Colombian govt, FARC rebels ask UN to monitor peace

Yahoo – AFP, January 20, 2016

The head of the FARC delegation to peace talks, Ivan Marquez (L), speaks during
 a press conference at the Convention Palace in Havana on January 19, 2016
(AFP Photo/Yamil Lage)

Havana (AFP) - Colombia's government and FARC rebels said they have asked the United Nations to monitor the eventual end of their five-decade conflict, raising hopes they are close to a peace deal.

Negotiators from both sides said they had asked the UN Security Council to send an unarmed observer mission to Colombia for 12 months to oversee the disarmament of the Marxist guerrilla group and the end of the conflict.

They said the "political mission" would work alongside the FARC and the government in a tripartite body over which the UN observers will preside, overseeing a ceasefire, settling disputes, making recommendations and issuing reports.

The head of the Colombian government 

delegation to peace talks, Humberto de la

 Calle, speaks during a press conference

at the Convention Palace in Havana on 

January 19, 2016 (AFP Photo/Yamil Lage)

"This entity will begin work once the accord is signed," said government and rebel negotiators in a joint statement in Havana, where they have been holding peace talks since November 2012.

The mission will comprise observers from the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, a 33-nation regional group.

The government's chief negotiator, Humberto de la Calle, called it a "particularly significant step" toward peace.

"Peace in Colombia is possible," said his rebel counterpart, Ivan Marquez.

President Juan Manuel Santos however made it clear that the UN "blue helmet" peacekeepers will not be needed.

"This has to do with unarmed observers, not a blue helmet peacekeeping operation," Santos said.

Peace in sight

The two sides have made several key advances in recent months, notably in September, when they signed a deal on post-conflict justice, and Santos and FARC chief Timoleon Jimenez vowed to conclude a peace accord within six months.

But the FARC said last week that "substantial hurdles" were jeopardizing the March 23 deadline.

The two sides have signed deals on four of the six agenda items at the peace talks: justice for victims, land reform, political participation for ex-rebels and fighting the drug trafficking that has fueled the conflict in the world's largest cocaine-producing country.

The unsettled issues are disarmament and the mechanism by which the final accord will be ratified.

The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) was launched in the aftermath of a peasant uprising in 1964.

The Colombian conflict, which has killed more than 220,000 people and displaced six million, has over the years drawn in right-wing paramilitaries, drug traffickers and several leftist rebel groups, of which the FARC is the largest remaining.

A rival rebel group, the National Liberation Army (ELN), has held exploratory talks with the government but has yet to join the peace process.

Guantanamo population below 100 as 10 Yemenis sent to Oman

Yahoo – AFP, January 14, 2016

Guantanamo Bay facility opened under George W. Bush to hold terror suspects
after the September 11, 2001 attacks and became known for harsh interrogation
 techniques that some have said were tantamount to torture (AFP Photo/
Mladen Antonov)

Muscat (AFP) - Ten Yemeni former inmates from the US detention centre in Guantanamo Bay arrived in Oman on Thursday, Muscat's foreign ministry said, as Washington struggles to close the notorious prison.

The transfer is the largest to a single country at any one time under the administration of US President Barack Obama, and brings the facility's population down to 93.

About 780 inmates have been held there since it opened in January 2002. It is the first time since then the population has dropped below 100 -- a significant milestone in the facility's history.

"Just last night, after a deliberate and careful review, we completed the transfer of 10 Yemenis -- roughly 10 percent of the total remaining Gitmo population -- to the government of Oman," US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter said in Florida.

"Like every transfer that came before it, the decision to transfer these detainees happened only after a thorough review by me and other senior security officials of the government."

The 10 men are: Fahed Abdullah Ahmad Ghazi, Samir Naji al-Hasan Muqbil, Adham Mohamed Ali Awad, Mukhtar Yahya Naji al-Warafi, Abu Bakr Ibn Muhammad al-Ahdal, Muhammad Salih Husayn al-Shaykh, Muhammad Said Salim Bin Salman, Said Muhammad Salih Hatim, Umar Said Salim al-Dini, and Fahmi Abdallah Ahmad Ubadi al-Tulaqi.

Oman received the men "in response to a request by the US administration for help to resolve the issue of detainees at Guantanamo Bay," the foreign ministry said in a statement carried by state news agency ONA.

The statement did not give further details, but typically Guantanamo inmates are released on condition they undergo a rehabilitation or reintegration programme to make sure they do not threaten US security interests.

Still opposed by Congress

Human rights groups welcomed the latest releases.

"Now that the Guantanamo population is below 100 for the first time in its history, the momentum to finally close Guantanamo has never been stronger," Amnesty International USA said in a statement.

"That momentum can't be lost. It's time for Congress to stop standing in the way and stop playing political games with the lives of the men who remain there. All detainees should either be tried in federal court or released."

The Republican-controlled Congress has thwarted Obama's repeated efforts to close Guantanamo.

Demonstrators take part in a protest calling for the closure of the Guantanamo

Bay prison on January 11, 2016 in front of the White House (AFP Photo/Mandel Ngan)

He came to office in 2009 vowing to shutter the facility, which opened under his predecessor George W. Bush to hold suspects after the September 11, 2001 attacks and became known for harsh interrogation techniques that some have said were tantamount to torture.

Inmates were called "enemy combatants" and denied standard US legal rights, meaning many were held for years without charge or trial.

In his final State of the Union address on Tuesday, Obama again urged Congress to help him close the detention facility.

"It's expensive, it's unnecessary and it only serves as a recruitment brochure for our enemies," he said.

But US House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul blasted Thursday's transfers, calling the move reckless.

"This month, he will have released close to 20 percent of the facility's population, even though intelligence officials suspect nearly one-third of terrorists freed from the facility have returned to the fight," he said, using a widely disputed recidivism figure.

The United States has been working to repatriate low-risk inmates from the Guantanamo facility, located at a US naval base on the southeastern tip of Cuba.

Another former Guantanamo inmate was repatriated this week to Saudi Arabia, where he was to join the kingdom's programme to rehabilitate militants.

On January 9, the last Kuwaiti prisoner at the detention centre returned home to a family reception after 14 years of detention.

And a day earlier, two other Yemeni ex-detainees were transferred to Ghana.

Mexico moves to extradite drug lord 'Chapo' to US

Yahoo – AFP, Laurent Thomet,  January 10, 2016

Drug kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman is escorted into a helicopter at
Mexico City's airport on January 8, 2016 (AFP Photo/Alfredo Estrella)

Mexico City (AFP) - Mexican authorities announced they will begin the process of extraditing drug kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman to the United States, as his lawyer vowed a tough legal battle.

President Enrique Pena Nieto's government had balked at extraditing Guzman prior to his prison break in July but the administration has changed tack after recapturing him on Friday.

The attorney general's office said it received two US extradition requests last year on a slew of charges, including drug trafficking and murder, and that it later obtained arrest warrants to ship him across the border.

"With Guzman Loera's recapture, the respective extradition proceedings will have to start," the office said in a statement, though it did not indicate when the hearings would start.

Lawyers for Guzman will have three days to file objections and 20 more days to prove them, though that timeframe can be extended, prosecutors said, vowing to fight any appeals.

Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto (C) congratulates Defense Secretary 

General Salvador Cienfuegos Zepeda (R) and Interior Secretary Miguel Angel 

Osorio Chong (L), in Mexico City on January 8, 2016 (AFP Photo/Omar Torres)

Once a judge rules on the extradition, the decision is sent to the foreign ministry, which will have 20 days to validate it. Guzman would have another chance after that to legally challenge the decision.

One of Guzman's attorneys, Juan Pablo Badillo, vowed to take the case up to the Supreme Court if necessary.

"A legal battle has begun in the constitutional framework that will be very serious, very tough," Badillo told reporters outside the Altiplano prison near Mexico City, where Guzman was sent following his arrest on Friday.

"He shouldn't be extradited because Mexico has a fair Constitution," he said.

US President Barack Obama's administration congratulated Mexico following the arrest but did not publicly indicate whether it would press Pena Nieto to extradite Guzman.

US politicians called for his immediate extradition as he faces charges in a half-dozen states.

Some questioned Mexico's ability to hold on to a man who fled prison through a tunnel under his cell's shower in July and fled from another penitentiary in a laundry cart in 2001.

Federal Police officers patrol the area near the Almoloya prision where 

"El Chapo Guzman" was re-admitted, in Almoloya de Juarez, Mexico, on 

January 9, 2016 (AFP Photo/Pedro Pardo)

"Given that 'El Chapo' has already escaped from Mexican prison twice, this third opportunity to bring him to justice cannot be squandered," said US senator and Republican presidential hopeful Marco Rubio.

A Mexican federal official defended the decision to send Guzman back to Altiplano, saying measures were taken to improve security, including the installation of metal rods under the floor of prison cells.

Biopic bid

The world's most wanted drug baron was arrested after a deadly military raid early Friday in Los Mochis, a coastal city in his native northwestern state of Sinaloa.

Hours later, the Sinaloa cartel kingpin was flown to the Altiplano maximum-security prison, some 90 kilometers (55 miles) west of the capital.

On July 11, after just 17 months at Altiplano, Guzman slipped through a hole in his cell's shower, climbed on a motorcycle mounted on rails, and traveled 1.5 kilometers (one mile) through a tunnel to freedom.

But six months later, Guzman was back in custody after authorities located him, thanks to the kingpin's bid to make a biographical film about himself, according to Attorney General Arely Gomez.

Drug kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman is escorted to a helicopter at Mexico 

City's airport on January 8, 2016 following his recapture (AFP Photo/Antonia Nava)

Gomez said Guzman even "established contact with actresses and producers" through his attorneys.

Last escape

The months-long manhunt culminated in a house in the palm tree-lined city of Los Mochis, which authorities began to stake out in December after pursuing him across the mountains of Sinaloa.

Marines were met by gunfire when they swooped in on Friday, leaving five suspects dead and one marine wounded. Six others were detained in the operation

"When we had the courage, we looked out the window and saw the soldiers on the ground firing at the garage door until they opened it," said a neighbor.

Guzman and his security chief fled through the city's drainage system, repeating a tactic the drug kingpin successfully used in escaping authorities in 2014 in the nearby city of Culiacan. This time however the marines expected such a move, Gomez said.

The wanted men came out of a manhole and stole a car, but they were captured on a road and taken to a motel, where Guzman was seated on a bed, wearing a dirty sleeveless shirt -- an ignominious end for a kingpin whose billionaire drug business reaches as far as Asia and Europe.

Related Article:

Top White House official calls drug boss' boasts 'maddening'

Bolivia, Peru sign $500 mn deal for Lake Titicaca clean-up

Yahoo – AFP, January 8, 2016

Lake Titicaca, which is the highest in the world, at an altitude of 3,800 meters
(12,470 feet) above sea level, provides a habitat for a number of frogs, birds
and fish, including two species that have almost been wiped out (AFP Photo
/Aizar Raldes)

La Paz (AFP) - Bolivia and Peru agreed to provide more than $500 million towards cleaning up Lake Titicaca, whose polluted waters are home to some animals nearing extinction, a Bolivian environment official said.

The deal, which is meant to improve the lake's biodiversity, includes environmental management and recovery through to 2025.

Lake Titicaca, which is the highest in the world, at an altitude of 3,800 meters (12,470 feet) above sea level, provides a habitat for a number of frogs, birds and fish, including two species that have almost been wiped out.

Bolivia's Environment and Water Minister Alexandra Moreira and her Peruvian counterpart Manuel Pulgar signed the agreement during a public event.

"For the short term we have a limit of $117 million and for the long term $400 million," said Moreira's advisor Sergio Arispe.

“It's a logistical matter we are trying to manage through 2025," he said.

Part of the waste in the lake is generated by the Bolivian city of El Alto, near La Paz, which is home to about 800,000 people.

Peru's minister stressed that the two countries are "already taking concrete actions such as investing in water treatment plants to address the main problems the lake is facing."

Another inmate leaves Guantanamo as population slowly dwindles

Yahoo – AFP, Thomas Watkins, January 8, 2016

The US military still has 104 prisoners in detention at its naval base
in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba (AFP Photo/Mladen Antonov)

Washington (AFP) - The trickle of detainees leaving Guantanamo Bay continued Friday with the repatriation of a Kuwaiti man, as the general overseeing the military prison denied claims the Pentagon is stalling on shutting it down.

Faez Mohammed Ahmed Al-Kandari became the latest transfer, sent back to Kuwait after the United States determined he no longer posed a national security threat.

He had been held without trial in the Caribbean detention center since 2002, and his return to Kuwait now means the facility has a population of 104.

President Barack Obama pledged to shut Guantanamo when he took office in 2009, but his efforts have been repeatedly thwarted by Congress.

The facility, nestled out of sight on the US naval base on the southeastern tip of Cuba, became a hated emblem of America's "war on terror."

Critics said images of inmates who were clad in orange jumpsuits and held in cages, along with a lack of legal recourse, inflamed anti-American sentiment in the Middle East and was used as a jihadist propaganda tool.

In all, 45 of the remaining inmates have been approved for transfer, and the Pentagon is trying to find countries to take them. Many are from Yemen and cannot go back given the country's collapse into civil war.

US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter in December signed off on 17 of the 45 to be transferred as soon as this month, so officials say a further flurry of releases is expected in the coming weeks.

Even if all 45 are released, the remaining inmates are expected to stay in indefinite detention. These include the "9/11 Five," a group of five men accused of plotting the September 11, 2001 attacks that unfolded in New York, at the Pentagon and in the skies over Pennsylvania.

Guantanamo North

Obama wants the remaining men to be transferred to federal facilities in the United States and has asked the Pentagon to come up with proposals for a "Guantanamo North."

But delays, bureaucratic hurdles and political opposition mean it is increasingly likely the clock will tick down on his presidency before Guantanamo closes.

Opponents also point to some former inmates having returned to fight against US interests.

Recent media reports cited unnamed officials claiming the Pentagon is deliberately slowing the process through which the men cleared for transfer are released.

"The fact that there was reporting about (the Pentagon) in any way, shape or form slowing down or trying to impede the release of detainees from my perspective is complete nonsense," said General John Kelly, who is retiring as head of the US Southern Command and spent the past three years overseeing Guantanamo.

Reports suggested Guantanamo officials were slow to respond to records requests from visiting foreign delegations considering taking prisoners.

"It's an insult frankly," Kelly said.

'Committed' Al-Qaeda member

In the case of Kandari, the Pentagon released virtually no information about the detainee, as is typically the case with Guantanamo inmates.

According to his leaked 2008 prison file, published by WikiLeaks and the New York Times, the 40-year-old was a "committed member" of Al-Qaeda and was an influential religious figure for the group's fighters in Afghanistan.

He was initially captured in December 2001 and sent to Guantanamo in May the following year.

On Wednesday, detainees Mahmud Umar Muhammad Bin Atef and Khalid Muhammad Salih al-Dhuby, both from Yemen, were transferred to Ghana.

Since 2002, a total of 779 detainees have been held at Guantanamo. Inmates are kept without recourse to the regular US legal processes and some likely will die in prison without ever being convicted of a crime.

Related Article:

Two Guantanamo detainees transferred to Ghana: Pentagon

Paraguay police search S. American football HQ

Yahoo – AFP, 7 January 2016

The Conmebol headquarters in Luque, Paraguay, is seen on January 7, 2016,
 during a raid within the framework of the FIFA corruption scandal (AFP
Photo/Norberto Duarte)

Asuncion (AFP) - Paraguayan police searched the headquarters of South American football's governing body CONMEBOL on Thursday as part of investigations into the corruption scandal rocking FIFA, state prosecutors said.

Paraguay's state prosecution service said in a statement it ordered the search on a request by the US Justice Department, which is investigating a vast bribery scandal at FIFA, football's world governing body.

Police and prosecution officials "are searching for documentation related to the granting of commercial and broadcast rights for sporting events," the statement said.

Witnesses said the current interim head of CONMEBOL, Wilmar Valdez, and the president of the Paraguayan football federation, Alejandro Dominguez, were in the building during the operation.

A lawyer for the confederation, Alfredo Montanaro, called the proceedings "irresponsible."

"It is very strange. We have been cooperating with the judicial authorities of the United States, Uruguay and Paraguay," he said on the radio.

CONMEBOL's headquarters near the Paraguayan capital Asuncion had diplomatic immunity from 1992 but that privilege was withdrawn last year after the scandal erupted.

US authorities last month indicted 16 Latin American football officials accused of accepting bribes in return for awarding contracts for tournament broadcast rights.

Paraguayan national Juan Angel Napout, the ex-president of CONMEBOL and a vice-president of FIFA, was extradited to the United States, where he pleaded not guilty.

The scandal over allegations of multimillion-dollar bribes has led to the suspension of numerous other top officials including Sepp Blatter, longtime president of FIFA.

CONMEBOL is the umbrella group for 10 South American football associations.

In 2013 it signed an allegedly graft-ridden TV rights contract with Argentine firm Datisa.

Of the 10 association presidents in office that year, just one has not been implicated in corruption by the FBI: Uruguay's Sebastian Bauza.

Related Article:

S. American confederation loses immunity in FIFA fallout

Two Guantanamo detainees transferred to Ghana: Pentagon

Yahoo – AFP, January 6, 2016

Razor wire-topped fence and a watch tower at the abandoned "Camp X-Ray"
detention facility at the US Naval Station in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba on April 9,
2014 (AFP Photo/Mladen Antonov)

Washington (AFP) - Two Guantanamo Bay detainees have been transferred from the US military prison to Ghana, the Pentagon said Wednesday, bringing the controversial facility's remaining population down to 105.

Mahmud Umar Muhammad Bin Atef and Khalid Muhammad Salih al-Dhuby, both from Yemen, are the first detainees to be sent anywhere in sub-Saharan Africa, Pentagon spokesman Commander Gary Ross told AFP.

The men had been recommended for transfer as early as January 2010, according to their leaked case files published by The New York Times. But bureaucratic hurdles and Yemen's collapse into civil war meant the men could not be sent home.

The duo will be monitored and the Pentagon is confident they do not pose a threat, Ross said. They arrived in Ghana earlier Wednesday.

"There are security assurances that have been agreed on," Ross said, without giving details.

"The United States is grateful to the government of Ghana for its humanitarian gesture and willingness to support ongoing US efforts to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility," the Pentagon said in a statement.

According to his leaked file, Dhuby had lived his entire life in Saudi Arabia but claimed Yemeni citizenship. He was a "probable" member of Al-Qaeda and allegedly received militant training in Afghanistan.

His file also states he "probably" engaged in hostile activities against coalition forces.

Atef's file states he was an admitted member of the Taliban and fought under Osama bin Laden's 55th Arab Brigade. He allegedly participated in hostile actions against US and coalition forces in Afghanistan.

President Barack Obama pledged to shut Guantanamo -- reviled by critics as a stain on America's moral character that has helped fuel anti-US jihadist propaganda -- when he took office in 2009, but his efforts have failed and time is quickly ticking down on his presidency.

US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter last month approved the transfer of 17 low-risk detainees from Guantanamo; Atef and Dhuby come from that group.

Since 2002, a total of 779 detainees have been held at Guantanamo in connection with America's "war on terror."

Guantanamo Bay sits on the southeastern tip of Cuba but is completely fenced off from the communist island.

Inmates are kept without recourse to regular US legal processes and some likely will die in prison without ever being convicted of a crime.

Defiant Venezuela opposition claims congress supermajority

Yahoo – AFP, January 6, 2016

A picture released by the Venezuelan presidency's press office shows President
Nicolas Maduro speaking in Caracas on December 30, 2015 (AFP Photo)

Caracas (AFP) - Venezuela's opposition-controlled state legislature on Wednesday swore in three anti-government lawmakers in defiance of President Nicolas Maduro, laying claim to the supermajority that could empower them eventually to oust him.

The new, opposition speaker of the National Assembly, Henry Ramos Allup, swore in the three, defying an injunction by the Supreme Court to suspend them on the government's request.

The three extra deputies bring the total number of opposition seats in the legislature to a two-thirds "supermajority."

Their swearing-in flies in the face of an injunction by the Supreme Court which has yet to rule on whether the three opposition deputies, as well as one other pro-government lawmaker, can legally take their seats in the assembly, pending accusations of electoral fraud against them.

The opposition's defiant move further deepened a tense political standoff in the crisis-hit South American country.

Most of the opposition lawmakers were sworn in during a rowdy session on Tuesday as Maduro vowed to resist them with an "iron hand."

Allup said his opposition would within six months propose a way "to change the government by constitutional means."

The new president of the Venezuelan parliament, Henry Ramos Allup (C),

 speaks during the swearing-in ceremony in Caracas, on January 5, 2016

(AFP Photo/Juan Barreto)

"Here and now, things will change," he said.

Maduro responded in comments broadcast on television: "I will be there to defend democracy with an iron hand. They will not make me give ground or waver."

But he admitted he planned soon to announce a reshuffle of ministers in his government.

The December vote is widely seen as punishment by voters over the state of the economy, in the toughest challenge yet to Maduro's authority since he took over from his late mentor Hugo Chavez in 2013.

Venezuela has the world's biggest known oil reserves but has suffered from a fall in the price of the crude on which its government relies.

It is in deep recession, with citizens suffering shortages of basic goods and soaring inflation.

More than 160,000 evacuated in deadly LatAm floods

Yahoo – AFP, December 26, 2015

People sit outside their house at a flooded area in Falcon, 42 km west from
Asuncion, along the Paraguay-Argentina border on December 26, 2015
(AFP Photo/Norberto Duarte)

Asuncion (AFP) - More than 160,000 people have been driven from their homes in Paraguay, Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay in some of the worst floods in decades, which have left at least six people dead, authorities said Saturday.

The areas hardest hit in the week leading up to Christmas were in Paraguay, where four people have been killed by falling trees. President Horacio Cartes has declared a state of emergency to free up more than $3.5 million in disaster funds.

The intense rain storms, caused by an unusually strong "El Nino" pattern, have forced 130,000 Paraguayans from their homes, authorities said. In the capital Asuncion, thousands were temporarily without power.

Emergency personnel were carrying out rescue and evacuation operations, said David Arellano, the head of operations for the National Emergency Secretariat (SEN).

"We cannot abandon the thousands of families who each year are affected by flooding," Cartes said in his Christmas message.

El Nino is the name given to a weather pattern associated with a sustained period of warming in the central and eastern tropical Pacific that can spark deadly and costly climate extremes.

Last month, the UN's World Meteorological Organization warned the phenomenon was the worst in more than 15 years, and one of the strongest since 1950.

People affected by floods set up improvised shacks in Falcon, 42 km west from

 Asuncion, along the Paraguay-Argentina border on December 26, 2015 (AFP

Photo/Norberto Duarte)

In northeastern Argentina, two people were killed and about 20,000 were evacuated from their homes by flooding caused by a rise in the level of the Uruguay River, authorities said.

Entre Rios province was the worst off with about 10,000 people displaced, most of them in Concordia, a city of some 170,000 located on the banks of the river where officials said it was the most serious flooding in 50 years.

Uruguay, which borders the river, has declared a state of emergency in several northern departments. As of Saturday, about 9,000 people were forced from their homes, according to national emergency officials.

And in Brazil, President Dilma Rousseff on Saturday flew by helicopter to survey the damage in southern Rio Grande do Sul state, where about 9,000 people have been displaced by flooding in recent days.

The federal government has released $1.7 million in emergency funds for the affected areas.

Colombia legalizes medical marijuana

Yahoo – AFP, Paula Carrillo, December 22, 2015

Ines Cano (R) and her daughter Luna Valentina, who uses medical marijuana
 to treat the symptoms of refractory epilepsy, visit the Cannalivio cannabis lab
near Medellin, Colombia on May 7, 2015 (AFP Photo/Raul Arboleda)

Bogota (AFP) - Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos signed a decree Tuesday legalizing and regulating medical marijuana, the latest softening of the country's hardline tactics in the war on drugs.

In a nationally televised address, Santos announced it would be fully legal to grow, process, import and export cannabis and its derivatives for medical and scientific use.

"This decree allows licenses to be granted for the possession of seeds, cannabis plants and marijuana," he said from the presidential palace.

"It places Colombia in the group of countries that are at the forefront... in the use of natural resources to fight disease."

He added that the measure "does not go against our international commitments on drug control."

Colombia's government has long been a close ally of the United States in fighting international drug trafficking, using its military and billions of dollars in US funding to try to shed its title as the world's largest cocaine producer.

But it has shown signs of easing its hardline stance in recent months.

Santos's announcement follows a recent decision to stop aerially spraying the herbicide glyphosate on fields of coca, the raw ingredient for cocaine.

The World Health Organization warned in April that the chemical, sold by US biotech company Monsanto under the brand name Roundup, is "probably carcinogenic."

Santos also announced in September that Colombia would begin giving land to farmers who stop growing coca.

Medical marijuana had previously fallen into a legal gray area in Colombia.

It was authorized under a 1986 law, but the lack of regulation prevented production on a national level.

"The manufacture, export, sale, and medical and scientific use of this and other substances have been permitted for several decades in Colombia. However, they were never regulated. That is what we are doing today," Santos said.

Ines Cano administers medical marijuana to her daughter Luna Valentina (L)

 at their home in Medellin on November 25, 2015; Valentina, 12, was born with 

refractory epilepsy and uses cannabis to calm her seizures (AFP Photo/Raul Arboleda)

Under the decree, growers will apply for licenses from the National Narcotics Council, while those seeking to manufacture cannabis-based drugs will apply for permits from the health ministry.

The health ministry will also grant permits to export such drugs to countries where they are legal.

"Our goal is for patients to be able to access medications made in Colombia that are safe, high-quality and accessible. It is also an opportunity to promote scientific research in our country," Santos said.

'Plan Colombia'

Colombia decriminalized possession of up to 20 grams of marijuana in 2012, and it is legal to grow up to 20 cannabis plants. But consuming it in public and selling it are illegal.

Colombia's Congress is currently debating a separate medical marijuana bill that would define crop limits and other production details.

Its sponsor, Senator Juan Manuel Galan, told AFP he hopes to have it signed into law by June.

Medical marijuana is already used in Colombia on a small scale.

For example, some epileptics use cannabis extract to control their seizures.

But health professionals and pharmaceutical companies say the new decree will make it much easier to buy, sell and manufacture such drugs.

Illegal drugs have given rise to horrific violence by drug cartels in Colombia, and have fueled a five-decade conflict between leftist guerrillas and the Colombian government that has killed more than 220,000 people.

The country has received $9 billion in US funding since 1999 under "Plan Colombia," a military and economic cooperation program aimed at combating drug trafficking.

But it remains a top producer of illegal drugs, particularly cocaine.

Coca cultivation surged by 44 percent last year, to 69,000 hectares (170,000 acres), according to the United Nations.