The New York Times-20080129-Colombia- Guerrilla Leader Is Sentenced- -Brief-

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Colombia: Guerrilla Leader Is Sentenced; [Brief]

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Ricardo Palmera, a top leader of the Marxist-inspired Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, was sentenced by a federal court in Washington to 60 years in prison for taking part in the kidnapping of three American military contractors in 2003. Mr. Palmera, 57, the most senior Colombian guerrilla leader extradited to the United States, had justified the abductions as a tactic of war by the FARC, Latin America's largest rebel group. At the courtroom where he was sentenced, Mr. Palmera, known by the nom de guerre Simon Trinidad, accused the United States of improperly intervening in Colombia's affairs and shouted, Long live the FARC!

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