A Roman Catholic Church official on Friday proposed a meeting in Europe with Colombia’s main guerrilla leader to discuss handover of hostages and possible negotiations to end Latin America’s oldest insurgency.
Previous attempts to bring the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) to the table have failed over conditions for the release of the captives it holds in jungle camps and demands that the rebels end hostilities before talks begin.
Colombian Cardinal Dario Castrillon said the plan to seek talks with the FARC was approved by Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, whose US-backed army offensive has battered the guerrilla group to its weakest level in decades.
The proposal for dialogue with FARC commander Alfonso Cano came after Uribe blamed rebels for kidnapping and killing Caqueta State Governor Luis Cuellar. He was abducted from his home on Monday and later found with his throat cut, as soldiers pursued the kidnappers.
The kidnapping and murder raised questions about the success of Uribe’s campaign against the rebels. Colombia’s government has received billions in US aid in its security campaign.
“If there is a dialogue it could be in Europe. The possibility is there. The president agrees with that, as long as it is in the best interests of the country,” Castrillon said in an interview with local RCN radio.
He did not give details on where talks could occur.
The FARC has not issued a statement on the kidnapping of Cuellar, the highest-profile attack on a politician during Uribe’s presidency. The Colombia leader, however, has ordered his military commanders to try to rescue 24 police and soldiers held by the rebels, some in captivity for more than a decade.
Cano took over the leadership of the rebel group last year after several of its top commanders were killed and its ranks were weakened by a steady flow of desertions due to increasing military pressure.
Uribe, whose father was killed in a botched rebel kidnapping two decades ago, is popular for his security drive, which has helped cut back on the kidnapping, bombings and attacks that once made violence endemic in Colombia.
“The government is ready to hold talks with these illegal armed groups once they show a real willingness to seek peace,” said Cesar Mauricio Velasquez, a presidential spokesman.
Uribe says any dialogue with the FARC must begin with a rebel ceasefire. The FARC has said it wants to hand over the 24 hostages for hundreds of jailed fighters.
The rebel group previously has unilaterally released hostages in what it has described as goodwill gestures. Uribe said that while welcomed, those releases were part of FARC attempts to score political points. Rebels had said they planned to free two more hostages soon.
An endangered baby pygmy hippopotamus that shot to social media stardom in Thailand has become a lucrative source of income for her home zoo, quadrupling its ticket sales, the institution said Thursday. Moo Deng, whose name in Thai means “bouncy pork,” has drawn tens of thousands of visitors to Khao Kheow Open Zoo this month. The two-month-old pygmy hippo went viral on TikTok and Instagram for her cheeky antics, inspiring merchandise, memes and even craft tutorials on how to make crocheted or cake-based Moo Dengs at home. A zoo spokesperson said that ticket sales from the start of September to Wednesday reached almost
‘BARBAROUS ACTS’: The captain of the fishing vessel said that people in checkered clothes beat them with iron bars and that he fell unconscious for about an hour Ten Vietnamese fishers were violently robbed in the South China Sea, state media reported yesterday, with an official saying the attackers came from Chinese-flagged vessels. The men were reportedly beaten with iron bars and robbed of thousands of dollars of fish and equipment on Sunday off the Paracel Islands (Xisha Islands, 西沙群島), which Taiwan claims, as do Vietnam, China, Brunei, Malaysia and the Philippines. Vietnamese media did not identify the nationalities of the attackers, but Phung Ba Vuong, an official in central Quang Ngai province, told reporters: “They were Chinese, [the boats had] Chinese flags.” Four of the 10-man Vietnamese crew were rushed
Scientists yesterday announced a milestone in neurobiological research with the mapping of the entire brain of an adult fruit fly, a feat that might provide insight into the brains of other organisms and even people. The research detailed more than 50 million connections between more than 139,000 neurons — brain nerve cells — in the insect, a species whose scientific name is Drosophila melanogaster and is often used in neurobiological studies. The research sought to decipher how brains are wired and the signals underlying healthy brain functions. It could also pave the way for mapping the brains of other species. “You might
PROTESTS: A crowd near Congress waved placards that read: ‘How can we have freedom without education?’ and: ‘No peace for the government’ Argentine President Javier Milei has made good on threats to veto proposed increases to university funding, with the measure made official early yesterday after a day of major student-led protests. Thousands of people joined the demonstration on Wednesday in defense of the country’s public university system — the second large-scale protest in six months on the issue. The law, which would have guaranteed funding for universities, was criticized by Milei, a self-professed “anarcho-capitalist” who came to power vowing to take a figurative chainsaw to public spending to tame chronically high inflation and eliminate the deficit. A huge crowd packed a square outside Congress
RSS