(Reuters) – The Biden administration’s decision to remove Colombian rebel group FARC from the U.S. list of foreign terrorist organizations will be implemented by late November or early December, a senior administration official said on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, Reuters reported that the United States was preparing to remove FARC from the list five years after the group signed a peace agreement with Bogota.
Founded in 1964, the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known by the Spanish acronym FARC, was responsible for summary executions and kidnappings of thousands of people, including Americans.
The U.S. State Department notified the U.S. Congress on Tuesday of its planned delisting of FARC. The Colombian government was formally notified on Wednesday.
The decision allows the United States to work with FARC members that are now entering private or political life, and those that have reintegrated with society as part of many USAID programs, the official said on Wednesday.
“It also allows us to target the full tools of the U.S. government and law enforcement to go after those individuals who did not sign the agreement and remain active in terrorist activities,” the official added.
The official said the Biden administration intends to keep militant groups made up of former FARC rebels and a second group of ex-rebels that uses a variation of the FARC name on the list of terrorist organizations.
(Reporting by Nandita Bose in Nantucket, Massachusetts; Editing by Jan Harvey)
