By Matt Spetalnick and Patricia Zengerle
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The Biden administration plans to remove the Colombian rebel group FARC from the U.S. list of foreign terrorist organizations, five years after the rebels signed a peace agreement with Bogota, two people familiar with the matter said on Tuesday.
U.S. officials could announce the delisting of the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known by the Spanish acronym FARC, as soon as Tuesday, one of the sources told Reuters.
FARC rebels reached a peace deal with Colombia’s government in 2016, ending its part in the Andean country’s internal armed conflict, which has left millions displaced and more than 260,000 dead.
The deal was negotiated with the backing of then-U.S. President Barack Obama’s administration, in which Joe Biden served as vice president.
The FARC was first designated by the United States as a terrorist organization in October 1997.
Following demobilization the guerrillas entered politics, initially calling themselves the Revolutionary Alternative Common Force, which kept the same FARC acronym, though later rebranded as Comunes. The party’s leadership received 10 congressional seats after the peace deal was signed.
The Biden administration’s decision to remove the group from the terrorism blacklist was first reported by The Wall Street Journal and confirmed to Reuters by two sources familiar with the matter, including a congressional aide.
The White House declined to comment. The Colombian government, one of Washington’s closest allies in Latin America, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
(Reporting By Matt Spetalnick and Patricia Zengerle; additional reporting by Oliver Griffin and Julia Symmes CobbEditing by Chris Reese and Sonya Hepinstall)
