The FARC, Colombia’s largest rebel group, said Tuesday that it questions the government’s desire for peace after a report that a convert CIA program has helped kill at least a dozen of FARC and ELN members.
The report, published by the Washington Post in December, claimed that the US has contributed to the fight against the rebel groups through a multibillion-dollar ongoing program, which has supplied Colombia with real-time intelligence, a GPS guidance kit, smart bombs, and conventional bombs and missiles.
MORE: Covert CIA program helped kill 2 dozen FARC, ELN leaders: Report
The FARC statement said that the US aid “leaves many doubts in regards to the desire for peace of the Colombian state and its imperial master.”
Peace talks between the Colombian government and the FARC are continuing on December 13 after a temporary holiday break and will be concentrating on the issue of illicit crops in Colombia. Two preliminary agreement were reached last year on the issues of land and political participation.
However, complications could evolve at the negotiation table as the FARC has started to question the governments wish for an agreement. “When approaching the discussions in Havana on the issue of illicit crops, what is the real role of this oligarchy that had been awarded to traitors of the table and the peace process with the FARC, or a possible table with the ELN,” the FARC said in the statement.
The Washington Post also reported that the CIA had assisted Colombia in an operation carried out on Ecuadorean territory. It resulted in the killing of “Raul Reyes,” one of the main FARC leaders. The operation led to diplomatic complications between Colombia, Ecuador and other South American countries, because the attack against the FARC camp occurred on Ecuador soil without permission from Quito.
In the statement, the FARC claimed that the attack was an “aggression of the Colombian military against the sovereignty of Ecuador” and questions the legal justifications of the operation, “these crimes are perpetrated, while exposing the wickedness of American law schools that all these theories are cooked very new laws, which are responsible for legitimizing terror as a respectable method of political action.”
National security lawyers from the US concluded that the case was an act of self-defense, according to the report by the The Washington Post.
When asked to comment on the topic of US involvement Santos told The Washington Post that “part of the expertise and the efficiency of our operations and our special operations have been the product of better training and knowledge we have acquired from many countries, among them the United States.”
“The interests represented by the government of the United States is one of the main triggers and entertainers who endure the long war Colombians,” the FARC added citing the comment made by Santos.
“Which confirms our idea that a true peace in our country can only be achieved with the massive and decisive participation of the millions of victims of this regime,” the FARC statement concluded.
Sources
- En torno al informe del Washington Post (FARC-EP)
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Ayuda de la CIA al Gobierno deja dudas sobre voluntad de paz: Farc (Caracol Radio)
- Covert action in Colombia (The Washington Post)