The presidents of Colombia and Brazil will meet Friday under heavy U.S. pressure to isolate the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, the region’s cocaine-financed guerrilla movement. The Bush administration has labeled the FARC, as the group is popularly known, as a terrorist organization. Colombian President Alvaro Uribe wants Brazil’s support for Plan Colombia, a joint U.S.-Colombian military effort to quash cocaine trafficking and the rebel groups funded by cocaine. For Brazil, Latin America’s largest and most influential nation, that would mean an end to years of neutrality and an unpopular yielding to Washington’s will. Brazilians are worried about cocaine trafficking in their country, however, and a leader of the FARC is alleged to have protected Brazil’s top drug trafficker until he was captured in April 2001. Uncomfortable with a growing U.S. presence next door in Colombia, Brazil so far has balked at branding the FARC a terrorist organization. “It is not convenient for Brazil to classify the FARC as terrorist or not,” said a Brazilian diplomat speaking on condition of anonymity. “Brazil keeps no such list of terrorist groups, so it is not necessary to add them to a list. This could make more difficult future efforts by Brazil to mediate the conflict in Colombia.” Full Story
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