The U.S. Treasury said on Wednesday it will freeze assets in the United
States of three individuals linked to Colombia’s largest rebel group
FARC.
The Treasury said Omar Arturo Zabala Padilla, Maria Remedios Garcia
Albert and Vlaudin Rodrigo Vega drummed up recruits and support for the
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, which Washington has
branded as a drug-trafficking terrorist group.
The trio worked in France, Italy, Switzerland, Spain and Australia, the department said.
“The FARC is one of the world’s largest suppliers of cocaine and
continues to be Colombia’s most notorious and vicious narco-terrorist
organization,” said Adam Szubin, director of the Treasury’s Office of
Foreign Assets Control.
Americans are prohibited from doing business with the individuals
and any assets they may have under U.S. jurisdiction have been frozen.
The Colombian government has been battling FARC for four decades and
U.S.-backed president Alvaro Uribe has intensified a crackdown on the
rebel group in recent years.
The U.S. State Department branded FARC as a foreign terrorist
organization in 1997, while President George W. Bush labeled it a
significant foreign narcotics trafficker in 2003. (Reuters)