Latin America: Colombia's FARC Guerrillas Say End Drug Prohibition
In a communiqué sent this week to the New Colombia News Agency (ANNCOL), Colombia's leftist rebels the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) called for the worldwide legalization of the drug trade to put an end to black market drug trafficking and its associated profits. The unusual communiqué also carried a FARC denial that it owned coca fields in the southern Colombia's Macarena Mountains.
"FARC neither sows, nor owns, nor processes, nor transports nor commercializes any kind of narcotic substance or psychotropic product," said the communiqué from the guerrillas' highest decision-making body, the Secretariat.
The Colombian and US governments have accused the FARC of profiting from the coca and cocaine trade, but it is unclear what this means in practice. Some reports have said that the FARC's involvement is limited to taxing the crops and the trade.
Colombian media had recently alleged that the FARC owned some 7,000 acres of coca fields in the Macarena National Park, thus apparently sparking the FARC's denial. According to the long-lived guerrilla group, the coca fields are owned and worked by thousands of peasants who have no other way of making a living.
While the FARC has called for sustainable coca eradication programs in the past, it seemed to be singing a different tune this week. "We are convinced that the battle against the cancer of narco-trafficking con only be won definitively by elaborating a global strategy that includes the legalization of these products, because this will put an end to fabulous profits that they generate," the statement said.
digg
redditMurderers
Comment posted by Anonymous on Sat, 10/10/2009 - 7:51pmFARC Freedom Fighters? What freedom are they fighting for? A Marxist/Communist type govt. that their pal Chavez has force fed the good people of Venezuela? I've been in their shoes since i've personally seen the damage caused by these criminals while living in Cali, Colombia. Pues no me digas no estan criminales, they are the WORST type since they bomb and take hostage the innocent people of my beautiful country.
FARC show what they are.
Comment posted by Anonymous on Mon, 09/18/2006 - 3:17pmA terrorist gang that produces and trades drugs to the benefit of their masters.
The worst kind of criminal predators.
study history before making accusations
Comment posted by Anonymous on Mon, 09/18/2006 - 4:12pmOne look into Latin American history shows that the FARC just like the Sandinistas and The FLMN are scapegoats. They are being demonized by our media, oddly enough their media is either owned by The US or the State. To call the FARC criminal predators is just out and out false. What most people don't know is that the US supported ACU is the backbone behind the colombian drug ring, just like the contras of the Reagan years. Read more history and you can, even if you don't want to, learn something.
I agree
Comment posted by Anonymous on Thu, 07/03/2008 - 1:27pmThank you anonymous for clarifying how our media demonizes these groups and calls them terrorist, hum who really are the terrorist!
It’s so ironic to me how this entire country thinks of these peasant people and terrorist. People, people, if you saw the living conditions of these so called terrorist, you would understand why they go against their government. Please travel, and understand what hardships are out there before making these obscured assumptions on Latin American countries! We should applaud them for standing up for what they really believe in, unlike us here in the US where we are controlled like puppets and we don't even know it.
Dig a little deeper
Comment posted by Anonymous on Mon, 10/27/2008 - 3:07amYes, the US-backed "democracy" in Columbia is guilty of many crimes and the death squads are responsible for more deaths but you can hardly consider FARC a few altruistic peasants fighting for freedom. They are guilty of kidnapping and killing hostages among other crimes. This has been reported by international media...not just the US media. We love to romanticize the underdog fighting for freedom. Poor living conditions do not justify the kidnapping and murdering of US citizens...
FARC needs to be Annialated for the good of the world
Comment posted by Anonymous on Sun, 01/25/2009 - 11:11pmAnyone associated with FARC must die, they are terrorists, the drugs, kidnappings killings, have destroyed countless lives. They disrupt Pan American trade, peace and lawfulness, they hold Columbia and its citizens hostage and have spread violence into neighbouring countries, they propagate environmental disasters. There is nothing good from FARC. I am not an American but I support anything United States and the Columbia government does to kill these people.
Applaud the FARC?
Comment posted by Anonymous on Thu, 04/16/2009 - 11:41amI'm sorry but you don't know what's going on over there. I've lived in Colombia and seen the terror hold they have over the people of that country. Perhaps they started out with good intentions to bring reform to the government, but they've become corrupted when their focus shifted away from reform and moved to making money off of drug trafficking and kidnapping. When you kidnap innocent people and hold them ransom to fund your war you've become a terrorist. The FARC need to be stopped.
The Power of Money
Comment posted by Anonymous on Sat, 09/16/2006 - 1:10pmWhat would you do, Mr. & Mrs. America if you had a choice of producing a commodity in high demand for the richest country in the world, or watching your children starve because that same country says you should produce peanuts? For damn near free? Isn't that what the freakin "American Dream" is all about? Put yourselves in their shoes for just a moment.
And what about those guerrillas? One man's insurgent is another man's freedom fighter. Watch and see if history doesn't prove that the real criminals are in Washington DC!