Colombia's Marxist Rebels Just Called An Indefinite Ceasefire

Carlos Villalon/Getty ImagesA guerrilla from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guards a road in the mountains near Bogota, Sumapaz, Colombia.

BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombia's Marxist FARC rebels have declared an indefinite unilateral ceasefire "which should transform into an armistice," the group said in a statement posted on its website on Wednesday.

The FARC is in the midst of peace talks with the government to end five decades of war which have killed more than 220,000 people.

The talks have been held in Havana since 2010 but were only made public in 2012. According to the Council on Foreign Relations, the talks, which also involve Cuba, Norway, Venezuela, Chile, managed to reach agreements on key underlying sources of conflict in Colombia's rural areas, including land reform and drug trafficking enforcement.

FARC delcared a unilateral ceasefire in the runup to Colombia's presidential elections in June of 2014, which saw the re-election of the pro-peace process Juan Miguel Santos. But it was followed by renewed lefitst guerilla attacks later in the summer that included the kidnapping of an army general. As CFR notes, peace talks have stalled on the crucial issues of the guerilla group's disarmament and the compensation of victims on both sides of the conflict.

The unilateral ceasefire delcaration comes just hours after the US announced it was moving towards ending its 50-year-old policy of political and economic embargo against Cuba.

(Reporting by Julia Symmes Cobb and Peter Murphy; Editing by Leslie Adler)