Colombian president says Mexico closing FARC rebel office in Mexico City

yahoo.com ^ | Fri Apr 12, 2002 8:01 PM ET | DIEGO MENDEZ, AP

[Cincinatus' Wife]

On Thursday, guerrillas gained entry to the legislature in Cali, Colombia's third-largest city, by posing as an army bomb squad responding to a threat. They ushered legislators into a stolen bus and drove them into the mountains after slitting the throat of one police officer who resisted. The lawmakers were still being held on Friday.

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica - Mexican President Vicente Fox has begun to close the Mexico City offices of Colombia's main rebel group, Colombia's president said Friday during a summit of Latin American leaders.

Colombian President Andres Pastrana said Fox assured him during a private meeting that the offices of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, had begun to be closed.

Pastrana spoke with Fox on the sidelines of a summit of the 19-member Rio Group of Latin American nations.

"Today I had the opportunity to talk with President Fox, and the closure of the FARC's Mexican office is already being carried out," Pastrana said in a news conference.

Fox didn't mention the action during a brief news conference he gave during the summit. His government said earlier this month it was studying the possibility of closing the offices, but it hadn't made a formal announcement saying the action was being carried out.

Pastrana called on other leaders to close rebel offices in their countries.

"It will mean that all terrorist groups - in this case the FARC - won't have a place to hide," he said. "There won't be a country in Latin America that will give them a chance to remain."

The FARC has been fighting a guerrilla war against the government for 38 years, and rebels have stepped up attacks since peace talks collapsed Feb. 20.

On Thursday, guerrillas gained entry to the legislature in Cali, Colombia's third-largest city, by posing as an army bomb squad responding to a threat. They ushered legislators into a stolen bus and drove them into the mountains after slitting the throat of one police officer who resisted. The lawmakers were still being held on Friday.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Mexico Leaves Castro's Cuba Behind*** Once upon a time, Mexico and Cuba were best buddies in the Western Hemisphere. Brandishing the banners of nonintervention and self-determination, both countries provided each other with unconditional support and kept quiet about their mutual lack of democratic development. Those days are over, and today relations between Cuba and Mexico are at an all-time low, for all the right reasons. Mexico's foreign policy toward Cuba is changing, and Fidel Castro is furious about it. The comandante is lashing out against Jorge Castaneda, Mexico's minister of foreign affairs--calling him a lackey of the United States--out of sheer desperation and growing isolation.... This tempest in the Cuba-Mexico teapot will pass. Meanwhile, Mexico's foreign policy will have changed and for the better. The principle of the protection of human rights will prevail in Mexico and elsewhere. As Castaneda's father, Mexico's minister of foreign affairs 20 years ago, said: "Friend, when you defend principles instead of interests, you never lose." ***

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Bump!

[livius]

Well, that's good news! It was never clear to me how terrorist organizations got to have "offices" in the first place.

[germanicus]

It's about time these Pan-American countries see these "revolutionary" groups for who they really are and start the crack down on them now before they violence gets out of control. Watching their murdering Islamic Jihadists have given them fuel lately to resurrect their own goals. Crush them now!

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Struck me as odd to!! But it looks like the landscape is changing.

Mexican President Vicente Fox (R) listens to U.S. President George W. Bush while walking to a joint press availability at the Palacio de Gobierno in Monterrey, Mexico, March 22, 2002. Bush denied any involvement in the sudden departure of Cuban leader Fidel Castro from U.N. summit for financing development. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Reagan sowed the seeds of freedom and they have grown dispite attempts by corrupt politicians to poison them.
Bush is following in Reagan's footsteps and reaching out to the people in this hemisphere.
If their leaders have brains in their heads, they will start instituting reforms.

[Texas_Longhorn]

Think Bush is behind this? Does anyone think that Bush is helping to "plant the seeds of freedom"? Fox could simply be a capitalists. He was CEO of Coca-Cola(Mexico).

[Texas_Longhorn]

Great news anyway!!!!!!!!!!

[FITZ]

That's good news --Fox also had a bunch of police arrested in Tijuana. If he keeps making the right kind of reforms, Mexico could be a decent enough country and so many won't want to leave.

[flamefront]

Not everything is roses -

From AP

Mexican President Vicente Fox said his country would not recognize Venezuela's new government until new elections are held, and the leaders of Argentina and Paraguay called the new government illegitimate. Leaders of the 19-nation Rio Group of Latin American countries condemned ``the interruption of constitutional order'' in Venezuela.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

He's being punished for the trumped up charge that he dissed Castro at the Monterrey meeting
(the Mexican congress won't let him travel outside the country on business) so he's giving one to the PRI congressional majority.
They will continue to do business with Venezuela, this is just so much political bluster.
Fox also has said he isn't going to say how he'll vote on Castro's human rights record this year.
He's waiting to see the U.S. report. Needless to say Castro isn't happy with the way events are unfolding.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

That's good news --Fox also had a bunch of police arrested in Tijuana. If he keeps making the right kind of reforms, Mexico could be a decent enough country and so many won't want to leave.

Yes I read about those arrests. He's also arrested a big time drug lord and his brother, I believe.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Does anyone think that Bush is helping to "plant the seeds of freedom"?

I think I see a whole lot of freedom being planted during the Bush administration....It's amazing what will germinate when you get terrorists out of the way.

[Free the USA]

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