Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos on Saturday accused “some” protesters of receiving money from the country’s largest rebel group FARC.
Santos did so at a communal meeting in Bogota.
According to the President, “an email from Mono Jojoy himself” proves ties between the FARC and social protests held in the capital on July 20 when Colombia celebrated the 200th anniversary of its independence.
“The emails of Jojoy keep giving very good information, which is being analyzed by intelligence entities. But there was one that caught my attention and I want to share with you. It’s a mail by Jojoy himself to members of the secretariat. Therein in it proven how the FARC finance mobilizations of social protests,” the president said.
"Comrades of the Secretariat. A revolutionary greeting (this is the first of
july this year.) Firstly, I suggest to urgently sent $200 thousand to Bogota
that the Embo (Estado Mayor del Bloque Oriental) allocated for that of July
20 in Bogota ... With this food and other expenses are covered." .... This
money will be given to Ivan and he will pass us the bills. What is left we
keep as reserve for the expenses we need to continue to make for the
bicentennial. If there's not enough we will have to increase donations."
On July 20, some 5,000 protesters, mostly indigenous Colombians, took to the streets to protest a pact that allowed the U.S. military to use Colombian bases. Then-President Alvaro Uribe accused the protests of being infiltrated by the FARC.
“(Those accusations are) a way to deny grassroots groups the chance to express themselves, to tell the country what they really think about the past eight years and the participation of civil society in the bicentennial,” then-opposition Senator Piedad Cordoba, who participated in the march and was later banned from Congress for FARC ties, said in July.
Following the September bombing of the camp of the FARC’s military commander Mono Jojoy, the army found computers, hard disks and usb sticks that are being investigated by authorities.