Colombia's largest guerrilla movement FARC asked the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) to put the search for a political solution to the country's 45-year-old violent conflict on the union's agenda.
In an open letter to the union published on the website of Venezuelan state radio station Radio Mundial, the FARC accuse the Colombian and U.S. government of worsening the humanitarian situation in Colombia and the well-being of the region by expanding the military cooperation as recently agreed by both countries.
The FARC now ask UNASUR to "include the efforts of a political solution to the Colombian conflict as a permanent concern of Latin American nations in the agenda."
The FARC persist in a prisoner swap of members of the security forces kept in jungle hostage camps for imprisoned guerrillas and want UNASUR to determine the guerrillas as a belligerent force instead of a terrorist movement.
According to the FARC, the Colombian guerrillas are not terrorists, but revolutionaries and being labeled a legitimate belligerent force will open the road to peace.
The rebels say the Colombian government's decision to name the FARC narco-terrorists serves only to demonize the group and dismiss its social and economic demands.
The FARC and ELN are considered terrorists by Colombia, the U.S. and the E.U. and have been at war with the Colombian state since 1964.
