Colombia rebels leader open to talks

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Reuters

Thursday August 13, 2009
Colombia rebels leader open to talks

BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombia's FARC rebels are open to negotiations with the government if they get guarantees for safe conditions for talks, the top guerrilla commander said in an interview released on Wednesday.

Alfonso Cano, who took over the FARC leadership more than a year ago, told the local Cambio magazine the rebels were open to negotiating to end the four-decade-old conflict, but gave no details on what guarantees he wanted.

President Alvaro Uribe's U.S.-backed security campaign has battered the FARC to its weakest in years. Guerrillas have been driven into remote areas and violence has eased. But talks to end Latin America's oldest insurgency still appear remote.

"What will determine this will be the official guarantees for a meeting between the government and the FARC to clear any danger and tension among participants and improve conditions for talks," Cano said in a e-mailed response to questions sent by the magazine.

"We have to talk, to have dialogue and that means space and guarantees," he said in the rare interview. But he wrote there was no contact with Uribe's government, which has received hundreds of millions in U.S. aid to counter rebels and drug trafficking that makes Colombia the world's No. 1 cocaine exporter.



Read more: http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/8/13/worldupdates/2009-08-13T101807Z_01_NOOTR_RTRMDNC_0_-417321-1&sec=Worldupdates

[Judi Lynn]

1. Bad timing, since Colombia can't afford to lose the war, meaning lose the opportunity to FIGHT a war

since the war itself is Colombia's meal ticket, the only key it has to US taxpayers' beneficence coming to Colombia at more than $500,000,000.00 per YEAR, making Colombia the THIRD LARGEST FOREIGN AID RECIPIENT IN THE WORLD.

Maybe some other time, FARCs.

[AlphaCentauri]

2. We'll see if Uribe really care for his country

He could go to the history books as the president who accomplish peace for his country if he wish.