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FARC Guerrillas Ditch Accord and Issue a New Set of Conditions
Tuesday, October 30, 2001
Latin American Newsletters

The Farc had already reneged on a cease-fire agreement, which was meant to be immediate, by conducting new mass kidnappings at roadblocks.

Colombia
The agreement which allowed President Andrés Pastrana to justify the extension of the Farc guerrillas’ demilitarised zone, the despeje, lasted less than two weeks. On 18 October the Farc leadership announced that it was withdrawing from the peace negotiations because ‘conditions’ had been altered by the government. Two days later they submitted a lengthy set of proposals designed, they said, to ‘save’ the negotiations. The government has turned these down.

The Farc’s conditions cover a lot of ground:

The government must withdraw the army from around the demilitarised despeje, ‘because the military units disguised as paramilitaries represent a grave danger to the movement of the rebels and the civilian population.’

The executive must suspend the prison sentences imposed in absentia on the members of the Farc’s ruling secretariat ‘since these are risky for their physical integrity.’
(More: Company News Source)
2001 © Latin American Newsletters - LAN.

Dan