Colombia’s government and main rebel group on Friday announced an agreement to jointly combat illicit drugs in the South American country, which was long the world’s leading cocaine producer.
Under the accord, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as FARC, agreed to divorce itself completely from the drug trade.
US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) and Colombian authorities have said that some FARC fronts are involved in the production and sales of drugs to Mexican and Colombian traffickers and through Venezuelan intermediaries. In the past, FARC had denied any involvement in trafficking, claiming it only taxes producers. Peru recently overtook Colombia in cultivation of coca, the crop used to produce cocaine.
“What we have agreed upon recognizes that in order to set the basis for a stable and lasting peace in Colombia, it is necessary to find a definitive solution to the problem of illicit drugs,” said a statement from the talks that was read at a news conference in Havana.
It was the latest agreement reached during months of talks in the Cuban capital. The two sides earlier reached accords on agrarian reform and the political participation for FARC, but none will take effect until all items on the agenda for negotiations are settled.
FARC is the Western Hemisphere’s last remaining major leftist insurgency, having taken up arms a half-century ago.
The announcement comes a little more than a week before elections in Colombia, involving incumbent Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, who launched the peace talks, and his main challenger, Oscar Ivan Zuluaga, who opposes them. Zuluaga, a protege of former Colombian president Alvaro Uribe, argues that the FARC needs to end hostilities for talks to continue and should not be permitted into national politics.
Earlier in the day, FARC and Colombia’s other main rebel group, the National Liberation Army, issued an unusual joint statement declaring a halt in fighting for eight days, from Tuesday until Wednesday next week, around Colombia’s presidential election on Sunday.
Rebels have tried to disrupt past presidential elections and often dismiss Colombia’s electoral politics as a sport dominated by the country’s elites, so the ceasefire appears to be a vote of confidence in the Havana-based peace talks launched by Santos in November 2012. FARC also declared a ceasefire during March legislative elections.
Santos has been under attack from his main rivals for breaking with the policy of Uribe, whose relentless, US-backed military pressure had weakened the guerrillas.
Conservative Party candidate Marta Lucia Ramirez said the rebel announcement “is a ceasefire in which FARC joins the presidential campaign” of Santos.
Zuluaga, running second behind Santos in most polls, said that “the halt to criminal actions should be indefinite and verifiable.”
However, the bilateral action was welcomed by pro-Santos Colombian Senator Roy Barreras, who said it “is a clear message Colombians that peace is close and is possible.”
The rebels have declared temporary ceasefires in the past, though they have not been fully honored. The government itself has refused to grant ceasefires during the talks.
Both of Colombia’s rebel groups formed in the 1960s as an outgrowth of rural movements that sought a more equitable land distribution.
FARC is the hemisphere’s largest active guerrilla army, with about 8,000 members still in arms. The National Liberation Army, which has about 2,000 fighters, is not taking part in the Havana talks, though it has expressed a desire for negotiations with the government.
Meanwhile, four presumed FARC members died in an explosion, said Patricia Velez, mayor of the town of Planadas where the blast occurred. She said three adults and one minor died.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in