"Arturo" spent the better part of his life as a mid-level commander of Colombia's farc guerrillas before deciding six months ago to desert. Though he and his comrades were aware that their leaders were engaged in peace talks with the government of President Juan Manuel Santos, the negotiations were a distant and nebulous concept. In the jungles and mountains they still fled from bombing raids on their camps, planned ambushes on troops, recruited children and planted minefields. For civilians, too, the impact of the peace process had hardly been felt since the two sides began negotiating in 2012 in Havana. That is starting to change. In the past month the government and the farc have jointly and separately taken bold decisions that will produce the first tangible results of the promising but slow-moving negotiations. "The process is just now beginning to bear fruit," says Arturo, who spent nearly 20 of his 49 years in the rebel ranks.
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