President Juan Manuel Santos is asking the United States to remove the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia from its list of terrorist organizations and suspend drug warrants against guerrilla commanders to help him seal a peace deal with Latin America’s oldest leftist insurgency.
In an interview days before a key visit to the White House, Santos made his most-sweeping call for action from Washington in more than three years of peace talks with the FARC rebels. His Feb. 4 meeting with President Barack Obama will celebrate 15 years and some $10 billion in U.S. counterinsurgency and anti-narcotics aid to its staunchest ally in the region.
