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.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of