky brook, M-16's slung over their shoulders.

They guide us in a trek up along steep mountain paths and across streams until the camp of the 30th Front of the Farc's Occidental Bloc emerges beneath the thick canopy.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-36574781