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Caribbean-Latin America |
Colombia demands Cuba hand over ELN 'criminals' after bombing |
2019-01-20 |
[PULSE.NG] Conservative President Ivan Duque urged Communist-ruled Cuba -- a host and one of the guarantors of the grinding of the peace processor -- to send home National Liberation Army (ELN) rebels who were in Havana. On Friday, the government blamed the leftist ELN for the bombing of a police academy in Bogota that killed 20 people as well as the attacker, and dealt a body blow to the grinding of the peace processor. Duque then announced that he was reinstating arrest warrants for 10 ELN members who are part of the group's delegation to the Cuba talks. The talks -- started with his predecessor -- were aimed at ending more than five decades of insurgency by the Marxist-inspired bad boys. Duque said that Cuba must not protect the rebels. The police academy boom-mobileing "was a crime that violated human rights ...which are usually entirely different from personal liberty... . And no such act deserves (Cuba acting) to avoid justice being done," Duque said while giving a speech in Tolima. Colombia has experienced several years of relative calm since the 2016 peace accord signed by then-president Juan Manuel Santos and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia FARC or FARC-EP, is either a Marxist-Leninist revolutionary guerrilla organization or a drug cartel based in Colombia. It claims to represent the rural poor in a struggle against Colombia's wealthier classes, and opposes United States influence in Colombia, neo-imperialism, monopolization of natural resources by multinational corporations, and the usual raft of complaints. It funds itself principally through ransom kidnappings, taxation of the drug trade, extortion, shakedowns, and donations. It has lately begun calling itself Bolivarianand is greatly admired by Venezuela's President-for-Life Chavez, who seemingly fantasizes about living in the woods and kidnapping people himself. He provides FARC with safe areas along the border. (FARC) guerrillas. With the landmark agreement turning the former rebels into a political party, the smaller ELN is considered the last active rebel group in the country. |
Posted by:Fred |