Colombian Troops Eliminate 14 FARC Terrorists Ahead of Peace Talks

Colombian Troops Eliminate 14 FARC Terrorists Ahead of Peace Talks

The Colombian government resumed peace talks today with the Marxist terror group the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), a day after a sophisticated military operation wiped out fourteen FARC guerrillas, bringing the total of FARC leaders eliminated in the past four years to 53.

In a battle that Colombian officials called part of a “sustained and continuous operation” against the terrorist group, Colombian troops killed fourteen FARC terrorists in one exchange. The troops, according to Argentine outlet Infobae, also confiscated “eight rifles, a Neguev machine gun, 749 cartridges of different calibers, four IM26 hand grenades, two laptop computers, two cellular phones, seven USB drives and two radios.” The Colombian government hopes disarming the terrorist group will help them at the negotiating table, while the confiscated data materials could help prevent future terrorist attacks they may have planned.

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos won reelection by a narrow margin in June against right-wing candidate Óscar Iván Zuluaga, who opposed the peace talks and called for a full eradication of the terrorist group. Santos vowed to continue peace talks while also working to eliminate the FARC, whose track record on peace accords is less than stellar. Prior to Santos’ reelection, the FARC broke a ceasefire agreement with the Colombian government during the elections with a string of bombings intended to impact the results of the election.

Talks resume in Havana today nonetheless, with Colombia’s El Espectador newspaper reporting that this round of talks “will revolve around the details of the role victims of the armed conflict will have at the table and the influence they shall have in the peace process.” In addition to peace talks, the Colombian government has been working on rehabilitation programs for FARC guerrillas, many which joined the terrorist group as child soldiers that as young as age 12 and suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder. The Colombian government has been providing FARC deserters psychological aid and training in how to function in modern society, including such basic skills as where to properly dispose of human waste and how to use an ATM.

The result of that campaign has been an attempt at rebranding on the part of the FARC, whose leaders are safely harbored in Havana, Cuba, where the Castro government welcomes them. In the past year, they have released music videos aimed at changing their image from ruthless murderers of peasants unsympathetic to their cause to “freedom fighters” on a mission for the working man, featuring communist Cuban rappers and international terrorists also finding refuge in Havana. They even released a Christmas greeting in 2013, in which they vowed not to interpret the “end of war” as the beginning of a “peacetime” in which they would stop committing violent acts.

The FARC are believed to be scaling back operations after years of siege from both the previous administration of president Álvaro Uribe, the United States government, and the CIA. The George W. Bush administration appropriated anti-al-Qaeda tactics in Colombia to take down the FARC’s most prominent leaders, creating a situation in which the terrorist group was functioning in a disorderly fashion and at the brink of extinction.

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