Page 12 - ARUBA TODAY

A12 WORLD NEWS
Wednesday 18 april 2018

Dissident rebels kidnap 2 more along Ecuador-Colombia border

QUITO, Ecuador (AP) — Ec- the same splinter faction retrain peasants to grow al-
uadorean authorities said of the demobilized Revo- ternative, legal crops.
Tuesday that a dissident lutionary Armed Forces of A number of criminal gangs,
rebel group has kidnapped Colombia, known as the some of them made up of
two more people in the FARC, that the government former FARC rebels whose
same conflictive border says killed the employees only marketable skill is firing
area where three press of El Comercio newspaper a gun, have rushed to fill
workers taken hostage by three weeks after taking the void and profit from a
the group were killed last them hostage. boom in cocaine produc-
week. Authorities showed a Ecuadorean security forces tion. Among them is Arizala,
proof-of-life video in which backed by their Colom- a former mid-range com-
a man and woman tied at bian counterparts have mander who Colombian
their necks with rope beg been carrying out an un- authorities say leads a few
President Lenin Moreno precedented manhunt for dozen soldiers.
to meet their captors’ de- the group’s leader, Walter Black ribbon banners representing seven people who were Even as news of the latest
mands so that they don’t Arizala, better known by his killed by a dissident rebel group on the border of Ecuador kidnapping sank in, authori-
suffer the same fate as the alias Guacho, and have of- with Colombia, hang outside the government palace in Quito, ties were still struggling to
journalists. “Mr. President, fered more than $230,000 Ecuador, Tuesday, April 17, 2018. recover the bodies of the
please help us, give us a reward for information Associated Press three press workers whose
hand, so the same thing leading to his capture. U.S. Four soldiers have been protect themselves with murder shocked Ecuador-
doesn’t happen to us as it The holdout faction of the killed in the attacks, and human shields to blackmail eans long accustomed to
did the journalists,” the man FARC has been terrorizing dozens more injured. the Ecuadorean people seeing themselves as insu-
said in the video flanked residents along the border In a proof-of-life video of and steal our peace.” lated from drug violence
by two camouflaged men area, carrying out several the journalists sent by the The FARC funded its insur- raging across the border.
with assault weapons and attacks on Ecuadorean mil- Oliver Sinisterra Front, the gency by taxing cocaine On Monday, the captors
their backs facing the cam- itary targets in retaliation for captors demand Ecuador moving through large said in a statement that
era. “We have kids, and Moreno’s decision to com- release several of its com- swathes of the jungle it they were halting the han-
family. ... We have nothing bat drug gangs that have batants and end all anti- dominated during its half- dover to the International
to do with this war.” made the long-neglected narcotics cooperation with century war on the state. Committee of the Red
Navas appealed to his area a major transit zone Colombia. It’s not clear But as part of a 2016 peace Cross because of military
compatriots to help iden- for Colombian-produced if those are the same de- deal some 7,000 rebel fight- actions against them.
tify the two captives, who cocaine making its way by mands the new captives er turned over their weap- “We are not going to al-
identify themselves as Ec- boat up the Pacific Ocean referred to in the newest ons, vowing to abandon low terror to take root in our
uadoreans in the video. coastline to Central Ameri- video. “These are cow- the drug trade and help homeland,” Moreno said
He said they were held by ca and then by land to the ards,” said Navas. “They Colombia’s government Monday.q
Venezuela arrests 2 Chevron employees amid corruption purge

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) taken into custody Mon- giant PDVSA in a bid to root tied to the illegal manipula- Venezuela after Chavez
— Chevron Corp. said Tues- day. Chevron said it con- out corruption in the OPEC tion of production figures. raised royalties and seized
day that two of its Venezu- tacted authorities to under- nation’s oil industry. The latest arrests are be- assets to boost the state’s
ela-based employees were stand the reasons behind As part of the anti-corrup- lieved to be the first involv- control of the oil industry.
arrested by local authori- the detention and ensure tion drive, prosecutors in ing a private oil company’s As the economy has spun
ties, in what appeared to its employees’ safety and January ordered or carried direct employees, a major out of control amid hyper-
be the first such detentions well-being. out the arrest of the gener- escalation in the crack- inflation, oil has become
of a private oil company’s In recent months, President al manager and other top down that could frighten an even more important fi-
workers amid a growing Nicolas Maduro has been managers at Petropiar SA, other foreign investors who nancial crutch for President
anti-corruption purge. steadily handing control the PDVSA-Chevron joint thought they had learned Nicolsa Maduro’s bank-
It was not clear what led of the nation’s oil industry venture operating in the how to navigate Venezu- rupt socialist government,
to the arrests. A statement to the military as a reward so-called Hugo Chavez oil ela’s turbulent policy envi- which has resorted to issu-
from the San Ramon, Cal- for its loyalty while authori- belt sitting atop the world’s ronment, analysts said. ing IOUs to vendors in order
ifornia-based company ties have arrested dozens largest crude reserves. They Chevron is the largest of to stockpile what little hard
provided no details except of Venezuelan officials or were charged with embez- only a handful of U.S. oil currency continues to trick-
to say the employees were employees at the state oil zlement and conspiracy companies that stayed in le in from oil exports.q