Colombia's FARC guerrillas have freed a captive soldier in an apparent good will gesture hours before they start observing a unilateral ceasefire.
Colombians who have endured a half-century of bloodshed that has claimed 220,000 lives hope the truce will invigorate a slow-moving peace process and lead to a bilateral ceasefire with the government and eventually the end of the war.
It is the last guerrilla conflict in Latin America, which has seen many of them. More than six million people have been forced from their homes.
The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia announced the month-long truce on July 8 and said it starts from midnight yesterday.
The FARC issued a statement saying its forces should refrain from operations of an offensive nature against government forces and public or private infrastructure.
But in a sign of how fragile the peace process is, the statement said no FARC unit "is obliged to let itself be hit by enemy forces, and will have every right to exercise legitimate defense if attacked."
The FARC also announced the release of a soldier captured nearly two weeks ago during fighting in the south of the country. The government said he is in good physical condition.
Fitful peace talks have been taking place since 2012 in Havana, but fighting has continued and even intensified this year. And Colombians have gradually grown disillusioned with the peace process.
President Juan Manuel Santos has said he will negotiate for four more months and then decide whether to continue.
