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... stray rounds in the attack. Strength Approximately 9, 000 to 12, 000 armed combatants and several thousand more supporters, mostly in rural areas. Location/Area of Operation Colombia, with some activities-extortion, kidnapping, logistics, and R& R-in Venezuela, Panama, and Ecuador. External Aid Cuba provides some medical care and political consultation. A trial is currently underway in Bogota to determine whether three members of the Irish Republican Army-arrested in Colombia in 2001 upon exiting the FARC-controlled demilitarized zone (despite) -provided advanced explosives training to the FARC.
Although the FARC-controlled safe haven, or 'despite' -- which is situated between two of Colombia's largest coca cultivation areas -- is not considered a major area for coca cultivation or drug trafficking, many FARC units throughout southern Colombia raise funds through the extortion ('taxation') of both legal and illegal businesses, the latter including the drug trade. Some insurgent units raise funds through extortion or by protecting laboratory operations. In return for cash payments, or possibly in exchange for weapons, the insurgents protect cocaine laboratories in southern Colombia. Some FARC and ELN units are independently involved in limited cocaine laboratory operations. Some FARC units in southern Colombia are reported to be directly involved in drug trafficking activities, such as controlling local cocaine base markets. Activities Bombings, murder, mortar attacks, kidnapping, extortion, hijacking, as well as guerrilla and conventional military action against Colombian political, military, and economic targets.
In March 1999, the FARC executed three US Indian rights activists on Venezuelan territory after it kidnapped them in Colombia. Foreign citizens often are targets of FARC kidnapping for ransom. Although the Colombian government has given the FARC political status and has attempted to negotiate with this terrorist organization to stop the recruitment of minors, the FARC has refused. The Colombian government's Family Welfare Institute estimates that at least 30 percent of the FARC's fighters are younger than 18, compared to about 15 percent a decade ago. However, international and Colombia agencies that track the use of child fighters now think the FARC's numbers may be higher. During recent skirmishes between the Army and a FARC column, 32 of the 77 fighters captured by army troops were under 18 years old, and 19 of those were 15 and under.
Of the 46 FARC fighters who were killed in the skirmishes, 20 were children. The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) estimates that there were about 6, 000 minors serving in the FARC and AUC terrorist groups last year. The FARC broke off negotiations with the government in October 2001, protesting government security measures around the zone and military flights over the territory. On 12 January 2002, President Pastrana gave the FARC 48 hours to come up with a new proposal for talks, or, he said, he would abolish the safe zone he had granted them three years earlier as a condition for talks. Colombian army units took up positions around the zone and many people here feared a major escalation of the war was imminent.
That crisis was averted on 14 January 2002, when the FARC agreed to immediate talks, and dropped the complaint about government security measures. The resulting agreement on a timetable for talks represents the most significant advance toward peace in Colombia in nearly four decades of war. On 20 January 2002 representatives of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, signed an agreement with the government of President Andres Pastrana that sets a timetable for peace negotiations. Less than four hours before the deadline for an agreement set by President Pastrana was to expire, the rebels and government negotiators announced their timetable and plan for talks. The last-minute accord prevented what many feared would be an escalation of the 38 -year civil conflict.
The timetable included a number of target dates for completing discussions of such issues as a cease-fire, kidnappings and other action that harm civilians, and the dismantling of anti-rebel para-military groups. The timetable set 07 April 2002 as the deadline for reaching an accord on these issues. Capture of Rodrigo Granda in Venezuela-December 13, 2004 The FARC found itself in late 2004 in the middle of a growing diplomatic crisis between Colombia and Venezuela. On January 12, 2005 Colombia's defense minister acknowledged that the Colombian government had paid bounty hunters to seize Rodrigo Granda, a member of the FARC, from neighboring Venezuela. President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela subsequently described the capture, which occured on the streets of Caracas, as a violation of his country's sovereignty and demanded an explanation.
The Colombian government refused to divulge any information pertaining to the capture. For weeks the government had claimed the capture had occured in the Colombian border city of Cucuta. Any details relating to who was involved in the operation and how much they were paid is still unknown. A Venezuelan lawmaker, Luis Tascon, claimed that the amount was $ 1. 5 million-an amount the Colombian government later denied.
Defense Minister Jorge Alberto Uribe has asserted that Colombian agents were not involved, while a close ally of President Alvaro Uribe has claimed that 'Venezuelan agents' had carried out the operation. Adding to the mystery was the detainment of four Colombian officers in Venezuela just days before the capture. The four officers were suspected of taking photographs of military installations in the central city of Maracay, but were later released without being charged. In a January 14, 2005 communique, the Colombian government claimed 'The United Nations prohibits member nations to provide safe haven to terrorists in an "active or passive" manner... Mr. Granda participated in a Bolivarian Congress held in Caracas on December 8 and 9 of 2004, in representation of the FARC. ' Rodrigo Granda, a senior FARC member, was reportedly responsible for garnering international support for the FARC.
This, in sum, could be described as the source of the current conflict between Colombia and Venezuela. Colombia has often complained about the lack of cooperation from the Chavez government in cracking down on leftist rebels. On January 16, 2005 the Colombian government released this 9 -point statement: 1. The right of the people to be free of terrorists needs the efficient and resolute cooperation of all democratic governments. 2. Colombia pays rewards to informants who allow the capture of terrorists. It does not bribe.
Venezuela must present proof supporting the alleged bribe to government officials. 3. We cannot be cynically deceived by the FARC which presents the capture of kidnappers like kidnapping. 4. Colombia will present proof to the Venezuelan Government regarding the protection provided by officials of that country to Mr. Granda. The safe haven provided to terrorists violates the sovereignty of Colombia, an offended country, for it increases the risk of terror against its citizens. 5. Colombia does not accept that representatives of terrorist organizations be admitted in a political event sponsored by official Venezuelan institutions.
Political opposition is one thing, another very different one is terrorism. 6. With surprise it is read in the Foreign Affairs Office in Venezuela community'e, the intention of involving 4 Colombian police officers in the Granda case. The Venezuelan authorities timely new that it concerned another antinarcotic's operation. They were investigated and released. 7. Colombia has used the diplomatic and official channels.
What is demanded is that such channels operate in an efficient manner. Once again, information will be delivered to that Government concerning the presence of Colombian terrorists on Venezuelan soil. The name of 7 high ranking terrorist leaders and the location of various camps will be included 8. The will of the Colombian Government to work in harmony with the Government of Venezuela is reiterated and according to the procedure defined by the Offices of Foreign Affairs. 9. Terrorism cannot harm the unity of our nations. As of January 17, 2005, the crisis between the two countries continued.
President Hugo Chavez has agreed to meet with President Alvaro Uribe in a bilateral meeting. By the end of January 2005 the diplomatic standoff between the two countries appeared to be improving. On January 28 representatives from Colombia and Venezuela met in Lima, Peru. Craig Rosebraugh was the "press officer" for the terrorist Earth Liberation Front (ELF) when PETA gave ELF $ 1, 500. Rosebraugh stepped down from that position in September 2001, after a three-year stint as ELF's primary public face. A self-described "green anarchist, " Rosebraugh recently completed his Masters degree at the ultra-leftist Institute for Social Ecology, with a thesis entitled "Rethinking Nonviolence: Arguing for the Legitimacy of Armed Struggle. " In March 2003 Rosebraugh put his theories into action by writing an open letter urging fellow radicals to assault U.
S, military bases, financial centers and TV networks in a "by any means necessary" effort to counter a war in Iraq. Rosebraugh claims to have never participated in the crimes for which the ELF issues claims of responsibility, but law enforcement officers and prosecutors aren't so sure. Search warrants have been issued on more than one occasion for the apartment that he shares with James Leslie Pickering (who took over as ELF "spokesman" when Rosebraugh was subpoenaed). Rosebraugh has been hauled before numerous Grand Juries, usually refusing to answer questions related to what he knows about the eco-terrorists in his circle of friends.
In February 2002 Rosebraugh appeared before a Congressional subcommittee hearing on eco-terror issues. Predictably, he invoked the Fifth Amendment over 50 times, refusing even to acknowledge his name or citizenship. Outside the hearing room, however, Rosebraugh submitted a rambling written statement to Congress, in which he openly hoped that more criminal groups like the ELF, "using similar tactics and strategies, " would "be established to directly focus on... the U.
S. government itself. " Background Former "spokesperson, " Earth Liberation Front; founder, Liberation Collective; proprietor of a vegan bakery in Portland, OR; outspoken defender of ultra-violent environmental criminals
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