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FARC Slams Upcoming Visit to Colombia by US Secretary of State
Colombia's largest rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), on Thursday slammed US Secretary of State Colin Powell's upcoming visit to Colombia as a sign of the US military intervention in Colombia (LATIN AMERICA?).
Powell is scheduled to tour Colombia on September 11-12 after visiting Peru for the General Assembly of the Organization of American States.
"We reject this visit precisely because Mr. Powell is a representative of the most militaristic sector of the U.S. administration," the peace negotiator of the FARC, Andres Paris, was quoted by the press as saying.
He charged U.S. pilots with participating in an air offensive launched by the Colombian military against the rebel group in southeastern Colombia.
Paris said the FARC had observed with great concern the growing U.S. military presence in Colombia, a development that he dubbed an "open violation of national sovereignty."
Washington is the main backer of the multibillion-dollar Plan Colombia which aims at eradicating the production of cocaine in the country.
The FARC, the oldest and most powerful rebel group in Colombia, is mainly funded by the cocaine trade.
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