Word: betancur
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...hear the far-off thunder of violent drums. We feel the winds of storms," warned Colombian President Belisario Betancur last week in a chilling speech to government ministers of his Latin American neighbors. His rousing rhetoric referred not to war or natural disaster but to something equally momentous: Latin America's $350 billion debt burden. Since the beginning of the year, the pressure on both the borrowers and the American banks that lent them much of the money has grown sharply. A 2% jump in interest rates has hit Latin countries with a potential increase of $5 billion...
Although President Belisario Betancur Cuartas has expressed confidence that the other armed movements will sign similar agreements, a recent rash of bombings, bank robberies and kidnapings suggests the contrary. These acts of violence are believed to be the work of other guerrilla groups that oppose the ceasefire. But F.A.R.C.'s second-in-command, Jacobo Arenas, remained firm. Said he: "We are going to give the President a little more strength by keeping our part of the peace bargain...
...being waged not only in the countryside, where marijuana and cocaine are grown and processed, but also inside Colombia's corrupt bureaucracy. After Lara's funeral, Betancur declared a nationwide state of emergency, giving the army a free hand to arrest suspects without a warrant and try them in military courts. Hundreds of people have been detained so far. About 400 judges accused of handling narcotics cases improperly will be removed, as well as 280 members of the national police force who have allegedly accepted bribes from the Colombian mafia...
...Betancur has agreed to a U.S. request for extradition of 23 narcotics suspects, many of them sought by authorities in Miami, which is becoming one of the world's major cocaine capitals. Most wanted by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is Carlos Lehder, 33, who has been indicted in Florida for cocaine importation and distribution. He is rumored to be in Peru...
...drug traders will be back in business. However, John Phelps, a U.S. drug-enforcement official in Colombia, believes that if the government's war on drug traffickers continues at its present pace, the mafia's ability to mass produce and distribute narcotics will be crippled. Certainly, President Betancur has much of the population behind his efforts to stamp out the drug trade. A Colombian woman may have best expressed the attitude of many toward the mafia. A few days ago she was seen in Bogotá looking at the cover of a weekly magazine showing the dead minister...