Colombia/Mexico: Fox closing FARC office Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit source - Milt Shapiro Mexico closing Colombia rebel office Diego Mendez, AP - 4/14/2002 SAN JOSE, Costa Rica - President Vicente Fox has begun to close the Mexico City offices of Colombia's main rebel group, Colombia's president said Friday. President Andres Pastrana said Fox assured him during a private meeting the offices of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, of FARC, were being closed. Pastrana spoke with Fox on the sidelines of a summit of the 19-member Rio Group of Latin American nations. Fox did not mention the action during a brief news conference he held during the summit. His government said earlier this month it was studying the possibility of closing the offices. Pastrana called on other leaders to close rebel offices in their countries. "It will mean that no terrorist group - in this case the FARC - will have a place to hide,'' he said. "There won't be a country in Latin America that will give them a chance to remain.'' The FARC has been fighting a guerrilla war against the government for over 40 years, and rebels have stepped up attacks since peace talks collapsed Feb. 20. On Thursday, guerrillas gained entry to the legislature in Cali, Colombia's third-largest city, by posing as an army bomb squad responding to a threat. They ushered legislators into a stolen bus and drove them into the mountains after slitting the throat of one police officer who resisted. The lawmakers were still being held on Friday. ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytcamer-04.14.02-14:44:30-5057