Columbia: Negotiations

Tough Intellectual Takes Rebel Reins In Colombia, (Washington Post)…Juan Forero and Steven Dudley

The death of the world’s oldest rebel commander has ushered in a new chapter in Colombia’s long civil conflict, with a bookish communist intellectual now leading a waning guerrilla force against a government convinced of its ability to deliver a resounding defeat.

In a rare one-on-one interview with The Washington Post in 2000, one of his last, Cano said he was open to negotiations, but he did not hesitate to state the FARC’s main objective — to rule Colombia. “For the long term, we have it defined: We want to be in power,” he said.