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Colombia Threatens Cuba, Wants Guerrilla Leaders Returned

Associated Press

   BOGOTA, COLOMBIA - Colombia threatened Tuesday to denounce Cuba at the
   United Nations unless it immediately turns over two guerrilla
   commanders believed to be living on the communist island.

   The demand came in a letter sent to the Cuban Embassy in Bogota.

   President Ivan Duque first pressed Cuba to arrest two National
   Liberation Army leaders after the group claimed responsibility for a
   car bombing in January that killed 22 people at a Bogota police
   academy.

   But now the Duque government warns that it could denounce Cuba as a
   state sponsor of terrorism at the upcoming U.N. General Assembly
   because of the threat of an alliance between the ELN and a rearmed
   faction of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

   "As a result of the new circumstances, Colombia demands the Republic of
   Cuba immediately hand over to our judicial authorities all of the
   members of the ELN that are in Cuban territory," the letter said.

   Further isolate Cuba

   The new pressure being exerted by Colombia threatens to further isolate
   Cuba in the region at a time it is already reeling from U.S. sanctions
   aimed at cutting off its support for Venezuela, which Duque has also
   threatened to denounce to the United Nations.

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