Colombian President Álvaro Uribe ordered the Armed Forces to intensify
the fight against leftist rebel groups like the FARC and ELN and drug
trafficking organizations.
The President, speaking before military personnel in South west Antioquia, told the to catch “all that is left of criminal gangs (…) and all that is left of the guerrillas.”
“We will pursue them all, until there is no one left,” Uribe added.
The president ordered military authorities to also persecute those guerrilla bosses who the government says are hiding abroad. “They dream that they will stay in impunity, because they are abroad, those bandits of the ELN or FARC,” he said.
In addition, the President called on the military to persecute the “paramilitary bandits” who have taken control over the country’s drug trafficking.
“Generals and colonel, these paramilitary bandits have returned, but this time not as paramilitaries. Colombia has recovered the monopoly of the State to fight criminals. This is a great achievement of the Democratic Security policy,” Uribe said.