Page 12 - ARUBA TODAY

A12 WORLD NEWS
Tuesday 30 January 2018
Ex-guerrilla launches historic presidential bid in Colombia

By CHRISTINE ARMARIO didates include ex-guer-
Associated Press rillas who have been con-
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — victed in Colombian courts
Former guerrilla leader Ro- for their part in massacres
drigo Londono was once and kidnappings and
one of Colombia’s most- whose new role as politi-
wanted men. Now he is a cians has irked many Co-
presidential contender. lombians.
The graying, spectacled The U.S. State Department
man best known by his alias has offered a $5 million
Timochenko launched his reward for anyone who
bid Saturday to lead the helps secure Timochenko’s
government he once bat- capture and accused him
tled from the jungle with of directing the FARC’s co-
a celebratory campaign caine trafficking and “the
kickoff featuring giant murders of hundreds of
posters, colorful confetti people.”
and even a catchy jingle. The budding politicians
“I promise to lead a gov- will still have to go before
ernment that propels the a special peace tribunal,
birth of a new Colombia,” but so long as they fully
he said. “A government confess their crimes they
that at last represents the are unlikely to serve any jail
interests of the poor.” Former rebel leader Rodrigo Londono, known as Timochenko, salutes at an event to present time.Formed in the 1960s
Breaking with the tradition- candidates running for Congress for the political party formed by former guerrillas of the and inspired by Marxist
al campaign launch from Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, FARC, in Bogota, Colombia, Saturday, Jan. 27, 2018. principles, the ex-combat-
a five-star Bogota hotel, Forces of Colombia into a FARC congressional can- same region injured seven ants are vowing to tackle
Timochenko initiated his political party following the didate in northwestern Co- people, police said. And Colombia’s entrenched
presidential bid from one signing of a 2016 peace lombia. In total, 45 former two officers died in yet an- inequalities, though their
of the city’s poorest, most accord ending more than FARC members or their other bombing Saturday, initial proposals haven’t
crime ridden neighbor- a half-century of conflict. relatives have been re- well to the south in a region been as radical as many
hoods in a clear nod to The nation’s once-largest ported killed, according to where a different, smaller of the country’s conserva-
the underprivileged class rebel group is now known a recent government re- rebel group is active. tives have warned. In com-
whose votes the ex-com- as the Common Alterna- port. Many fear a repeat of While police said the Bar- munity meetings and ads
batants are hoping to win. tive Revolutionary Force, events in the 1980s, when ranquilla attack was likely leading up to the launch,
Hundreds gathered in the keeping its Spanish FARC scores of leftist politicians due to a local criminal candidates have talked
parking lot of a commu- acronym, and presenting affiliated with the Patriotic gang, it underscored secu- about creating a subway
nity center decorated with a slate of former guerrillas Union party were gunned rity challenges that remain in Bogota and a basic
banners featuring a smil- as candidates. down. even after the peace sign- monthly income, an idea
ing Timochenko sporting a Yet even as the ex-com- On the same day as the ing. currently being debated
neatly trimmed beard, an- batants ditch rebel green FARC campaign’s inaugu- “From here on is going to throughout Europe.
gular, thick-rimmed glass- fatigues for simple white T- ration, at least five police be a huge test of whether “They are not propos-
es, and a crisp blue shirt. shirts emblazoned with the officers were killed and the FARC’s gamble is cor- als of a socialist, Soviet or
“Timo president,” a new party’s red rose emblem another 41 injured when a rect: That they can prac- Chavista model,” said Ivan
campaign song played there have been fresh re- homemade bomb explod- tice politics without fear of Cepeda, a trusted conduit
from loudspeakers. “For minders that the road to ed outside a police station being killed,” said Adam for both the FARC and the
the people.” peace is filled with hazard. in the northern city of Bar- Isacson, an analyst at the government, referring to
The campaign is another Two ex-combatants were ranquilla. Washington Office on Latin the Venezuelan socialist
historic step in transforming recently shot to death Another blast early Sunday America. model promoted by the
the Revolutionary Armed while campaigning for a near a police station in the Like Timochenko, the can- late Hugo Chavez.q

U.S. conservationist, Chile sign

creation of national parks

MAURICIO CUEVAS and Conservation CEO Kristine (40,400 square kilometers).
PATRICIA LUNA McDivitt Tompkins will cre- Bachelet said that would
Associated Press ate Pumalin and Patago- expand national parklands
PARQUE PATAGONIA, Chile nia National Parks, while in Chile by 38.5 percent.
(AP) — Chilean President expanding others. Tompkins Conservation
Michelle Bachelet signed That will help create what said the area that will be
decrees Monday creating they call a “Route of Parks” protected is three times the
vast new national parks that spanning more than size of the United States’
using lands donated by a 1,500 miles (2,400 kilo- Yosemite and Yellowstone
U.S. conservation organi- meters) across the South national parks combined,
zation in what is believed American nation, stretch- or about the size of Switzer-
to be the largest private ing from Puerto Montt to land.
donation of land ever from Cape Horn. Since her husband’s death This undated file photo shows a view of Pumalin Park in the
a private entity to a coun- In all, the plan ultimately in a 2015 kayaking acci- south of Chile.
try. seeks to increase Chile’s dent, McDivitt Tompkins Associated Press
The decrees signed by national parkland by more had been working non- tect from development couple acquired over a
Bachelet and Tompkins than 15,600 square miles stop to permanently pro- the millions of acres the quarter century.q