MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

FARC linked news agency justifies kidnapping and killing of Colombian governor

Uribe promised again to end the scourge of kidnapping and FARC confirms any rescue attempts will end with the life of captives

A news agency close to FARC Colombian rebels justified the recent killing of provincial governor Luis Francisco Cuellar although it did not fully attribute responsibility of the abduction and murder to the Revolutionary Colombian Armed Forces.

As usually happens with violent and bloody actions from FARC, Anncol justified the killing of governor Cuellar and argued that the reasons for the tragic event can only be traded to the Colombian government’s orders to rescue all hostages held by the Marxist oriented, drugs financed guerrilla group that has been operating in the Colombian jungle for over four decades.

For Annacol “the death of the regional governor is a consequence of the social conflict we are living in Colombia”, and when “the president and commander in chief of the Armed Forces orders the rescue at any cost, nothing else can be expected”.

Cuellar was kidnapped last Monday night in the outskirts of Florencia, capital of the province of Caquetá, by a group of men in Colombian elite forces uniforms who raided his house, killed the custodian policeman and drove him out of the city into the jungle.

The following day troops sent to rescue him came across the body of Cuellar with his slit throat and surrounded by explosives, with the purpose of delaying the operation to catch the kidnappers, according to the official report from Colombian forces.

President Alvaro Uribe and the Armed Forces blamed the abduction and killing of Cuellar on the “Teofilo Forero column” belonging to FARC and an elite group known for its violent actions which targets strong media repercussion.

The European Union, United States, OAS and the Inter-american Human Rights Commission strongly condemned the killing as “a horrendous and cowardly act” as so did most Latinamerican countries.

“Whoever actually did it, the governor was no saint. He actively participated in the war, financing para-military groups”, said Annacol in a piece under the heading “All the responsibility in on Uribe”, adding that so far the Uribe regime “has been unable to determine that FARC was responsible”.

However the family of Cuellar are convinced the killers are members of FARC and revealed that his father had a “knee problem” and had anticipated that if abducted he “would not walk”.

Cuellar was to celebrate his 69th birthday on Tuesday and had already been abducted on four occasions, each time before taking office as elected governor.

“My father suffered very much during his last abduction. He was injured in the knee and had difficulties walking and told me that if ‘they come for me again, I won’t walk, I can’t”, said the son of Cuellar, Luis Fernando.

A popular governor Cuellar had been re-elected several times, but his province to the south of Colombia was also one of the strongholds of FARC.

The killing of governor Cuellar is the first high-level politician to be abducted and murdered, allegedly by FARC, since president Uribe took office in August 2002 and launched his “democratic security” policy.

“In the midst of the pain and grief, I ratify before the Colombian people our full decision to defeat terrorism, to defeat the scourge of kidnapping”, Uribe reiterated this week when the body of Cuellar was found.

Kidnapping has been one of the main sources of political intimidation of FARC and all those who have managed to escape or were set free are unanimous in that the captors have strict orders, if surrounded by the Colombian security forces or in the event of any rescue attempt, victims must be terminated.

This happened with two leaders from the province of Antioquia, under persecution from the Colombian Army the captors slit their throats and later with eleven regional lawmakers who had been in captivity for five years. Surrounded by the military the eleven were mercilessly massacred.