Police sources have said that they suspect this group of being behind most of the 37 acts of terrorism they are investigating, including the murder of four members of the opposition's security services suspected of being double agents.
Though they rarely make headlines abroad, bombings have continued in Venezuela. On 9 December three workers at an education ministry healthcare centre were injured by an explosion. The following day an incendiary device was hurled at the doors of a church in Los Teques, a city south of Caracas. There were no casualties, but considerable material damage.
BOLIVIA | Tension rises on drugs front. A major combined military-police operation has been launched in the coca-growing area of Chapare, Cochabamba, in search of those responsible for a series of attacks on patrols of the FELCN eradication force. Ambushes and booby-traps have claimed the lives of four members of the security forces over the past couple of months.
Evo Morales, the former presidential candidate who rose to prominence as a leader of the coca growers, claims that the attacks are the work of agents provocateurs seeking to provide justification for large-scale military intervention in the Chapare. He says the US embassy is behind this. His line of argument has been strengthened by a recent statement by Rogelio Pardo, the US assistant undersecretary of defence, to the effect that there is evidence of the presence of `narcoterrorism' in Bolivia, and that in consequence the US would assist the Bolivian military.
It also comes just as the embassy has come out against reported government plans to jettison the coca-eradication programme and concentrate instead on fighting the processing and trafficking of cocaine — a shift that has been summarised by officials as opting for `zero cocaine' instead of continuing to pursue the unattainable target of `zero coca'. The embassy has reiterated its own slogan, `coca is cocaine', and US officials have reminded Bolivia that open toleration of coca growing would contravene international conventions.
ECUADOR | Fallout from Colombia spat kills Southcom deal. The recent spat with Colombia over the provenance of missiles used by the Farc guerrillas has had an unforeseen consequence: the annulment of an agreement signed between Ecuador and the US Southern Command whereby the latter would build three depots — at Lago Agrio, Guayaquil and Austro — ostensibly to store supplies to deal with natural disasters. This came after congress raised objections to the agreement, in the wake of opposition claims that the row over alleged arms trafficking and the installation of the depots were part of a plan to involve Ecuador more closely in the Colombian conflict. Formally, congress had said that the agreement was unconstitutional, inasmuch as it had not received legislative sanction. Unwilling to face a challenge before the supreme court, the government opted for cancelling the deal.
For the record: Colombia did not produce any proof of its claims that a rocket used by the Farc had come from an Ecuadorean military arsenal, nor did it apologise — but both governments decided to bury the issue.
End of preview - This article contains approximately 577 words.
Subscribers: Log in now to read the full article
Not a Subscriber?
Choose from one of the following options
