10/12/2008

News / Treasury Designates FARC International Commission Members

The U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) today designated eight international representatives of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), a narco-terrorist organization. Today's action was taken pursuant to the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act (Kingpin Act), which applies economic sanctions against significant foreign narcotics traffickers and organizations, like the FARC.

"Today's designation exposes eight `International Commission members' of the FARC," said Adam J. Szubin, Director of OFAC. "Through their service to the FARC as international representatives and negotiators, these persons provide material support to a narco-terrorist organization. OFAC is relentless in its pursuit of exposing those who fuel and support the terrorist activities of the FARC."

The following eight individuals designated today have been identified as the key members of the FARC's International Commission: Jairo Alfonso Lesmes Bulla ("Javier Calderon"), Efrain Pablo Trejo Freire, Orlay Jurado Palomino ( "Commander Hermes"), Ovidio Salinas Perez ("El Embajador"), Jorge Davalos Torres, Francisco Antonio Cadena Collazos ("El Cura Camilo"), Nubia Calderon de Trujillo ("Esperanza"), and Liliana Lopez Palacios ("Olga Lucia Marin"). These International Commission members represent the FARC in Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay, Brazil, Peru, Ecuador, Venezuela, Panama, Mexico, and Canada.

As representatives of the FARC and members of its International Commission, these individuals work abroad to obtain recruits, support, and protection for the FARC's acts of terrorism. Some are also themselves violent criminals. On August 6, 2008, Colombian authorities arrested Jairo Alfonso Lesmes Bulla, the FARC's International Commission member for Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, and Paraguay, in Bogota, Colombia for plotting to assassinate the former Interior and Justice Minister Fernando Londo�o Hoyos and the brother of Colombian Vice President Francisco Santos. Orlay Jurado Palomino, the FARC International Commission member for Venezuela, is wanted in Colombia on charges of kidnapping, rebellion, and terrorism. In August 2005, the Brazilian Federal Police arrested Francisco Antonio Cadena Collazos, the FARC's International Commission Member for Brazil, in Sao Paulo at the request of Colombian authorities on criminal charges of rebellion. The Brazilian government later released Cadena Collazos and granted him refugee status. Nubia Calderon de Trujillo was recently granted asylum by Nicaragua, even though she is a member of an internationally recognized narco-terrorist organization.

In 2003, President George W. Bush identified the FARC as a significant foreign narcotics trafficker, or drug kingpin, pursuant to the Kingpin Act. In 2001, the State Department designated the FARC as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist pursuant to Executive Order 13224, and in 1997 the State Department designated the FARC as a Foreign Terrorist Organization. This OFAC action continues ongoing efforts under the Kingpin Act to apply financial measures against significant foreign narcotics traffickers and their organizations worldwide. In addition to the 75 drug kingpins that have been designated by the President, 468 businesses and individuals have been designated by OFAC pursuant to the Kingpin Act since June 2000.

Today's action freezes any assets the designated entities and individuals may have under U.S. jurisdiction and prohibits U.S. persons from conducting financial or commercial transactions involving those assets. Penalties for violations of the Kingpin Act range from civil penalties of up to $1,075,000 per violation to more severe criminal penalties. Criminal penalties for corporate officers may include up to 30 years in prison and fines of up to $5,000,000. Criminal fines for corporations may reach $10,000,000. Other individuals face up to 10 years in prison for criminal violations of the Kingpin Act and fines pursuant to Title 18 of the United States Code.

For a complete list of the individuals and entities designated today, please visit:
http://www.treasury.gov/offices/enforcement/ofac/actions/index.shtml

To view previous OFAC actions directed against the FARC, please visit:

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Treasury Action against the FARC on September 12, 2008.
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Treasury Action against the FARC on July 31, 2008.
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Treasury Action against the FARC on May 7, 2008.
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Treasury Action against the FARC on April 22, 2008.
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Treasury Action against the FARC on January 15, 2008.
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Treasury Action against the FARC on November 1, 2007.
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Treasury Action against the FARC on September 28, 2006.
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Treasury Action against the FARC on February 19, 2004.

http://www.treas.gov/press/releases/hp1169.htm

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