No one knows exactly when Santos decided to seek new negotiations with Latin America’s oldest – and one of its most vicious – guerrilla groups; nor do any but his closest aides know how many meetings have already taken place, where and when, or what happened. But much evidence suggests that most of the process began some time ago, and was meant to be kept secret until broad agreement had been reached on most of the outstanding issues.
哥伦比亚则可能继续维持现状。没人知道桑托斯是什么时候决定于拉美最老牌、同时也是最残忍之一的游击队组织进行新谈判的；也只有他的亲信部下才知道双方已经进行了多少次会面，在哪里和何时会的面，会面时又发生过什么。但许多证据表明，谈判进程开始已经有一段时间了，且在就大部分现有问题达成广泛一致前不会公开。