Thursday 25 April 2013

Colombian army shoots FARC guerrillas, talks scheduled with ELN rebels

Army planes bombed two camps of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in north-eastern Colombia at an unspecified date, in operations that killed three rebels and led to the arrest of two female guerrillas including a FARC "dentist," El Espectador reported on 23 April. One of the detained was identified as the guerrilla dubbed Yulitza or La Tota, dentist to the FARC's Front 10 who was in the district of Tame in the Arauca department to give treatment to members of the Alfonso Castellanos mobile column. Arms, explosives and dentistry equipment were confiscated, the army said. The army shot dead five other FARC rebels in undated operations in the countryside of the Puerto Rico district in the southern Caquetá department, El Espectador reported on 22 April. One of the dead was identified as Jorge Parrilla, presumed deputy-chief and accountant of the Teófilo Forero column. The army stated it also caught four other suspects in the locality of Alto Carmelo, described as members of the FARC's "support networks" presumably in Caquetá. Colombian and FARC representatives reportedly began their eighth round of peace talks in Havana on 23 April, while the government was expected to begin a similar process of talks in mid-May with the ELN (Ejército de Liberación Nacional), the other communist rebel group in Colombia, El Espectador reported on 22 April. This followed weeks or months of informal contacts and expressions of interest on both parts, and would also take place in Havana. Each side was to have five negotiators, El Espectador reported on 22 April.

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