cannabisnews.com: Colombian Guerrillas Invite U.S. Officials!





Colombian Guerrillas Invite U.S. Officials!
Posted by FoM on January 09, 1999 at 21:01:29 PT

SAN VICENTE DEL CAGUAN, Colombia  Colombian guerrillas invited U.S. officials Saturday to see firsthand the insurgents are not drug-traffickers. 
The invitation was offered as Colombian government-appointed delegates met with guerrillas to chart an agenda for peace talks to end 34 years of civil war. Jorge Briceno, the No. 2 commander guerrilla, said the Colombian government and armed forces have deceived the United States about the insurgents’ alleged involvement in drug-trafficking "to request aid to bombard and fumigate Colombians." The government inaugurated peace talks Thursday with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. After the Saturday meeting adjourned, the two sides issued a brief joint communique, saying: "We are beginning a long, sensitive process in which collective efforts will be necessary to achieve a new reality based on profound social, political and economic change." The negotiators set their next meeting for Monday. Last month, the guerrillas held a private exploratory meeting in Costa Rica with U.S. diplomats about helping curb the drug trade. U.S. and Colombian officials allege the guerrillas earn as much as a $500 million US a year from protecting drug crops, cocaine laboratories and clandestine airstrips. The United States provides more than $100 million annually in anti-narcotics aid for aerial crop-eradication and equipment and training for the Colombian police and military. While not denying some guerrilla fronts may have earnings from the drug trade, Briceno said: "The guerrillas are not drug-traffickers. That is not part of our foundation." U.S. officials have expressed concern that by withdrawing government troops from a swath of southern Colombia to facilitate the peace dialogue, Colombia might be permitting an increase in drug-production in the region where police say roughly one-third of Colombia’s coca grows. 
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