August 8, 2007: FARC is taking a beating from its leftist
allies around the world because of how FARC is using landmines to defend its
bases, and kidnapped politicians as bargaining chips, in an attempt to get
senior FARC leaders out of jail. But the government is also under pressure to
do whatever FARC asks in order to get hostages freed. So the government has
offered FARC what it wants most, about a thousand square kilometers of southern jungle, free of any government
control, but only if some hostages were freed first. FARC wants the zone first,
before negotiations even begin.
In the south, police have
caught FARC forcibly recruiting local teenagers. The kids are taken to rebel
camps and intimidated into becoming FARC gunmen, or being killed. Most go
along, although the kids are kept away from their home areas, lest they be
tempted to desert. Parents are after the
government to get their kids back, which is another reason the government is
against giving FARC a "liberated zone." This zone would be use to
stash kidnapping victims and conscripted teenagers.
The navy captured yet another
fiberglass submarine, this one 65 feet long and capable of carrying about ten
tons of cocaine to ships off-shore. Like most of the dozen or so subs captured
over the last decade, this one was grabbed while ashore.
