- The largest guerrilla group in Colombia ordered an assassination
attempt on US President George W Bush during a recent visit there, a senior
official says.
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- Colombian Defence Minister Jorge Alberto Uribe said Mr
Bush was targeted in the city of Cartagena last Monday.
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- Informers and other intelligence sources revealed the
attempt, he said.
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- The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) have
long accused the US of meddling in the country's 40-year civil war.
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- The Farc's seven-man ruling body ordered guerrilla units
to make an attempt on Mr Bush's life, Mr Uribe said.
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- Long list of reasons
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- The Colombian authorities insisted that the attempt was
thwarted by the heavy security net thrown up around the US president which,
apart from his own secret service details, included 15,000 members of the
Colombian security forces.
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- The Farc have a long list of reasons for wanting Mr Bush
dead, most pressing is the fact that Washington provides over $600m in
mainly military aid to Bogota and supplies intelligence from US listening
stations, satellites and spy planes that are focused on Colombia.
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- Another reason is the issue of extradition.
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- The US has indicted much of the Farc high command on
drugs trafficking charges and two senior Farc commanders in prison seem
set to sent to face American justice.
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- The fact that the guerrillas would even consider killing
the most powerful and heavily protected man on earth shows that US involvement
in Colombia is so deep that the rebels feel they have very little to lose.
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- © BBC MMIV
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- http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4047199.stm
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