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| Caribbean-Latin America |
| Colombia's FARC spreads in Central America |
| 2005-03-26 |
| EFL Marxist guerrillas in Colombia have established cells in Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama in what U.S. intelligence and law-enforcement authorities say is an effort by the rebel organization to expand its arms- and drug-trafficking operations. Honduran Security Minister Oscar Alvarez confirmed the presence of members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, in the three Central American countries last week, saying the organization was seeking to "infiltrate Central America to buy more weapons and destabilize the rule of law ...." Mr. Alvarez told reporters in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, that arms traffickers in that country were trading automatic weapons, mostly AK-47 assault rifles, to the FARC in exchange for drugs, which were being sold to buyers in the United States. The weapons were identified as coming from Nicaragua, left over from that country's civil war in the 1980s. U.S. intelligence and law-enforcement authorities yesterday said the FARC -- considered Latin America's oldest, largest, most capable and best-equipped insurgency -- has continued its high-profile terrorist attacks in Colombia and expanded its arms- and drug-trafficking operations into Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama. The FARC, with as many as 12,000 armed combatants, has been named in connection with numerous bombings, murders, mortar attacks, narcotrafficking, kidnappings, extortion and hijackings, as well as guerrilla and conventional military actions against Colombian political, military and economic targets. Earlier this month, Gen. Bantz J. Craddock, commander of the U.S. Southern Command, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that many nations in Latin America and specifically the Andean Ridge were threatened by regional terrorist organizations supported and funded by illegal drug trafficking and other criminal ventures, including the FARC. Gen. Craddock said 90 percent of the cocaine and 47 percent of the heroin that reaches the United States annually originates in or passes through Colombia. And it passes, of course, the border between Mexico and the U.S., which doesn't seem to be as guarded as it should be. |
| Posted by:True German Ally |
| #3 Hmm no mention of Hugoland. Is that because Hugo is helping the FARC? He sees them as the right kind of people and the rightfully elected covernment of Columbia as the enemy of the people. He certainly knows and allows them to operate from his side of the border. Hugo is the new Fidel. Assclown. |
| Posted by: Sock Puppet 0’ Doom 2005-03-26 11:05:10 PM |
| #2 This is one bit of Bush's policy I cannot follow, his leniency with Southern border issues. Fingerprinting German tourists in JFK and insulting people as "vigilantes" who try to follow people (maybe terrorists and narcos) slipping across an unguarded border... I'm lost here |
| Posted by: True German Ally 2005-03-26 9:04:56 PM |
| #1 "And it passes, of course, the border between Mexico and the U.S., which doesn’t seem to be as guarded as it should be." Not a problem..don't worry...be happy...afterall life is short. |
| Posted by: sieve head 2005-03-26 9:01:32 PM |