After 26 FARC fighters were killed in a Colombian air and ground offensive this past Thursday, the Marxist group has suspended a unilateral ceasefire which had been put in place since December 2014.

FARC (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia; in English: Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) has asserted that they are not letting go of the peace talks, which have been taking place in Havana.

As reported by the BBC, President Juan Manuel Santos, who has received criticism from former President Álvaro Uribe for indulging in what many have deemed to be stalling techniques used by the rebel group, has called on the rebels to "speed up" the negotiations.

The Colombian government and the rebel group, in an effort to repair the damage due to more than 50 years of conflict, have been engaged in negotiations on and off since 2012.

Last week's attack, which took place in Colombia’s southwestern Cauca region, was the deadliest attack to have occurred since the air strikes against FARC resumed last month. FARC has stated that the ceasefire suspension was the result of five months of land and air offensives against their structures.

"We deplore the joint attack by the air force, the army and the police," FARC said in a statement. “We feel pain for the deaths of guerrilla fighters as well as soldiers, sons of a same people and from poor families."

FARC seems to reluctantly be willing to go on with the latest round of peace talks in Havana: "Against our will we will proceed with the [peace] talks in the middle of a confrontation."

The rebel group’s prowess and staying power is a quality much coveted by other groups, be they communist or cartel-oriented.

According to In Sight Crime, two U.S. intelligence officers recently told a Mexican newspaper that members of the Jalisco Cartel were in fact trained by the Colombian rebels.

One of the unidentified government officials said, "The reports we obtained in Colombia show various bosses of the Jalisco Cartel, New Generation and Los Cuinis were trained by the FARC in assault tactics [to be used against] members of the military."