President of Colombia Calls for International Cooperation to Capture Drug Traffickers
By Dialogo March 10, 2009
BOGOTA, March 9, 2009 (AFP) - On Monday Colombian President Alvaro Uribe sought the cooperation of the international community in arresting the kingpins of the illegal drug trade, including several heads of the FARC and ELN guerrilla organizations, some of whom are hidden in other countries. "We are asking for complete national and international cooperation. Some of these bandits are evading Colombian justice by hiding abroad, like the cowardly leaders of the ELN and the FARC," Uribe said in a statement from the government palace. The country needs the “support of the entire international community to overcome the terrible scourge of narco-terrorism, no matter which name it bears,” he added. According to Colombian authorities, both the leftist guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC, Marxist) and the National Liberation Army (ELN, Guevarist) and armed right-wing groups are partially financed by resources from illicit drug trafficking. According to press reports which cite information from the Colombian intelligence agency, nine FARC commanders are hiding in Venezuela and two in Ecuador. In his statement, Uribe offered a reward of up to 5,000 million pesos (USD 2 million) for these drug bosses: Daniel Rendón Herrera (alias ‘Don Diego’), Daniel Barrera Barrera (‘El loco Barrere’), Pedro Guerrero Castillo (‘Cuchillo’), and Luis Enrique Calle Serna (‘Comba’). The reward for other, less important drug traffickers is up to 3,000 million pesos (USD 1.2 million).
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