By Agence France Press
Translated from original Spanish by The Narco News Bulletin
Washington, October 15, 2001: The terrorist organizations that operate in Colombia are also targets of the global anti-terrorist campaign launched by the United States after September 11th, said Francis Taylor, anti-terrorism coordinator of the State Department.
"All the resources" available to the United States will be used in that campaign, including, "where appropriate, as we have done in Afghanistan, the use of military force," Taylor told journalists today in the headquarters of the Organization of American States (OAS) in Washington, DC.
The high functionary spoke briefly with the press after giving a closed-door report about the development of the anti-terrorist campaign to a meeting of the Inter-American Committee Against Terrorism (CICTE, in its Spanish acronym).
Questioned about whether the campaign will include the Colombian guerrillas, which the State Department characterizes as terrorist organizations, as a target, Taylor responded affirmatively.
"The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the National Liberation Army (ELN), and the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), are on the list because they participate in terrorist activities. "They will receive the same treatment as any other terrorist group," he said, "in terms of our interest in pursuing them and putting an end to their terrorist activities."
"All the groups on our list are terrorists, and a subject to this anti-terrorist campaign," the high functionary reiterated.
Taylor declined to explain if the anti-terrorist campaign would lead to raising the level of military assistance to the Colombian government. He also would not get into details about how the United States differentiates between anti-terrorism operations and anti-insurgency operations, which Washington has promised not to involve itself with in Colombia.
Taylor said that the United States anti-terrorist strategy in the Western Hemisphere is the same that it will apply throughout the world, and "it will include the use of all the resources in our power as well as those available to the countries in the region" that condemn terrorism and have promised to cooperate with Washington.
Those elements include political cooperation, exchange of intelligence information and the use of financial tools available to the U.S. Department of Treasury and those of other government "to identify and destroy the financial schemes that these criminals use," he added. It will also include, "where appropriate, as we are doing in Afghanistan, the use of military force, if that is appropriate to put an end to their activities," said Taylor.