Tens of thousands of Colombians joined President Juan Manuel Santos and delegations from Colombia's 32 state departments on Tuesday to march through the capital, Bogota. The peace march commemorates the "National Day of Remembrance and Solidarity with the Victims", but more importantly demands an end to the country's five-decade armed conflict with left-wing militant group The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

The massive march follows the latest round of peace negotiations between the Colombian government and FARC which began in Cuba on April 2. The negotiations, if successful, will end the decades of hostility that ensued after government forces overran the independent leftist enclave of Marquetalia in 1964.

April 9 carries special significance in Bogota as the anniversary of the assassination of Liberal Party leader and presidential candidate Jorge Eliecer Gaitan in 1948. The assassination signalled the beginning of a decade of riots and unrest known as "La Violencia", which resulted in over 200,000 deaths, mostly of peasants and wage labourers.

The FARC, now Latin America's oldest and biggest rebel group, grew from a small rural organisation in 1962 to a peak military strength of an estimated 7,800 guerrilla soldiers.

The FARC says that it represents the peasants of rural Columbia against the economic deprivation which systematically developed after Gaitan's death, the political influence of the US in Colombia and the violence of state forces against rural and indigenous communities.