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LATIN AMERICA |
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Interpol Issues International Arrest Warrant
for Escaped Colombia Rebel
BOGOTA – The International Police (Interpol)
issued Saturday a red bulletin for the
arrest in any country of the rebel known by
the alias of “Pablito,” one of the leaders
of the National Liberation Army, or ELN, who
is believed to have fled to Venezuela after
escaping from a jail in the border town of
Arauca.
The red bulletin was issued against Carlos
Marin Guarin, or “Pablito,” a member of the
ELN Central Command, who is wanted by the
Colombian Attorney General’s Office for
crimes of “homicide for terrorist purposes
together with escaping to commit crime,” the
DAS intelligence agency said in a communique.
“Last Oct. 7, the day that Pablito escaped
from the Arauca jail, Colombian authorities
asked Interpol to publish an orange bulletin
as an international alert about the escape
of a dangerous prisoner,” the DAS
intelligence agency said.
With the publication of the red bulletin
against the guerrilla chief by the General
Secretariat of Interpol, the authorities
will be able to carry out his capture
internationally.
Colombia’s Defense Minister Gabriel Silva
said Saturday that there is a great contrast
between Colombia’s current relations with
Ecuador and with Venezuela, and that
investigations are underway to discover
whether the Arauca authorities collaborated
in the rebel’s escape.
“It’s interesting the contrast that we have
seen in the last few days, while ‘alias
Pablito’ runs away to find peaceful refuge
in Venezuela, we are meeting with the high
commands, the top brass and security
ministers seeking ways to cooperate,
collaborate and combine forces with Ecuador
to combat the scourges of terrorism and drug
trafficking,” he said.
For several months Venezuela has kept
diplomatic and trade relations with Colombia
frozen, while Ecuador, which broke off
relations with Bogota in March 2008, is now
making approaches to reestablish those ties.
Colombian President Alvaro Uribe asked
Thursday for Venezuela’s help in nabbing
Pablito.
“We have to look to the authorities in
Venezuela” whose president, Hugo Chavez, has
broken off ties with Colombia, “and see how
they can help us recapture this individual
who crossed the river on the border,” Uribe
said during the inauguration of a business
fair in Bogota.
The president also said that Pablito’s
escape, which transpired Friday, “is
inexplicable,” and asked why “such a
dangerous terrorist” was recently moved to
the Arauca jail and why he was “surrounded
by such weak security measures” when he was
rescued by a group of hired gunmen.
Carlos Marin Guarin, alias Pablito, was
rescued Wednesday near the Arauca jail by
three hired gunmen who opened fire on the
guards that were watching him, killing one
and leaving the other wounded.
The Colombian government has offered a
reward of about $850,000 for the capture of
Pablito, who was caught on Jan. 6, 2008 in
Bogota by army troops.
Pablito is accused in connection with the
1989 assassination of the Catholic
archbishop of Arauca, Jesus Emilio
Jaramillo, and with some 200 attacks against
the Caño Limon-Coveñas pipeline, the most
important in Colombia, that carries oil from
Arauca province to the northwestern
Caribbean coast.
He is also said to have played a role in a
cross-border assault 15 years ago that left
eight Venezuelan soldiers dead.
Founded in 1964, the ELN has roughly 5,000
fighters, compared with an estimated 9,000
for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of
Colombia, or FARC.
The ELN has engaged in several rounds of
talks with the Colombian government, but the
discussions foundered on Bogota’s insistence
that the rebels demobilize and disarm as a
prerequisite for a peace process.
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