Page 12 - ARUBA TODAY

A12 WORLD NEWS
Tuesday 5 sepTember 2017
Colombia signs cease-fire deal with last guerrilla group Official: fugitive

elections next year. Italian mobster
But negotiations with the held in Uruguay
more ideological and less
centralized ELN have been By F. D’EMILIO
slower since exploratory Associated Press
talks began more than ROME (AP) — A top crime
three years ago. syndicate boss convicted
Unlike the FARC, which fi- of drug trafficking and on
nanced itself through in- the run from Italy since 1994
volvement in Colombia’s has been arrested in Uru-
flourishing drug trade, the guay, where he was living
ELN funds its insurgency in a luxury villa in a seaside
mainly through kidnap- resort town under an alias
pings and extortion. and using a false Brazilian
Until now it has refused to passport, authorities said
abandon those practices, Monday. Reggio Calabria
earning the enmity of many Chief Prosecutor Federico
Colombians who want San- Cafiero de Raho said Roc-
tos to take a tougher line in co Morabito played a big
talks than he did with the role in cocaine trafficking
FARC. between South America
Ecuador’s Foreign Minister Fernanda Espinosa stands between ELN rebel leader Pablo Beltran, “The priority is protect- and Milan, a distribution
right, and Colombia’s government representative Juan Camilo Restrepo at the end of a press ing citizens,” Santos said. point for the drug to be
conference announcing the signing of a cease-fire in Quito, Ecuador, Monday, Sept. 4, 2017. “That’s why during this pe- sold elsewhere. Morabito
(AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa) riod the kidnappings, at- was described as a key fig-
By JOSHUA GOODMAN ers who have recently agreement that kicked off tacks on oil pipelines and ure in the Calabria-based
Associated Press come under attack and peace talks with the FARC, other hostilities against ‘ndrangheta mob, one
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) develop a program that “historic.” the civilian population will of the world’s biggest co-
— Colombia’s government would provide humanitar- “This is the first agreement of cease.” caine traffickers.
and last remaining major ian aid to rebels, among this nature that the govern- Labeled a terrorist group by Interior Minister Marco Min-
rebel group signed a bi- other measures. ment has signed with this both the United States and niti said Morabito has been
lateral cease-fire Monday Reconciliation is expected guerrilla group in more than the European Union, the convicted of mafia associ-
ahead of Pope Francis’ visit to be a central theme of 50 years,” Juan Camilo Re- ELN has also stepped up its ation and drug trafficking.
this week, an agreement the trip by Francis, who has strepo said in a statement. attacks on Colombia’s en- Morabito must serve 30
seen as a significant step lobbied for an end to Co- “And it constitutes the first ergy infrastructure this year. years in Italian prison. Ital-
toward negotiating a per- lombia’s decades-old civil step toward advancing a Last week state-run oil com- ian state radio said Morabi-
manent peace deal. conflict and who is fulfilling definitive peace.” pany Ecopetrol was forced to, 51, was arrested Sunday
The deal struck in Quito, Ec- a promise to visit if peace Over five decades of con- to close the country’s sec- in a Montevideo hotel, but
uador, where talks with the was made with the much flict involving the two rebel ond-largest pipeline after lived in a villa with its own
National Liberation Army, larger Revolutionary Armed movements, the army and it was blasted by a bomb, swimming pool in Punta
or ELN, have been taking Forces of Colombia, or right-wing paramilitary dumping crude into an ad- del Este. Police in Uruguay
place since February, goes FARC. groups have resulted in jacent watershed. It was said they confiscated a 9
into effect Oct. 1. It runs “The pope is arriving amid more than 260,000 deaths, the 43rd attack this year mm gun, 13 cell phones
through Jan. 12 and can a unique moment in our the disappearance of tens against the Cano Limon- and $54,000 (about 45,000
be renewed if both sides history, as we turn the of thousands of people Covenas pipeline. euros) in cash from his villa.
agree. page on an absurd con- and the displacement of 6 The ELN, whose founders Also confiscated was a lux-
Under the cease-fire, the flict and look to the future million. included radical Roman ury Mercedes coupe.
rebels agree to suspend at- with hope,” President Juan Under the earlier deal be- Catholic priests, is believed Media reports said that
tacks on infrastructure, kid- Manuel Santos said Mon- tween the government to have about 1,500 active until a few months ago,
nappings and recruitment day in a televised address. and the FARC, the group fighters. investigators had concen-
of minors. The government’s chief ne- has turned over its weap- The cease-fire will be veri- trated their manhunt in
In exchange the govern- gotiator called the cease- ons and is in the process of fied by independent ob- Brazil. But one of his chil-
ment has vowed to boost fire, signed five years to reorganizing as a political servers, the United Nations dren was recently regis-
protection for social lead- the date after a framework movement to compete in and the Catholic Church.q tered for school in Uruguay

with Morabito’s real name
Guatemala: instead of an alias, shifting
the focus of the hunt for
Request to lift president’s immunity to proceed him to that country, Italian
news reports said. Police
in Uruguay said Morabito
GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — tions have targeted several the immunity of office that tor Thelma Adana and Ivan has a wife there, who was
Guatemala’s Supreme political parties including Morales enjoys as president Velasquez, the head of a briefly detained, and who
Court issued a ruling Mon- his National Convergence to be lifted, 105 of the 158 U.N. anti-corruption com- has a Portuguese passport
day allowing a request to lift Front. “There appears to be deputies would have to mission operating in Gua- stating Angola as her birth-
President Jimmy Morales’ sufficient evidence to allow vote in favor. Prosecutors al- temala, announced they place. Prosecutors have
immunity from prosecution the transfer of the case to lege that about $825,000 in were seeking to have Mo- said the ‘ndrangheta tries
to go before lawmakers for congress,” Supreme Court financing for Morales’ cam- rales’ immunity withdrawn. to ensure its cocaine deals
final consideration. spokesman Angel Pineda paign was hidden and that Two days later the presi- with drug cartels are car-
The court’s decision on the said. Congress must now other expenditures had dent ordered Velasquez’s ried out to its satisfaction
request from prosecutors is form a five-member com- no explainable source of immediate expulsion from by having its own top boss-
related to allegations of il- mittee to examine the funding. The president has the country, but that was es live in South American
legal financing for Morales’ case and present its con- denied any wrongdoing. swiftly overturned by the so they can be closer to
2015 campaign. Investiga- clusion to the full body. For Last month chief prosecu- Constitutional Court.q the producers.q