BOGOTA, Feb. 4 (UPI) -- A worldwide protest by Colombians against the country's leftist rebels kicked off Monday, with a major demonstration scheduled for the capital, Bogota.
The protest, organized on the Internet, calls for an end to deaths at the hands of rebel groups like the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, El Tiempo reported Monday.
Demonstrations were scheduled to take place in cities all over the world where Colombians live and in nearly four dozen cities in Colombia.
The protest was first organized by a Colombian man via his Facebook Internet page.
FARC and other leftist groups' fighting with the Colombian government and right-wing paramilitary groups is blamed for some 3,500 deaths a year.
The rebels have been battling Colombian forces for more than 40 years.
