Anne Geggis
The Florida Legislature is officially on record as opposing President Joe Biden’s move to take Colombian rebels off the list of groups that the United States considers terrorists, according to a memorial that won the approval of the House Thursday.
The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) was taken off the U.S. list of terrorist groups late last fall, but it’s still an enemy as far as Rep. Juan Fernandez-Barquin is concerned.
The House passed the Miami Republican’s legislation (HM 1383) Thursday on a voice vote. It goes next to the Senate Rules Committee. The legislation calls for the memorial to be forwarded to the President, Vice President Kamala Harris, in her role as President of the Senate, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and all members of the Florida congressional delegation.
“For those of you who don’t know, they are a Marxist, terrorist group sponsored and assisted by narco (narcotics) traffickers and countries that sponsor terrorism like Cuba and Venezuela,” Fernandez-Barquin said on the House floor. “FARC is also responsible for the world’s longest civil war at 57 years, and they are responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths.”
Later, Barquin-Fernandez said his wife is Colombian and he has a friend whose brother was kidnapped and murdered at FARC’s hands.
“I just felt compelled to do this,” he said, noting that Colombians make up the second-largest group of South Florida transplants. “When they ask me about it, I can tell them the Florida House stands with you.”
The Senate passed similar legislation last week with Democratic Sen. Annette Taddeo recounting the horrors her family suffered because of FARC — her father’s kidnapping — as the Senate sponsor of the legislation (SR 1064), Republican Sen. Ileana Garcia, stood by her side.
Accounts estimate the conflict between the Colombian government and FARC has resulted in the deaths of 220,000 people. The United States had listed the group as a terrorist organization starting in 1997.
Colombia signed a peace pact with FARC five years ago, after six decades of upheaval, according to Reuters news service.
Fernandez-Barquin acknowledged the peace accord in his brief introduction.
“But the reality is much more complicated,” he said. “They are still a threat to our strongest ally in Latin America — Colombia — and a threat to the stability in the region.”
HM 1383 also opposes “any effort to change the U.S. State Department’s designation of Cuba and Iran from their current designations as state sponsors of terrorism.”
The memorial, like the Senate resolution, calls for Congress to use “all means necessary” — including divestiture — to impede ties with FARC.
