El Tiempo reports that there will be no presidential pardon for FARC leader Ricardo Palmera a.k.a. Simón Trinidad, who is currently serving a 60-year sentence at the Florence ADX US Penitentiary for the execution of American Vietnam Veteran and Bronze Star recipient Thomas Janis, and the kidnapping and torture of Marc Gonsalves, Keith Stansell and Thomas Howes.
Julián Villabona Galarza explains,
Although Obama has the legal authority to grant a pardon Trinidad, due to special executive powers in the American legal system, he will not exercise his powers on this occasion, according to reporter Sergio Gómez Maseri, who is the Washington correspondent for El Tiempo, and who had first hand information from a United States government source.
Colombian president Santos reportedly had been pressuring Washington to release the terrorist Trinidad to appease the FARC, which he later denied.
In other FARC news, French president François Hollande to visit FARC encampment on official Colombia trip
Hollande will visit Colombia between the 22 and 24 of January, when he is expected to visit a guerilla demobilization site in Cauca province.
“Hollande, the president of France who cannot confront jihadist terrorism, will visit a Colombia handed over to the FARC.”
Noticia en Europa "HOLLANDE, PRESIDENTE FRANCÉS QUE NO HA SABIDO ENFRENTAR AL TERRORISMO YIHAIDISTA, VISITA LA COLOMBIA ENTREGADA A LAS FARC
— Álvaro Uribe Vélez (@AlvaroUribeVel) January 8, 2017
Hollande’s visit is yet one more step towards legitimizing the FARC’s ascension to political power.
