Colombian President Gustavo Petro, a leftist and former guerrilla, announced late on Saturday a January ceasefire with five illegal armed groups to support peace talks.
Petro has pledged to end the Andean nation's internal conflict, which has run for almost six decades and left at least 450,000 dead between 1985 and 2018.
"This is a bold act," Petro wrote on Twitter. "The bilateral ceasefire obliges the armed organizations and the state to respect it. There will be a national and international verification mechanism."
