Colombia’s Farc rebels seek political rebirth
BOGOTA: Colombia’s leftist Farc rebels sought a political rebirth on Sunday as they moved to transform into a party to seek elected office after disarming to end a half-century war.
About 1,000 delegates from the freshly demobilized Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia will launch a founding congress to choose their political representatives.
They will choose a name for the party and candidates to run in next year’s general elections.
“We are going to define the character of the political party that we aspire to build,” former guerrilla commander Carlos Antonio Lozada told AFP.
He said they will also shape “its structure and name the leaders, at least at national level.”
The communist Farc formed in 1964 from a peasant uprising for rural land rights.
After 53 years of attacks and kidnappings, it faces a struggle for acceptance. Recent polls indicate that more than 80% of Colombians are opposed to it.
“The Farc will face a number of challenges. The first is not to betray their support base. The second is to enlarge their electorate,” said Conflict analyst Frederic Masse.
“The third is to show that they are capable of doing politics differently and not letting themselves get sucked into traditional patronage politics.” WASHINGTON: Five people died and many were injured as of Sunday by weather system Harvey, which made landfall on the gulf coast of Texas as a hurricane on Friday but has since been downgraded to a tropical storm.
It has stopped moving and is stalled over Houston and is expected to bring “catastrophic flooding” and “to worsen” over the next few days, the National Weather Service said.
Hundreds of people have been rescued and local officials warned residents to stay sheltered and not venture out, especially at night, when danger signs are more difficult to detect.
President Donald Trump, monitoring the storm closely, tweeted: “Wow - Now experts are calling #Harvey a once in 500 year flood! We have an all out effort going, and going well!”
This is the first natural disaster to test the Trump administration, and he seems keen to come through. “.@ChuckGrassley - got your message loud and clear. We have fantastic people on the ground, got there long before #Harvey. So far, so good!,” he tweeted, in response to a warning from a Republican senator, who reminded him of George W Bush’s failure to prepare for, and react adequately to, Hurricane Katrina in 2005, which killed more than 1,800 people.