Colombia rebels selling cows as drug money drops-Santos

BOGOTA, (Reuters) – Colombian President Juan  Manuel Santos said today the country’s largest rebel group  was increasingly selling its cattle to finance South America’s  longest-running insurgency as income from trafficking  cocaine drops .
Colombia’s Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC,  has been reeling from more than a decade of a U.S.-backed  military offensive that has dealt it major blows and cut cocaine  output in one of the world’s top producers of the drug.
“The FARC is designing a complete strategy to counter the  problem of lack of financing … due to the blows to their  funding sources, especially drug trafficking. One of the orders  was to sell cattle to get more resources,” Santos said.
The FARC has been trying in recent weeks to sell cattle  stolen in other regions of the country, Santos said in a speech  in the southern province of Caqueta.
The rebels have for decades funded their movement through  control of coca production and have built up ties with drug  gangs in some parts of the country and fought for control over  key routes and supplies in others.
The billions of dollars a year in cocaine money has been one  of the main reasons why Colombia’s war has continued for nearly  five decades and its political system has been rocked by  scandals of collusion between officials and gangs.
Santos is responsible for some of the harshest blows against  the FARC – first as defense minister and then as president –   including killing the group’s leader Alfonso Cano in November.
Strikes against the FARC since 2002 have severely  weakened the rebels’ a bility to launch attacks on the  country’s economic infrastructure, while better security has  helped attract billions of dollars in foreign investment.
Colombia’s steps to improve security, however,  mask deep-seated issues like unequal land distribution, rural  poverty, flourishing criminal gangs and weak institutions.
Santos has pushed through a range of reforms to tackle  structural economic defects that prompt support for the FARC  such as returning land stolen by right-wing paramilitaries and  rebels to displaced peasants.
Despite being at its weakest in years, the FARC still carry  out ambushes and bombings.
On Friday, rebels were suspected by police of  detonating a car bomb in Catatumbo in Norte de Santander  province, which is along the border with Venezuela in an area  where new FARC chief Timoleon Jimenez or “Timochenko” is  believed to be operating.
Both guerrillas and the government have called for peace but  Santos says the Marxist rebels must first take steps they want  peace, such as releasing hostages and stopping attacks. The FARC  has refused to disarm.
Various peace efforts in Colombia since the 1980s have  brought mixed success, with some smaller illegal armed groups  demobilizing, but the FARC has pressed on.
“The government does not have any indication nor  demonstration at this time that can convince us of the good will  of the other party in reaching a peace agreement,” Santos said.
“Action by the security forces will be strong and remain  strong.”