COLOMBIA: BOGOTA: FUNERAL OF FORMER ARMY COMMANDER HELD скачать в хорошем качестве

COLOMBIA: BOGOTA: FUNERAL OF FORMER ARMY COMMANDER HELD

(13 May 1998) Spanish/Nat The funeral of former Colombian defence minister and army chief General Fernando Landazabal Reyes took place in the capital Bogota on Wednesday. The seventy-six year old was gunned down in front of his house on Tuesday morning while he went to buy a newspaper. This is the latest in a series of murders in the run-up to presidential elections on May 31. Seventy-six-year-old Landazabal was only half a block from his apartment on Tuesday when two men in a red car pulled up and shot him. The suspects escaped in cars which were later found abandoned. The funeral of the former army commander was held in the capital Bogota on Wednesday. His murder is the latest in a series of killings aimed at disrupting presidential elections scheduled for May 31. Last month, former Communist Party activist Maria Arango and human rights lawyer Eduardo Umana were slain. Left wing guerrilla groups and right-wing paramilitary death squads have both been blamed for the killings. Colombian President Samper spoke of his grief at this recent murder at a press conference on Tuesday, and insisted that it would not disrupt the upcoming elections. SOUNDBITE: (Spanish) "We cannot accept the intimidating pressure of those following violence. Those minorities, who through these ideological crimes which we have got to know during these last few weeks, are attempting to disregard the right of the majority of Colombians to elect on the 31st of May their destiny and form also the Colombian institution. We are not going to allow the dirty war to come back to Colombia. That which allows for the death of your friend and enemy to produce a feeling of terror and of chaos." SUPER CAPTION: Ernesto Samper, President of Colombia Landazabal's death ends a controversial right wing political career. His tough line on leftist rebels, and his opposition to peace talks of any kind, forced his resignation as defence minister in 1984. Landazabal was working as an adviser to presidential candidate Harold Bedoya, also a hard-line former armed forces commander, currently running a distant fourth in the race for the presidency. His murder has caused widespread consternation throughout Colombia, a country torn apart by conflicts between leftist rebels, paramilitary groups and the army. SOUNDBITE: (Spanish) "The National Commission for Reconciliation wants to make clear the deep indignation and protest it feels over this cruel and cowardly act which again shows the extreme depths of the Colombian conflict- one in which indefensible members of the civil population keep on being the victims." SUPER CAPTION: Monsignor Ernesto Martinez, Representative of the National Commission for Peace and Reconciliation With the first round of elections less than a fortnight away, the country is bracing itself for yet more violence. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter:   / ap_archive   Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​ Instagram:   / apnews   You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...