Colombian FARC Want U.S. Military Funding to Go to Peace Plan

Edited by Ivan Martínez
2015-11-06 14:58:09

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Bogotá, November 6 (teleSUR)-- The FARC rebel group has proposed to the U.S. government that its military aid to Colombia be allocated to a fund for peace-building.

The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, which has been negotiating a peace agreement with the Colombian government in Havana since late 2012, proposed the creation of a National Fund.  The fund is part of the "ten minimum proposals” to guarantee an end to the conflict.

"The resources allocated to military aid should be redirected in their entirety to the (National) fund" to end the conflict, as well as reconciliation and peace building, said the group in a statement read by Lucas Carvajal, a member of the peace delegation.

Through Plan Colombia, which has been strongly condemned by the FARC, Washington has spent more than eight billion dollars in military aid to allegedly combat insurgents and drug traffickers in the South American country.

The FARC also demanded that President Santos’ government "redefine the current structure of public expenditure (...), in particular the spending on security and defense."

As part of the demand, the group seeks the investment of 1.5 to 2 percent of the total GDP, currently allocated to military expenditure, in the National Fund in the next five years.

The FARC suggested, among other measures, that all tax breaks to big business, national and foreign, be eliminated and that businesses pay a "special contribution to the financing of the fund."  They also proposed that mining and energy countries contribute to a special fund.


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