Internet plug pulled on Colombia's guerrillas

Internet plug pulled on Colombia's guerrillas 3:05pm EDT, 9/26/96 BOGOTA, Colombia - A Colombian guerrilla group currently involved in a bloody offensive in the mountains and jungles, suffered a setback in its propaganda battle when its new-tech voice on the Internet was mysteriously silenced. The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), which has periodically paralyzed half the country with road blocks, found its route to the information superhighway barred. The Communist insurgents, who rose up in arms in 1964, embraced new technology last year in their fight to overthrow the government by launching a home page on the Internet. But in unexplained circumstances, which a spokeswoman for the Mexico City-based Internet provider Teesnet said may or may not be linked to external pressures, the plug was pulled on the service Monday -- a day after being publicized in Colombia's leading daily, El Tiempo. The FARC's Mexico City-based international spokesman Marco LeDon CalarcDa admitted the loss of the Internet page was a serious reversal but vowed the computer-age conflict was far from over. "This is an attack on freedom of expression because we were not doing anything illegal. I cannot say exactly how it happened but the hand of the Colombian government is in this," he said. "The FARC is used to difficulties and this is just the latest challenge. One way or another we will get back on to the Internet." The Colombian guerrillas used their worldwide web site to publish their political magazine Resistencia, whose distribution is banned in Colombia, and to offer explanations about their latest armed actions. FARC, labeled narcoguerrillas since the 1980s when U.S. ambassador Lewis Tambs highlighted the group's alleged connections with Colombia's drugs trade, have been dubbed Cyberspace guerrillas since their appearance on the Internet. "Cyberspace guerrillas may seem a fun name but I think it is pejorative and belittles what we're doing," said LeDon CalarcDa. "We are looking to topple the government and set up a new Colombia. "Using weapons naturally comes within the logic of the armed struggle. Just fighting through the Internet would be like shooting rubber bullets. Not using it would be like continuing to fight the army with a 12-bore shotgun," he said. In the four weeks since the FARC unleashed its latest offensive with an attack on a jungle base in southern Putumayo province, more than 150 soldiers, police and civilians have died.
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Chris Adams