Tuesday, November 25, 2014

Colombian General Kidnapped

How do you say false flag in Spanish?

"Colombia halts peace talks after general is taken" Associated Press  November 18, 2014

BOGOTA — A massive search operation was underway Monday for a Colombian army general whose surprise capture by leftist rebels prompted President Juan Manuel Santos to suspend two-year-old peace talks.

General Ruben Dario Alzate, dressed in civilian clothes and without the heavy security befitting his high rank, was snatched Sunday by gunmen, along with two others, while visiting a hamlet along a remote river in western Colombia.

A soldier who managed to flee in the group’s boat, and reportedly had advised the general against traveling deep into the jungle, said the kidnappers belonged to the recalcitrant 34th Front of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.

It was the first time in a half-century of fighting that the guerrillas have taken an army general captive. It could not have come at a worst moment for Santos. 

Isn't it worse?

Even before the general’s capture, frustration had been building with the slow progress of peace talks in Cuba and the guerrillas’ refusal to wind down attacks. Earlier this month, the FARC captured two soldiers during intense fighting in northeast Colombia — it has since offered to free them — and killed two Indians who confronted rebels hanging up revolutionary banners on their reservation.

Calling Alzate’s abduction ‘‘totally unacceptable,’’ Santos ordered government peace negotiators not to travel Monday to Cuba for the next round of peace talks until Alzate and the two others — an army captain and a female lawyer who was advising the army on a rural energy project — are freed.

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What is with FARC anyway?

Just as the president is trying to bring peace, too. 

Cui bono?