Page 12 - ARUBA TODAY

A12 WORLD NEWS
Wednesday 28 June 2017
Colombia takes big step to peace as rebels lay down guns

By CHRISTINE ARMARIO plained about the state
Associated Press of the Mariana Paez de-
MESETAS, Colombia (AP) mobilization camp where
— Colombia reached a the ceremony was taking
major milestone on its road place. It was supposed to
to peace Tuesday as leftist contain concrete housing
rebels relinquished some of units with running water,
their last weapons and de- kitchens and electricity, but
clared an end to their half- instead has been likened to
century insurgency. a refugee camp with rebels
The historic step was taken living under plastic tarps.
as President Juan Manuel “The state of infrastructure
Santos traveled to this de- in this rural zone is the best
mobilization camp in Co- testimony of the slow pace
lombia’s eastern jungles to in which the national gov-
join guerrilla leaders as they ernment is fulfilling what we
begin their transition to ci- agreed to,” Londono said.
vilian life. Still, he and other rebels
In a short, symbol-filled showed no outward sign of
ceremony, United Nations regretting their decision to
observers shut and pad- abandon the battlefield.
locked the last containers Stefanía Rodriguez joined
storing some of the 7,132 the guerrillas a decade
weapons that members of ago at age 13.
the Revolutionary Armed She said she wanted an ed-
Forces of Colombia have Colombia’s President Juan Manuel Santos, left, shakes hands with Rodrigo Londono, also known ucation that her poor fam-
turned over the past few as Timochenko or Timoleón Jiménez, right, the top commander of the Revolutionary Armed ily couldn’t provide. Her
weeks at 26 camps across Forces of Colombia, FARC, during an act to commemorate the completion of the disarmament weapon, nicknamed Tas-
the country. process in Buenavista, Colombia, Tuesday, June, 27, 2017. The United Nations says it has mania after the Tasmanian
concluded the disarmament process for individual arms as part of a peace deal between FARC
Yellow butterflies were re- rebels and the government. Devil cartoon character,
leased and an AK-47 con- (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara) was a constant compan-
verted into an electric ion to the point she would
guitar rang out plaintive the U.N. on Monday certi- step closer to turning a cord, and opposition law- sleep with it during difficult
chords in honor of the long fied that all individual fire- page on Latin America’s makers are threatening to missions. “It was like our oth-
conflict’s victims. arms and weapons, except longest-running conflict, overturn key aspects of the er half,” she said. Handing
“By depositing the weap- for a small number needed which caused at least agreement if they win the it over was like losing part
ons in the U.N. containers, to safeguard the soon- 250,000 deaths, left 60,000 presidential election next of herself, she said. But with
the Colombians and the to-disband camps, have people missing and dis- year. the prospect of peace, she
entire world know that our been collected. placed more than 7 million. Rodrigo Londono, the has been reunited with her
peace is real and irrevers- “In a world convulsed by After years of thorny nego- FARC’s top commander, mother, who she hadn’t
ible,” Santos, winner of last old and new forms of vio- tiations, the rebels reached complained about the seen in seven years, and
year’s Nobel Peace Prize, lence, by conflicts whose an agreement with the bureaucratic, legal and now plans to study engi-
told an audience of for- protagonists appear ir- government last year to political “traps” in a sternly neering.
mer rebel fighters dressed reconcilable ... a success- give up their weapons and worded speech in which “The tragic experiences of
in white shirts with cuffed ful process constructing transition into a political he called on the govern- the past cannot be allowed
hands shaped in a heart peace in Colombia is also party. ment to live up to its end of to repeat themselves,” said
and a Spanish hashtag reason for hope and a But implementing the ac- the bargain and not simply Londono, who is better
reading “Our only weapon powerful example for the cord has been slow. The rejoice at seeing its former known by his alias, Timo-
are words.” international community,” initial deal was narrowly combat enemies disarmed. chenko. “Our motherland
Though hundreds of FARC said Jean Arnault, head of rejected in a national ref- He questioned why im- has learned from her pain
caches filled with larger the U.N. peace mission in erendum, congress has prisoned rebels who were and because Colombians
weapons and explosives Colombia. struggled to pass laws im- amnestied six months ago will not allow themselves to
are still being cleared out, The day put Colombia one plementing the revised ac- remain in jail and com- be cheated again.” q

Protests, looting, government offices burned in Venezuela

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) have also occurred in pro- Bertho blamed protesters Rodriguez, 18, had suffered a decision it later reversed
— A total of 68 stores were vincial cities. for the looting, but opposi- a bullet wound to the head amid a torrent of interna-
looted and several govern- The pro-Maduro governor tion activists say gangs of in another city in Aragua tional criticism. More re-
ment offices were burned of Aragua state, of which men on motorcycles looted state. And in protests in cently, the chamber threw
following anti-government Maracay is the capital, said without interference from Caracas Monday night, out challenges to Maduro’s
protests late Monday and the looting hit supermar- authorities. Such groups three members of the Na- much debated bid to re-
Tuesday in the city of Ma- kets, drug stores and small are often government tional Guard suffered bullet write the nation’s constitu-
racay, west of Venezuela’s bakeries and liquor stores. supporters. Seventy-five wounds during confronta- tion. Hundreds of thousands
capital of Caracas. Gov. Caryl Bertho said a people have been killed tions with protesters. The of demonstrators have tak-
Large protests against the tax office, a government nationwide during almost current wave of unrest was en to the streets demand-
government of President telephone office and ruling 90 days of protests seeking triggered in late March ing new elections as the
Nicolas Maduro have been party headquarters were Maduro’s removal. when the Supreme Court’s nation battles triple-digit in-
regularly held in Caracas burned late Monday. Federal prosecutors con- constitutional chamber is- flation, crippling food and
over the last three months, Some 216 people were ar- firmed that the leader of sued a sentence dissolv- medical shortages and ris-
but significant protests rested. an opposition party, Yofre ing the National Assembly, ing crime.q