Colombia: USA want to remove farc guerrillas from terrorist list

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For a long time, the Farc guerrilla group controlled parts of Colombia.

Soldiers are now patrolling the state

Photo: JOAQUIN SARMIENTO / AFP

The US will remove the former Colombian guerrilla organization Farc from its black list of foreign terrorist organizations.

The US government had informed Congress about the planned step, it said from congress circles on Tuesday.

The US State Department spokesman, Ned Price, did not confirm the plan.

All he said was that the government had informed Congress of "impending action" on the FARC.

A peace agreement has been in place for five years

Wednesday is the fifth anniversary of the peace agreement with the Farc rebels.

The South American country has suffered armed conflict between the armed forces, left-wing guerrilla groups and right-wing paramilitaries for over 50 years.

The decades-long conflict claimed the lives of over 220,000 people, most of them civilians.

The FARC financed itself for a long time, among other things, through the drug trade and ransom payments.

At the end of 2016, most of their around 13,000 fighters laid down their weapons as part of the peace agreement.

In the meantime the movement has turned into a party.

However, not all parts of the former guerrilla force are behind the realignment.

In some regions of Colombia, rebel groups are apparently again forming for armed struggle.

Price described the signing of the peace agreement five years ago as a “decisive turning point in the longstanding Colombian conflict”. Washington put the Farc on the terror list in 1997. The listing enables, among other things, financial sanctions against groups or individuals.

Colombia continues to grapple with its civil war past.

With the »Special Justice for Peace« (JEP), the country has an instance that is supposed to come to terms with the crimes of the parties that have been involved in the armed conflict in Colombia for decades.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague has therefore closed preliminary investigations into alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Colombia after 17 years.

The country's judiciary had made progress and the Colombian authorities were "neither inactive, unwilling or unable" to prosecute possible crimes themselves.

muk / AFP