Word: farces
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...however, crushing the drug cartels means taking on the FARC as well as guerrillas of the leftist National Liberation Army (ELN) and their foes, the right-wing paramilitaries. Until five years ago, these rebels were happy to charge drug producers a protection "tax." But according to McCaffery, both the rebels and their paramilitary rivals are moving directly into the trade. Using the profits--and yearly payoffs from the drug lords, which, according to McCaffery, run anywhere from $250 million to $600 million--the FARC and the ELN rebels have conquered nearly 40% of the country and inflicted one defeat after...
...police commandos in antidrug warfare--combat skills that the Colombians use to battle the rebels across the board. Under U.S. law the advisers are forbidden to join the Colombian police on raids, but already their presence has rattled the leftist rebels known as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). If the U.S. "intervenes further in Colombia," FARC leaders said last week, "its troops will go home dead or wounded...
Already the U.S. is passing intelligence about FARC activities to Colombia's top military officers. And U.S. planes, based in Florida, Colombia, Ecuador and Honduras, have flown more than 2,000 counter-drug missions. Many of those were reconnaissance flights similar to the one that crashed southeast of Bogota on July 21, killing its American crew and two Colombian officers. The efforts are backed by a $289 million annual aid package. (Colombia is the third largest recipient of U.S. largesse, behind Israel and Egypt...
...begin wide-scale planting of coca and heroin. Data from U.S. satellites indicate "an explosion" of drug growth inside Colombia over the next couple of years, McCaffery says, and that means more arms and money for the guerrillas. "What we're seeing," the general asserts, "is that when the FARC now wants to ambush a police station, they'll go in with rockets, mortars...
...Colombian rebels who once promised to execute those responsible for the slaying of three U.S. citizens near the Venezuelan border seem unlikely to punish the real killers. A spokesman for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) claimed at the time that the three U.S. humanitarian workers--Terence Freitas, 24, from California; Lahe'ena'e Gay, 39, from Hawaii; and Ingrid Washinawatok, 41, from Wisconsin--were abducted and killed by a local squad leader acting without higher orders. Their bullet-riddled bodies were discovered March 4. But Colombian military intelligence intercepted a radio conversation between the squad leader...