BOGOTA (TIP): Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos on Wednesday announced in an address to the nation that he will seek reelection next year. “When you see the light at the end of the tunnel, you do not turn around and run the other way,” the president said, referring to a peace process with FARC guerrillas that is making strides but is not yet a done deal.

“I am convinced that we have before us a great chance to achieve a Colombia that is at peace,” he said. “And my duty as president … is not to allow everything that we have achieved in the peace process to be lost.” As such Santos, a 62-year-old conservative, said he would seek a second term which would run from 2014-2018, giving him the chance to help shepherd a peace deal into reality. The government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) have been in peace talks in Havana for a year.

The talks are set to resume November 28, after a 10-day postponement. The talks had been scheduled to resume Monday to take on the third agenda item, illegal drug trafficking, which the FARC is alleged to have abetted to finance their operations.