FARC Terrorists have change of Heart and want Negotiations...

Colombia's FARC terrorists seem to have had a change of heart and want to become good all around citizens, saying they're open to negotiations with the government if they get guarantees for safe conditions for talks. Alfonso Cano, who took over the FARC leadership more than a year ago, after the death of their ex leader "tiro fijo" (sure shot), told the local Cambio magazine the rebels were open to negotiating to end the four-decade-old conflict, but gave no details on what guarantees he wanted.

President Alvaro Uribe's U.S.-backed security campaign has battered the FARC to its weakest in years. Guerrillas have been driven into remote areas and violence has eased. But talks to end Latin America's oldest insurgency still appear remote.

"What will determine this will be the official guarantees for a meeting between the government and the FARC to clear any danger and tension among participants and improve conditions for talks," Cano said in a e-mailed response to questions sent by the magazine.

"We have to talk, to have dialogue and that means space and guarantees," he said in the rare interview.

But he wrote there was no contact with Uribe's government, which has received hundreds of millions in U.S. aid to counter rebels and drug trafficking that makes Colombia the world's No. 1 cocaine exporter along with its nacro terrorist state allies in north South America, Hugo Chavez's Venezuela and Rafael Correas's Ecuador.

Once a peasant army controlling large parts of Colombia, the FARC has been badly hurt by the loss of top commanders and by desertions as it comes under heavy military pressure. But they remain a force of kidnappings, extorsion and murder in remote, rural areas of Colombia.

Attempts to reach an agreement to free more than 20 soldiers and police held hostage by the FARC as an initial step have been stalled over terms of their release. The FARC says it will free one captive held for more than a decade an cliear human rights issue.

Rebels want to exchange their captives for jailed rebel fighters. But in recent communiques they have stopped making reference to the New York City-sized swath of land they demanded be demilitarized before any talks.

"We have demanded guarantees of the method, time and place so government representatives and ours can analyze the viability and the terms of the exchange," Cano said. "Anything else is speculation."

As long as the terrorists believe they hold the shots, negotiations should be out of the question. These are nothing more than murderers and thugs, common outlaws that should be hunted down and destroyed along with their supporters. If you want to clear an area of alligators, job one is to drain the swamp.