Video Related To: FARC Says Colombia Cease-Fire Refusal Won't Halt Peace Talks

Bogota, Colombia (NTN24) -- Colombian rebels call for peace talks with govt in nearly 50-year civil war. Colombia's FARC rebel leader has called for negotiations with President Juan Manuel Santos' government to end nearly five decades of war. Latin America's fourth-largest oil producer has battled leftist rebels and drug gangs for decades and nearly every government since the 1980s has tried peace talks with a myriad of armed groups to varying degrees of success. In a letter published late on Monday, Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) chief Timoleon Jimenez, or "Timochenko," said he would like to sit down at a 'hypothetical negotiating table." Timochenko did not explain what "hypothetical" meant in the latest of periodic overtures for peace talks from FARC, Colombia's largest rebel group. Analysts said the letter was not likely to lead to a negotiated end to the conflict. In the rambling note, which included references to the Bible, Greek myths and US writer Jack London, the rebel leader said the FARC wanted to address issues of privatization, deregulation, trade, investment, environmental degradation and military doctrine as part of the proposed peace talks. Timochenko called on Santos -- who was finance minister during the failed 1999-2002 El Caguan peace process where Colombia created a demilitarized zone (DMZ) for rebels -- to take up the agenda from those talks.