Colombian president says he has FARC leader and his command on target

Friday, February 18th 2011 - 14:19 UTC

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Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos said this week that military forces know the exact hiding place and movements of the FARC guerrilla maximum leader, Alfonso Cano, and brushed aside any chance that he might escape. Read full article

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walterlx
I suppose this is the Colombian government's response to the FARC's releases of prisoners held by the FARC through the participation of former senator Piedad Cordoba and with the participation of the Brazilian military. Colombia's rulers succeeded in booting Cordoba from the Colombian parliament, but they haven't been able to remove her from the political scene.

It's clear that the FARC still has some cards to play politically, and a non-military solution to the Colombian conflicts would certainly be in the interests of that country if it could ever actually be brought about.

The FARC has suffered substantial blows in recent years, beginning with Marulanda's death - of natural causes - but what capitalist government has ever NOT claimed that it knows where the revolutionary opposition is and that it has them in its sights? Cubans certainly know something about that, after all.

The current Colombian president has shown himself to be far more astute politically than his predecessor, Alvaro Uribe. Colombia's decades-long struggle has experienced its ups and downs, but its prospects for a military victory seem quite remote, at best.

Santos has reduced tensions with Venezuela, where Chavez told the FARC that the days of their form of armed struggle were over quite awhile ago. The economies of Venezuela and Colombia are closely tied, and a reduction of conflicts between the two countries is clearly in the interests of both.

Millions of Colombians are living in Venezuela, and many seem to be strongly supportive of Chavez who has welcomed them into his country. Here in Havana I met - just last night - one of these Colombians who lives in Venezuela who gave me something of a sense of this.

We are living indeed in very interesting times.

Walter Lippmann
La Habana, Cuba
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaNews/
Feb 19th, 2011 - 04:53 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
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Y Draig Goch
Isnt that Just Gerry Adams in the picture??
Feb 20th, 2011 - 10:45 am - Link - Report abuse 0
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