During his recent visit to Aid to the Church in Need in Germany, the Apostolic Vicar of San Vicente Puerto Leguizamo in Colombia, Msgr. Francisco Javier Munera-Correa, said guerrilla rebels seek to “take over the country, and this is what is complicating negotiations so much.”

 Msgr. Munera-Correa, who’s vicariate is a bastion of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), said the “guerrilla movement is subversive: just like the followers of Castro in Cuba and Chavez in Venezuela, the guerrillas embrace a materialist ideology.”

Nevertheless, he indicated that although many of its members call themselves Marxists, at the same time they say they are not atheists. “Sometimes they even ask priests for their blessing.” Msgr. Munera-Correa explained that “in addition to the ‘objective’ motives of an economic, political and social nature, there is a lot of trafficking in drugs and arms behind this conflict.”