FARC surround Colombian town

Localization of Chocó department(red) and Colombia(green) in South America.

Wednesday, February 9, 2005

Colombia — The community of the town of Condoto, 600km of Bogota, in the region of Chocó, has been surrounded by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia FARC for a week. The rebel army is interfering with the movement of people, food, and medicine to the city. According to the Government of Chocó Secretary Fredy Lloreda the action is apparently in retaliation for recent operations performed by government forces against the rebels.

The FARC are a Marxist revolutionary group with about 12,000 members which originated from the Colombian Communist Party of the 1960s. The FARC's main stated objective is the creation of a Communist government in Colombia.

According to the Colombian government, the US FBI, and Interpol, the majority of the FARC's recent funding has come from kidnapping, extortion, hijacking, and illegal trade in cocaine.

The FARC are considered a terrorist group by the governments of Colombia and the United States, a Colombian ally in the fight against the FARC. The FARC are a member of the Foro de São Paulo and are opposed to the influence of the government of the United States in South America.

Related news

"FARC attack: 16 Colombian soldiers dead" — Wikinews, February 2, 2005
"Colombia releases detailed report about the FARC" — Wikinews, February 1, 2005.
"Capture of FARC member creates crisis between Venezuela and Colombia" — Wikinews, January 15, 2005

Sources

"Farc impiden paso de alimentos a municipio chocoano" — El Espectador, February 9, 2005
"Farcs ameaçam matar aldeões colombianos" — AE, February 9, 2005
"Al menos 1000 habitantes del Chocó están sitiados por la guerrilla desde hace una semana" — Caracol, February 8, 2005

"The links between intellectual property crime and terrorist financing" — Secretary General of Interpol, June 16, 2003

"Testimony of Steven C. McCraw, Assistant Director, Office of Intelligence, FBI Before the Senate Judiciary Committee May 20, 2003 "International Drug Trafficking and Terrorism"" — Congress of the United States, May 20, 2003

"Foreign Terrorist Organizations" — United States Department of State, August 15, 2002

External link

FARC-EP website

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This page is archived, and is no longer publicly editable.

Articles presented on Wikinews reflect the specific time at which they were written and published, and do not attempt to encompass events or knowledge which occur or become known after their publication.

Got a correction? Add the template {{editprotected}} to the talk page along with your corrections, and it will be brought to the attention of the administrators.

Please note that due to our archival policy, we will not alter or update the content of articles that are archived, but will only accept requests to make grammatical and formatting corrections.

Note that some listed sources or external links may no longer be available online due to age.