- Government will legislate a definition and create a list classifying guerrillas, traffickers and criminal groups as terrorists.
- Hard-right President Abelardo de la Espriella vows to treat all armed groups as terrorists, promising a tough security crackdown amid rising violence.
- Interior minister links possible arson wildfires to criminals; prosecutors probe amid El Nino drought and US precedent of naming groups terrorist.
Colombia’s new hard-right government on Tuesday announced plans to classify guerrilla fighters, drug traffickers and other criminal groups as “terrorists.”
US-backed President Abelardo de la Espriella took office earlier this month and has pledged to come down hard on Colombia’s myriad armed groups.
His hardline security rhetoric resonated with voters enough to propel him to electoral victory — although only by less than a percentage point — as the South American nation faces its highest levels of violence in a decade.
The proposed legislation, set to be debated in Congress, will define “what a terrorist organization is” before a list of designated groups is created, Interior Minister Rodrigo Lara told Bogota-based Blu Radio.
The minister did not disclose which criminal organizations would fall under the category, but hinted that those allegedly behind recent wildfires could be considered.
The fires have scorched at least 20,000 hectares in western Colombia, and national prosecutors are probing “whether there were intentional acts that causedc the emergencies,” a source told AFP Monday.
Colombia is grappling with the flames in the midst of the powerful El Nino climate phenomenon, which has caused rainfall to decline and temperatures to rise.
Washington has already defined various illegal groups operating in Mexico, Colombia, Ecuador and elsewhere as terrorist organizations.
Armed groups “are all terrorists and we are going to treat them as such,” De la Espriella said in a statement.
The millionaire ex-lawyer succeeded his country’s first-ever leftist leader Gustavo Petro, who tried and failed to negotiate peace with guerrillas often involved in cocaine production.
Add Comment