Colombia ex-rebels apologize for 2002 massacre

A commander of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) have officially asked for forgiveness days after signing a peace treaty that has brought a new spirit of reconciliation to the nation.

“We ask for you to forgive us and that you give us the hope of a spiritual path, allowing us to move forward together with you,” FARC commander Ivan Marquez said Thursday in the town of Bojaya, the site of a deadly 2002 attack by the rebels.

FARC had already offered an apology for the Bojaya attack in 2014 in the Cuban capital, Havana, where peace talks had been underway for almost four years, but this time the commanders did so at the site of the attack itself.

“Once again, we offer an infinite apology, Bojaya,” Marquez said on Thursday.

During a visit to a church that was destroyed in the Bojaya attack, Marquez asked the local community for reconciliation.

“Reconciled, we will move toward an era of fairness, for which humble people from every corner of Colombia have yearned for so much,” he said.

FARC’s highest commander Rodrigo Londono Echeverri, aka Timoleon Jimenez or Timochenko, asked the nation for forgiveness at the peace signing ceremony on Monday.

Timochenko and Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos signed the peace deal in the Caribbean city of Cartagena, formally ending 52 years of a conflict.

SS