Page 11 - atoday sept 24
P. 11
WORLD NEWS A11
Thursday 24 September
Colombia revamps Colombia’s Santo, rebels announce breakthrough in talks
drug policy as US’s
program concludes ANNE GARCIA FARC has taken today,” nism for rebels to demobi- pectations of a deal, the
JOSHUA GOODMAN said Santos, seated on lize, hand over their weap- FARC declared a unilat-
Associated Press the same dais as the rebel ons and provide repara- eral cease-fire in July and
J. GOODMAN HAVANA (AP) — Colombi- leader known as Timo- tions to their victims. Santos has been working with
Associated Press an President Juan Manuel chenko and Cuban Presi- has also promised he’ll give Colombia’s military on a
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) Santos and leftist guerrilla dent Raul Castro. “We are Colombians the chance program to remove tens of
— Colombia is overhaul- commanders on Wednes-
ing its anti-drug strategy, day announced an im- Colombia’s President Juan Manuel Santos talks in Quito, Ecuador. Santos has announced a sur-
aiming to boost alterna- portant breakthrough in prise trip Wednesday to Cuba for a key meeting with government peace negotiators trying to
tive development efforts peace talks that sets the wrap up talks aimed at ending the country’s long-running conflict.
and relying more on man- stage to end Latin Ameri-
ual eradication to replace ca’s longest-running armed (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)
U.S.-backed aerial spray- conflict.
ing of the crop used to In a joint statement, San- on different sides but to- to voice their opinion in a thousands of rebel-planted
make cocaine. tos and the Revolutionary day we advance in the referendum and any deal land mines.
In unveiling the new strate- Armed Forces of Colombia, same direction, in the most must also clear Congress. But amid the slow, but
gy Tuesday, President Juan or FARC, said they have noble direction a society As part of talks in Cuba steady progress, one issue
Manuel Santos played overcome the last signifi- can take, which is toward stretching over more than had seemed almost insur-
down concerns that Co- cant obstacle to a peace peace.” two years, both sides had mountable: How to com-
lombia is easing up on deal by settling on a formu- Santos said Colombia’s already agreed on plans pensate victims and punish
cartels by ending the aer- la to compensate victims government and the for land reform, political FARC commanders for hu-
ial eradication program, and punish belligerents for FARC have reached an participation for guerrillas man rights abuses in light of
which has been a fixture human rights abuses. agreement to sign a de- who lay down their weap- international conventions
of the drug war for two de- Rebels that confess their finitive peace deal within ons and how to jointly com- Colombia has signed and
cades. crimes, compensate vic- 6 months. Negotiators must bat drug trafficking. almost unanimous public
“Colombia doesn’t need tims and promise not to still come up with a mecha- Further cementing ex- rejection of the rebels.q
to continue being the big- take up arms again will re-
gest exporter of coca on ceive up to 8 years of re-
the planet and we’re go- strictions on their liberty in
ing to prove it,” he said in a restricted areas still be to
speech that follows months determined.
of internal deliberations. Santos flew earlier in the
Santos decided in May to day to Havana, where talks
end aerial spraying of her- have been going on for
bicides on coca crops af- three years, to make the
ter a research arm of the announcement.
World Health Organization The breakthrough came
reclassified glyphosate as after Pope Francis, in a visit
a probable carcinogen. to Cuba this week, warned
More than 4 million acres the two sides that they
of land in Colombia have didn’t have the right to
been sprayed with the fail in their best chance at
popular weed killer over peace in decades.
the past two decades to “I want to recognize and
kill the plants whose leaves value the step that the
produce cocaine.
As part of the new plan, Venezuela extends border crackdown to 4th state
growers who abandon
coca will receive financial CARACAS, Venezuela Maduro said Tuesday that 1,400 Colombian nation- day meeting between for-
and technical assistance, a month-old state of emer- als as part of what it calls a eign ministers.
as well as land titles after (AP) — President Nicolas gency would be broad- crackdown on smuggling Also on Tuesday, Maduro
five years, to switch to al- ened to encompass part and crime. denied that he was threat-
ternative crops. Maduro has extended an of the sparsely populated Presidents of the South ening another neighbor,
Forced manual eradica- southern state of Amazo- American neighbors met Guyana. The president of
tion will be used as a last anti-smuggling crackdown nas. Monday to mediate a solu- Guyana has accused Ven-
resort for communities Venezuela has closed bor- tion, but emerged with few ezuela of deploying troops
that don’t live up to their on his country’s border der crossings, deployed concrete agreements be- to a contested border
commitments.q troops and deported some sides scheduling a Wednes- region.q
with Colombia while deny-
ing that his government’s
troops are threatening
neighboring Guyana to the
east.
