Mon | Jul 6, 2026

Colombia leader to ask Obama for dollars, terror list change

Published:Thursday | February 4, 2016 | 8:38 AM
Pause
AP
In this January 3, 2004 file photo, Ricardo Palmera, known as Simon Trinidad, a leader of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, FARC, shouts out as he is escorted by soldiers, at a military base in Bogota, Colombia.
AP
Colombia's President Juan Mañuel Santos.
1
2

WASHINGTON (AP):

On the verge of an historic truce, the leader of Colombia will ask President Barack Obama for more money and tweaks to US policy to help Colombia rebuild after half a century of guerrilla fighting.

Colombian President Juan MaÒuel Santos arrives at the White House amid peace talks between his government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. With a final deal expected as early as next month, the government is looking ahead to a decade-plus effort to recover parts of the country it had lost to the guerrillas during Latin America's longest-running armed conflict.

Ahead of the meeting, White House officials said Obama planned to ask Congress for increased aid for Colombia in his budget proposal next week. The Obama administration hasn't put a number on the request, but Colombia's government has said spending will have to surge after a deal so that roads, schools and health-care facilities can be rebuilt in blighted areas that had been ceded to the FARC.