South America: Mysterious arms cache appears in Columbia

A ship laden with weapons and munitions has pulled up in a Columbian port with false Panamanian documents. The governments of Columbia, Nicaragua and Panama have asked the Organisation of American States to investigate.

Presidents Andres Pastrana of Columbia, Enrique Bolanos of Nicaragua and Mireya Moscoso of Panama instructed their Foreign offices to request a formal investigation by the Organisation of American States, resulting in a note being handed to the Secretary-General of this organisation, Cesar Gaviria, on Wednesday.

President Pastrana declared that Columbia is the main party interested in finding out the truth as to who or what is behind this flagrant case of weapons smuggling and states that Columbia will do “everything necessary” to help to solve the question as soon as possible.

The cache containing 3,000 AK-47 assault rifles and five million rounds of ammunition appeared last month in a Panamanian ship sailing from Nicaragua, which was supposedly part of an exchange deal between the Columbian and Nicaraguan police forces, involving a shipment of 100 Israeli Uzi sub-machine guns and 450 Jericho pistols for the Nicaraguans.

In South America, the United States’ back yard, God moves in mysterious ways.

Marcia MIRANDA PRAVDA.Ru BRAZIL