Colombia: Marchers form human chain to support peace with FARC rebels

Hundreds of Colombians marched through the streets of Bogota, Saturday, forming a human chain to voice their support for the ongoing peace process in Colombia between government forces and left-wing guerrillas.
The peace march commemorates the "National Day of Remembrance and Solidarity with the Victims", and demands an end to the country's five-decades-long armed conflict with left-wing militant group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).
April 9 carries special significance in the Latin American nation as the anniversary of the assassination of Liberal Party leader and presidential candidate Jorge Eliecer Gaitan in 1948. The assassination signalled the beginning of a decade of riots and unrest known as "La Violencia," which resulted in over 200,000 deaths, mostly of peasants and wage labourers.
The FARC, now Latin America's oldest and biggest rebel group, grew from a small rural organisation in 1962 to a peak military strength of an estimated 7,800 guerrilla soldiers.
The FARC says that it represents the peasants of rural Columbia against the economic deprivation which systematically developed after Gaitan's death, the political influence of the US in Colombia and the violence of state forces against rural and indigenous communities.