Free Republic

The National Liberation Army (ELN) was born in the aftermath of the victory of Fidel Castro and Ernesto "Che" Guevara in Cuba and its first cadres trained under them before launching their guerrilla war in Colombia in 1964. Today the 4,000-strong rebel army, with its ally and larger cousin the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc), controls 40 per cent of the country. Unlike the Farc, the ELN is strapped for cash and relies on kidnapping to gather funds necessary to continue its 40-year revolutionary war. In the past three years the ELN has kidnapped more than 2,500 people, many...

At least 40 people were killed in rural Colombia after Marxist rebels launched an attack against right-wing paramilitary outlaws who are holding peace talks with the government, police said on Wednesday. It was one of the heaviest death tolls in months among illegal armed groups fighting in Colombia's four-decade war. The clashes took place on Tuesday near the village of San Pablo, 200 miles (320 km) north of the capital when leftist rebels from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia and the smaller National Liberation Army attacked a camp of right-wing paramilitaries. Paramilitaries, vigilante groups which target rebels and often...

An estimated 11,000 Colombian children are celebrating Christmas among the country's guerrilla forces, says a report by Human Rights Watch. Girls and boys as young as 12 are forced to conduct executions, engage in combat operations, assemble anti-personnel mines or become concubines of middle-aged commanders in what is one of the most tragic side dramas of South America's longest-running civil conflict. The two-year study based on interviews with more than 100 minors who have surrendered to authorities or been captured by Colombia's security services concludes that one out of every four guerrilla fighters is under the age of 18. Despite...

Colombian rebels who kidnapped seven foreign backpackers in September have hailed it as a propaganda victory and said they aim to free their remaining five young hostages soon. "This has been one of the best political operations we have carried out for years in the northern coast of Colombia," said Dairo Martinez, a local commander of the National Liberation Army, or ELN, in an interview with Reuters in the Sierra Nevada mountains. His face covered by a red-and-black ELN bandanna, Martinez spoke to Reuters on Monday, soon after rebels freed Reinhilt Weigel, who is German, and Spaniard Asier Huegun. Because...

MEDELLIN, Colombia -- Hundreds of right-wing militia fighters surrendered their guns Tuesday in a ceremony heralded by the government as a step toward peace but denounced by critics as a show that lets killers, kidnappers and drug peddlers off the hook. Gathered inside Medellin's convention center, the 855 members of the Cacique Nutibara bloc sang the national anthem, then laid their rifles, ammunition belts and camouflage shirts in piles on the floor. Government peace commissioner Luis Carlos Restrepo called the disarmament a significant move toward finally ending Colombia's four-decade war. But Wende Gozan of Amnesty International in New York said...

The second-largest rebel group in Colombia said Monday it was holding seven foreign backpackers kidnapped this month from an archaeological site in the mountains. It was the first claim of responsibility for the abduction. The National Liberation Army, known as the ELN, did not make any demands in its statement, but said it was open to negotiations "to find a solution." The group, which along with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, has been battling the Colombian government for four decades, also condemned the military operation under way to hunt for the kidnapped tourists. It warned President Alvaro...

BOGOTÁ, Colombia, Sept. 14 - President Álvaro Uribe, who enjoys strong public support for vowing to bring order to Colombia, is proposing a law that would effectively grant impunity to right-wing death squads that lay down their arms. Many Colombians support Mr. Uribe, whose approval rating is 65 percent, because of his reputation as an uncompromising wartime president determined to win Colombia's 39-year conflict. But his legislation, backed by the Bush administration, faces serious objections from even his allies. It is Mr. Uribe's first significant political challenge since taking office 13 months ago. The proposed law would allow militiamen from...

BOGOTÁ, COLOMBIA - Just as momentum is building for President Alvaro Uribe's push to end Colombia's four-decade civil war, the country's two main leftist rebel groups have renewed their efforts to stop him. The 17,000-member Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the 5,000-member National Liberation Army (ELN) publicly declared on Monday that they had joined forces in their war against the government. Until the declaration, the ELN was thought to be amenable to a possible peace deal. The declaration comes at a time when Mr. Uribe is engaged in peace talks with right-wing paramilitaries and has proposed granting alternative...

BOGOTA, Colombia -- At least six people were killed, including a 6-year-old boy, and 28 more wounded Sunday when two bombs ripped through a crowded riverboat in central Colombia, the army said. Clashes erupted between anti-government rebels and troops who arrived to rescue the injured. Authorities blamed the attack on rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, also known as FARC, a Marxist peasant army that has been fighting the government for four decades. Meanwhile, rebel sources said Colombia's two leftist rebel groups have agreed to form a military alliance and will step up attacks against the government of...

Joint Chiefs Chairman Air Force Gen. Richard B. Myers began a three-day visit to South and Central American Aug. 11 by highlighting the successes leaders here have achieved in the war on terrorism. While in Colombia the chairman will meet with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, who celebrated a year in office Aug. 7. Uribe has aggressively sought to re-establish the government in rebel-held areas and has pursued three narcoterrorist factions. The chairman will also meet with Defense Minister Martha Lucia Ramerez and Gen. Jorge Mora, the Colombian Chief of Defense. The relationship between the United States and Colombia has changed....

Venezuela No Longer a Reliable Oil Partner April 3, 2003: It seems that the basis of Venezuelan-U.S. relations, oil and democracy, has faded with the promise of oil in Iraq. The plea for democratic reforms in Venezuela has not been enough for an increased presence of the U.S. The U.S. has been careful in mediating the stalled negotiations between the opposition and the government. The opposition calls for a constitutional amendment that would reduce the president’s and Congress’s term from six to four years, and the government has promised only to accept a referendum on the president’s tenure, doomed to...

The Workers World Party, predominant in “anti-war” protests, and the Leftist Allegiance with Iraq and Islamic Terrorists On 11 February, 2003, a massive car bomb blew up in a Bogota, Colombia, night club that tore threw bodies of 162 people, the bomb technicians from the US Bureaus of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (working under agreement with Colombian authorities) at work at the scene and the government has accused FARC communist rebels of planting it. The Colombian government, already weak and threatened by the cocaine drug cartels, faces two Left-wing groups which are openly supported in Europe and USA by the...

Marxist Mayhem in Colombia Jan. 31: One of the three main terrorist groups operating in Colombia, Cuban-inspired National Liberation Army (ELN), kidnapped Ruth Morris and Scott Dalton, L.A. Times journalists on assignment in the eastern province of Arauca. ELN announced Tuesday that the two would be freed only after International Red Cross and other amnesty organizations gave due attention to their version of the facts. Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, however, refused today to meet the Marxists' demands to halt military offensives during the handoff. Foreign reporters used to work under tacit protection by the terrorist groups allowing them to freely...

More Facts Uncovered in Chavez - Al Qaeda Collaboration Major Juan Diaz Castillo:Planned $1M support forAl Qaeda, then defected By Luis Garcia, in Miami Whistle-blower Major Juan Diaz Castillo, pilot of the Venezuelan Airforce One, revealed more details of how president Hugo Chavez supported Al Qaeda in the aftermath of 9/11. In statements to the press in Miami Saturday, the defector shed new light on the terrorist support network recently uncovered in the highest level of the Venezuelan government. Major Juan Diaz Castillo, Chavez's personal pilot, was assigned the job of planning the delivery of the $1 million collaboration to...

"Iran and Cuba, in cooperation with each other, can bring America to its knees. The U.S. regime is very weak, and we are witnessing this weakness from close up." Fidel Castro, during his tour of Iran, Syria and Libya. Agence France Press, May 10, 2001 CASTRO AND TERRORISM, A CHRONOLOY by Eugene Pons with a foreword by Jaime Suchlicki Institute for Cuban &Cuban-American Studies Occasional Paper Series September 2001 FOREWORD Since 1948 when, as a young student, Fidel Castro participated in the violence that rocked Colombian society and distributed anti-U.S. propaganda, he has been guided by two objectives: a commitment ...