In its daily bulletin on the negotiation table between FARC and the Colombian government,  the Peace Delegation of the FARC-EP wrote on Tuesday that its representatives didn´t read any press communiqué. Instead, said the bulletin, commander Ricardo Téllez responded questions from the journalists who were waiting outside the Convention Palace. The majority of the questions were formulated by Colombian mass media, like RCN and CMI.  We publish here the Q&A as it appears in the Peace Delegation of the FARC-EP bulletin (for more news, check http://www.farc-epeace.org)

Q: In Bogotá they are proposing that at some moment, when you´ll start talking about victims, there should be a committee to talk directly with you. That`s what the Minister of Interior said. Do you agree with a committee to talk with you?

R.T.: Look, we have tried to let the Colombian society participate in these dialogues.

We`d love the people to come here and talk at the table. This situation when time has come, we´ll talk about it and we`ll take the necessary and pertinent changes.

Q: But it hasn´t been confirmed that the victims be part of these dialogues?

R.T.: No, part of the Table not, but they have been participating in the process. In the meeting held by the House of Representative of the Senate of the Republic the victims are participating there. They have also been sending a series of documents to the web page and through physical forms. So they, the victims, are the central part of our activity and the FARC have them in mind and will keep them in mind. What we won´t allow is the Manichean part of it, the way some people deal with this issue. The victims are here present with us and will be attended when the moment is there.

 Q: But why aren´t they sitting at the Table?

Why aren´t they part of the dialogues?

Well, the Table consists of a governmental team and of a team from the FARC We have insisted on the participation of the Colombian society union leaders, victims, peasants, afro-Colombians, indigenous people, students, because the peace process has to do with everybody, with all Colombians.

Q: The government insisted that they are not going to accept the participation of Piedad Córdoba for the liberation of the American officer. What is going to happen with him?

When are you going to let him free? What agreements have you made for his liberation?

R.T.: Look, now it´s the government who has to make a decision. We proposed a commission of personalities. We are not interested in postponing the liberation, but now the Colombian government should decide when they are going to send the commission we proposed consisting of the Red Cross, the community of Saint Egidio  and also senator Piedad Córdoba we are waiting for them to hand the marine over to them a marine who seems to be a north American mercenary 

Q: But you're not going to free him if Córdoba doesn´t go, or what conditions...

No, we're waiting for the commission we suggested and for the government to facilitate the presence of that commission we haven´t asked for anything in change we have simply said, in a sovereign way, we`ll free him and we are going to accomplish that promise

Q: Why do you think it`s a north American mercenary?

R.T.: What would you think of a man who has a hidden camera in his watch who has a geopositioner, who has a military uniform in his bag pack who has stuff for survival, who had been around there for a month and the North American embassy didn´t know about their citizen, in an area full of military bases, and the army didn´t know about him either. No one asked for him. Who said they had him? Who said they were going to free him?

The FARC, in an act of sovereignty.  If they had caught me over there in the U.S., with a geopositioner, near the White House, I´m sure they would have arrested me, too.

Other questions were about the expectative of the FARC to get to an agreement quickly, to which commander Téllez responded that the talks should be given the necessary time to get to a stable and lasting peace, without electoral pressure.

They also asked about the critical situation in Catatumbo. Téllez remarked that the FARC-EP are morally supporting the just demands of the peasants in Catatumbo, for their claims for a Peasant Reserve Zone are lawful. The government responds with bullets, which is intolerable, and leads to more protests every day in the country.

The last question was about how the FARC-EP want to participate in politics, given the fact that there are people asked in extradition and a lot of them have processes for crimes against humanity. Commander Téllez responded that “these are precisely the issues we have to talk about at the Table”, and that there should always be kept in mind that the agreement is political and that the peace of the country is at stake. He further affirmed that all members of the FARC have the right to participate in politics, without any divisions. “We´ll have to find a political solution for these problems”, he added.