Pubdate: Thu, 14 Nov 2002
Source: San Jose Mercury News (CA)
Copyright: 2002 San Jose Mercury News
Contact:  http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/390
Author: Tim Johnson, Mercury News Washington Bureau

COLOMBIAN REBELS CHARGED

U.S. Targets Leaders Of Leftist Guerrillas

WASHINGTON - Attorney General John Ashcroft on Wednesday announced a new 
round of criminal charges against Colombia's largest outlaw army, indicting 
the group's No. 2 leader and other left-wing rebels for drug trafficking 
and the kidnapping of two American citizens.

The charges marked the latest sign that the Bush administration is 
extending the reach of U.S. justice to combat outlaw groups in the 
embattled Latin American nation and stepping up support for Colombia 
President Alvaro Uribe Velez.

Ashcroft said authorities would hunt the indicted combatants from the 
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, including No. 2 leader Jorge 
Briceno Suarez, "as long as it takes . . . no matter where they hide."

In the past two weeks, U.S. prosecutors have broken up an arms-for-cocaine 
scheme allegedly run by Colombia's right-wing paramilitary army and smashed 
a kidnapping ring. Earlier in the year, other left-wing guerrillas, arms 
merchants and the nation's top paramilitary chief were indicted for crimes 
allegedly committed in or against the United States.

The target of Wednesday's action is a rebel army, known by its Spanish 
initials as the FARC, deeply enmeshed in the narcotics trade. It now has 
some 18,000 combatants.

Briceno Suarez, a burly, beret-clad commander, and two lower-ranking rebels 
of the FARC were charged with kidnapping U.S. citizens Jerel Shaffer and 
Earl Goen from a fishing camp in western Venezuela in 1997. Rebels took 
Shaffer to Colombian territory, and held him for nine months until a $1 
million ransom was paid.

"If convicted on all counts, the defendants face the maximum penalty of 
death," Ashcroft said.
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MAP posted-by: Terry Liittschwager