Couple Says They
Didn't Know Safe
Contained FARC Money
The couple who agreed to
store a safe in their
home for a Colombian man
in the late 1990's said
Tuesday it belonged to
senior Colombian rebel
leader, and that they
also briefly hosted late
guerrilla commander Raśl
Reyes in their home.
Retired university
professor Francisco
Gutierrez and his wife
Cruz Prado told a live
television news
conference that at the
time, they did not know
the identity of either
of the men.
They said both Reyes and
rebel leader Rodrigo
Granda used false names
and posed as negotiators
for peace in the
conflict between
Colombia and the
Revolutionary Armed
Forces of Colombia, or
FARC.
The couple also insisted
they had no idea the
safe contained
us$480,000 until
authorities seized the
money from their home on
Friday.
Gutierrez, a naturalized
Costa Rican from Spain,
and Prado, who is Costa
Rican, spoke with
reporters at their home
a day after lawmakers
demanded that the
government provide more
information on
allegations that
Colombian guerrillas
have ties to local
politicians and have
stashed money in the
Central American
country.
The Colombian government
discovered the existence
of the $480,000 and its
whereabouts from files
contained in three
computers the military
seized during a raid on
a FARC camp just inside
Ecuadorean territory on
March 1.
FARC leader Reyes was
killed during the raid.
Colombian agents
kidnapped Granda in
Caracas, Venezuela, in
December 2004, but the
government released him
last year at the request
of France, which is
working for the release
of rebel hostage Ingrid
Betancourt, a dual
Colombian-French
citizen. Granda is
believed to again be
living in Venezuela.
Gutierrez and Prado said
they were members of the
political left - which
during the late 1990's
acted as an intermediary
in peace negotiations
between the Colombian
government and the FARC
- when they met the
rebels. Reyes identified
himself as "Dario," and
Granda called himself
"Ricardo."
In either 1997 or 1998,
the couple said they
agreed to host Reyes in
their home along with a
woman who went by the
name of Olga, whose real
identity is not known.
"They stayed with us
several days," Prado
said. "Later, he (Reyes)
asked us if a third
person could leave
something at our house
and we said yes."
Granda showed up
sometime later with an
electronic safe that he
asked the couple to
store in their house.
Prado said they thought
the safe contained
documents until
authorities seized it on
Friday from their home,
in the city of Heredia,
north of the capital.
When the couple
discovered the men's
real identity in 2004,
"we were very scared to
see who we had been
dealing with, but this
(box) wasn't ours and we
couldn't get rid of it,
so we didn't tell
anyone," she said.
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