TerrorismColombia urges U.S. to remove FARC from U.S. terror watch list

Colombia’s president Juan Manuel Santos said in an interview that he would like the United States to remove the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), a Marxist rebel group, which had fought successive Colombian governments since the early 1960s, from the U.S. list of terrorist organizations. He also said he would ask the U.S. authorities to suspend drug warrants against FARC commanders if a deal is finally signed to bring to an end the country’s five-decade civil war.

Fox News Latino reports that in an interview days before an important key visit to the White House, Santos said that once a deal between the Colombian government and FARC is signed, it would be right for the Obama administration to remove FARC from a State Department list of terrorist organizations, where the group has been included for nearly two decades.

FARC and the Colombian government have been engaged in peace talks mediated by Cuba, and last week received a UN commitment to monitor the implementation of the agreement for one year. FARC has already renounced kidnapping and declared a unilateral truce, but not all the details about how, when, and where the group members would turn their arms to the government have been worked out.

“If they sign it’s because we have a timetable for their disarmament and they have committed themselves to lay down their arms and make this transition to legal life. So I would say yes, I hope that they would be eliminated from the terror list,” said Santos.

Santos’ 4 February meeting with President Barack Obama will mark fifteen years and $10 billion in U.S. counterinsurgency and anti-narcotics aid to one of the U.S. closest hemispheric allies.

Fox News Latino notes that the high-profile meeting highlights a historic moment in Colombia’s violent history: Both sides agree that the peace talks in Cuba have reached a point of no return, and both side expect a final deal to be signed as early as March.