Colombian plot to crash plane foiled, say police

The Associated Press

BOGOTA, Colombia -- Colombia's secret police announced Wednesday they had foiled a plot by leftist rebels to crash a plane into either the Congress building or the presidential palace.

The plan was aborted with the arrest of Jorge Enrique Carvajalino, who secret police director Col. Gustavo Jaramillo called "the brains of the attack."

Jaramillo said Carvajalino had recruited a pilot who had agreed to fly a plane into the Congress building during Independence Day ceremonies on July 20 or into the presidential palace on Aug. 7, during the inauguration of the next president.

He said Carvajalino was arrested in Bogota on July 18 -- just two days before Independence Day.

Carvajalino is the brother of a member of the the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia known by his nom-de-guerre, Andres Paris.

Jaramillo said the suicide pilot, who authorities have not identified, had worked with drug traffickers and had agreed to fly the plane in exchange for receiving $2 million from the rebel group.

The rebel group, also known as the FARC, was planning to steal a plane in Bogota, or in the coastal city of Baranquilla, he said.

Jaramillo did not address the issue of why the pilot would have accepted payment for a mission in which he would be killed. However, during the drug wars of the 1980s, the Medellin Cartel reportedly recruited impoverished teenagers for missions they knew would get them killed. The cartel would promise to take care of the teenagers' families.

The FARC has threatened to bring its 38-year war against the government to the cities, but most of the fighting continues to occur in the countryside. Some 3,500 people die in the fighting every year, most of them civilians.

Over the past two months, four small aircraft ventured into Bogota airspace without authorization. Despite the quick deployment of air force planes to chase the aircraft, none were intercepted and authorities have been unable to identify the pilots or aircraft or determine why they were flying over Bogota.