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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis blasted President Biden over his administration’s decision to remove the Colombian rebel group FARC from its list of foreign terrorist organizations.
“Joe Biden’s decision to legitimize the Marxist terror group FARC paves the way for Castrochavismo in Colombia and is a slap in the face to Colombian-Americans,” the Florida Republican tweeted Wednesday.
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REPUBLICANS QUESTION LIFTING COLOMBIAN REBEL GROUP FARC’S TERRORISM DESIGNATION
DeSantis added, “From his support of FARC, to his failure to assist those seeking freedom in Cuba, Joe Biden and his Democrat party have consistently sided with Marxist elements throughout the Western Hemisphere.”
The U.S. State Department reportedly told Congress on Tuesday of the plan to delist FARC, five years after the rebel group signed a peace agreement with the Colombian government.
TOPSHOT – Members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrillas are seen at the “Alfonso Artiaga” Front 29 FARC encampment in a rural area of Policarpa, department of Narino in southwestern Colombia, on January 17, 2017. (Photo credit should read LUIS ROBAYO/AFP via Getty Images)
State Department spokesman Ned Price confirmed the U.S. had informed Congress of an action it was taking with regard to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, widely known by its acronym, FARC. Price refused to say what that action was, however.
FARC, founded in 1964, was the driving force behind attacks on a number of towns, executions and the kidnappings of thousands of people in Colombia over the past several decades, some of whom were American and was added to the FTO list in 1997.
The decision to remove FARC from the list of terror groups has been criticized by several Republicans including DeSantis’s fellow Republican Sen. Marco Rubio.
President Joe Biden points to the Oval Office of the White House as he arrives on Marine One on the South Lawn in Washington, Sunday, Nov. 21, 2021, as he returns from Wilmington, Del. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster) (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
“Colombia has endured decades of pain and suffering because of the vicious terrorist attacks spearheaded by the FARC,” Rubio said in a statement this week. “The Biden Administration’s decision to remove the FARC from the Foreign Terrorist Organization list risks emboldening narcoterrorists and the regimes that sponsor them throughout our region. Congress must hold hearings on this decision to examine what it means for stability in the hemisphere, as well as U.S. and Colombian security interests.”
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Senate Foreign Relations Committee Ranking Member Sen. Jim Risch, a Republican, agreed in a Tuesday tweet saying, “President Biden’s delisting of the #FARC as a foreign terrorist organization undermines U.S. security interests and stability in #Colombia and only serves as a gift to the criminal Maduro regime in #Venezuela,” Senate Foreign Relations Committee Ranking Member Sen. Jim Risch tweeted Tuesday. “The administration should reverse course.”