FARC Describes U.S., Colombia Targeting of Rebel Leaders as 'Crimes'
Colombia's largest guerrilla group Tuesday condemned a secret U.S.-Colombian program to target and kill rebel leaders as "crimes" in violation of national sovereignty.
The Washington Post disclosed the intelligence-sharing program in a report last month that credited it with a role in the killing in 2008 of longtime guerrilla leader Raul Reyes, who died in a Colombian airstrike and raid on a rebel camp in Ecuador.
Reyes was the number two leader of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, which since November 2012 has been in peace talks with the government.
"Only the arbitrary use of brute force can explain, as the Washington Post story confirms, the aggression of Colombian military forces against the sovereignty of Ecuador," the FARC said in a statement posted on the Internet.
The FARC condemned the government of President Juan Manuel Santos for what it said was its "prolonged submission" to Washington.
It noted the report's disclosures about CIA and Pentagon efforts to obtain legal cover "under which all these crimes were committed."
Former president Alvaro Uribe, who governed Colombia from 2002 to 2010, has acknowledged receiving U.S. assistance to eliminate FARC leaders.
Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa last month said the revelations were "very serious" and could pose a threat to regional peace.
The Post said the multi-billion dollar program was separate from the $9 billion U.S. aid package dubbed Plan Colombia, which launched in 2000.
It was initially authorized by U.S. president George W. Bush, and continued under President Barack Obama, according to the report.
Under the program, the United States provided intelligence to help locate FARC leaders and furnished it with a special GPS guidance kit to convert standard bombs into highly precise smart bombs.
Source: Agence France Presse
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