Colombia, FARC rebels announce major breakthrough in peace talks

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos and Rodrigo Londono, the top leader of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), announced Wednesday they have made a breakthrough in peace talks that have been ongoing since November 2012.

"We are adversaries, but today we advance in the same direction, the most noble direction of any society, which is peace," Santos said from Havana. After several months of negotiations, the two sides have agreed on a framework for investigating human rights abuses and offering compensation to victims. Combatants will be covered by an amnesty law, with the exception of those who committed human rights violations and war crimes, the BBC reports. The next step is disarmament, and the signing of a peace pact in six months.

FARC is the largest rebel group in Colombia, and has been fighting against the government since 1964. Over the past five decades, an estimated 220,000 people have been killed in the conflict.

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