---------- From: Barry Stoller <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Fri, 05 Oct 2001 19:08:07 -0400 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [L-I] Colombia - FARC deadline approaches Reuters. 5 October 2001. Colombian Leader Meets Army Before Rebel Deadline. BOGOTA -- Colombian President Andres Pastrana huddled with military chiefs on Friday as his top negotiator met FARC rebels for a second day of talks aimed at salvaging the peace process before next Tuesday's deadline. Pastrana called the commanders of the armed forces to a meeting at the Tolemaida military base just outside the Andean mountain capital Bogota to analyze the severely strained peace process with the 17,000-member Marxist guerrilla force. The president must decide by midnight on Tuesday (1:00 a.m. EDT) whether he will allow the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia -- known by the Spanish initials FARC -- continued use of a demilitarized enclave in the south. The government's chief peace negotiator, Camilo Gomez, met FARC commanders in the demilitarized zone for a second day of talks on Friday. A former member of another Marxist guerrilla force who is now a political analyst told Reuters that the most likely outcome next week would be an agreement to extend the enclave in return for a commitment to discuss a cease-fire. "It would be unthinkable in my opinion for the FARC to declare a unilateral cease-fire. And an immediate cease-fire would be unthinkable. I think that there could be some mechanism for discussing it, subject to a time limit," said Ricardo Franco, a former senior member of the Popular Liberation Army, a small, Maoist rebel group. A senior FARC commander, Simon Trinidad, told weekly Tiempos del Mundo that peace talks had made progress, but that Colombia's largest rebel army wanted power and would never be interested in just finding a way to lay down its arms. "Whether we gain power peacefully or by means of arms depends on the ruling classes. If they are prepared to give up their privileges, we will negotiate, if not, we will continue the armed struggle," said Trinidad. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews _______________________________________________ Leninist-International mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/leninist-international
