Colombian officials met FARC dissidents, president's tweet shows

Colombian government representatives have met with members of an armed group that grew out of the demobilized FARC rebels, photos tweeted by President Gustavo Petro showed on Sunday. Petro, who took office in August, has promised to seek "total peace" by fully implementing a 2016 peace deal with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), and talking to so-called dissidents who reject the accord as well as criminal gangs.

On his Twitter account, Petro published two photos which appeared to show peace commissioner Danilo Rueda meeting with dissident commanders, captioned with "a dialogue has begun." Petro, a former member of the M-19 guerrilla group, did not give further details and the government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Banners in the background of the photos showed the name of the Jorge Suarez Briceno Front, a faction of FARC. Several commanders from the two major dissident groups have been killed in recent months, including across the border in Venezuela.

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