Chapter 593 - 537: Meeting the FARC Leader

Song Heping spent an entire day at the school, checking on its current operational status.

Currently, in terms of student numbers, it has not yet reached the scale of the Special Soldier School established by Black Water here, but its prospects are very optimistic.

Because of the ELN armed forces affair, the reputation of the Falcon Special Soldier School established by Song Heping in Venezuela has spread.

There are various rumors.

Some say that it was the military backbone trained by this school that enabled the ELN armed forces to defeat AUC.

Others claim that elites from the school were directly involved in that war.

Regarding these rumors, Song Heping couldn't stop them, although he didn't like to be too conspicuous. But one couldn't wrap fire in paper – having taken part in that war himself, it was an eventuality he could not conceal.

This was one of the reasons why he chose to ease relations with the CIA.

If he clashed with the Americans before securing a foothold in South America, without giving any quarter, not to mention the potential dangers, he could forget about expanding his market.

Knowing full well that his cooperative relationship with Kelly was very fragile, merely a compromise of interests, Song Heping still decided to choose this path.

She wanted to rely on him to help the CIA dominate the South American drug market, so he would use them to establish prestige for himself in South America and to open up the arms market.

Drugs and arms, both not to be seen in the light, had many similarities.

Song Heping believed that as long as he could establish a firm footing in the South American gangster circles, there would be no worries for his arms sales in the future.

As for the profits from the Mexican drug market promised by the CIA, that was pie in the sky, unreliable, not like the military contracts with the army, which were stably lucrative.

But now, he had to find a way to make the other major families in Mexico bow down to him besides Shorty; otherwise, everything else was out of the question.

At eight in the evening, Song Heping took Jiang Feng and drove to the border.

When choosing the location for the school, Song Heping picked a place close to the border to facilitate future clandestine entries into Colombia.

Due to relations with Venezuelan forces, most of the areas near the Venezuelan border were controlled by the ELN armed forces, making entry and exit as convenient as returning home.

Smuggling had one advantage: no tracks were left when crossing the border, rendering it impossible for others to effectively track him.

Upon reaching near the national border, they hid the car. Song Heping, with Jiang Feng, found the ELN armed forces personnel sent by Morins to meet them, and under their escort, they arrived at the prearranged meeting spot.

"Brother!"

Morins greeted him warmly like a long-lost relative with a bear hug, hugging Song Heping tightly.

"We haven't seen each other for a long time, I heard you got involved with some drug lords in Mexico? And connected with the CIA too."

Song Heping said, "Knowing my association with the CIA, you still dare to bring me here?"

While saying this, he looked around.

This was one of the ELN armed forces' strongholds.

Morins laughed heartily at the words, "You're a businessman, connected to all kinds of people, but—"

He proudly pointed at himself.

"Our relationship is more than just business, we have a bond forged in life and death."

He wasn't boasting.

The two indeed shared a bond of life and death.

Song Heping found this quite satisfying, reaching out and patting Morins' shoulder.

"Let's sit first, then talk."

Morins pulled Song Heping to a table to sit down, then asked, "What would you like to drink? Alcohol or coffee?"

Song Heping said, "For business, coffee."

Morins signaled his men to prepare coffee.

In the end, Song Heping asked, "How's the task I asked you to handle?"

Morins said, "No problem, I have already made contact with FARC over there, and their top commander has agreed to arrange a meeting tomorrow afternoon."

He then asked, "You didn't make it clear over the phone last time why you were coming over. Can you explain in detail now?"

Song Heping did not directly answer this question but asked instead, "I saw operational backbones from the FARC at my Falcon School in Venezuela, did you refer them there?"

Morins was momentarily stunned.

This was indeed something he had arranged.

Only, he hadn't notified Song Heping beforehand, but had only mentioned it to people at the school.

This time, ELN sent a second group of 100 key members to the Falcon School, among them 40 were from the FARC armed forces.

"Yes, I didn't mention this to you, however..."

"I'm not blaming you." Song Heping raised his hand to interrupt Morins: "I should thank you instead. The school was opened for business after all, and I welcome anyone as long as they don't fall behind on tuition. I was just wondering, it seems you have a good relationship with the FARC armed forces."

Morins said, "For now it's okay. After the dissolution of AUC, I met with Marulan several times, discussing how to divide the territories previously controlled by the AUC. Through this process, we've built some rapport. Marulan knows that our armed forces' victory against the government army and the AUC was all thanks to you, so he's very interested in you. When I mentioned you wanted to meet him, he agreed immediately without a second thought. It seems the old man has wanted me to invite you for a meeting for quite some time."

Song Heping was secretly pleased inside.

Nothing had been done in vain.

Initially, supporting the ELN armed forces in their head-on clash with the Colombian government army as well as the combined forces of Americans and AUC did carry great risks.

But with greater risk came greater reward.

The value of that incident was now being realized.

"I'm here this time to ask for a favor from you and another big shot in Colombia, so this time I am the one asking."

Song Heping did not beat around the bush but went straight to the point.

Upon hearing this, Morins patted his chest and said: "Taking into account your support during our most critical moment, I can't guarantee for Marulan, but I will definitely support you with all I have. Just say the word, what do you need me to do?"

Song Heping asked: "Morins, what is your relationship with the drug lords here in Colombia?"

"Relationship?!"

Morins scoffed, "As you know, I wasn't interested in drug trafficking before."

Song Heping said, "People change. Moon waxes and wanes. I heard you've also dabbled in this business now."

Morins's face turned red with a hint of embarrassment: "Yes, it's true. After the dissolution of AUC, I ended up splitting their territory evenly with Marulan. I also took over a lot of the former AUC armed forces. Now, the number of armed personnel under me has exceeded eight thousand."

As he said this, the coffee was served.

Morins picked up the coffee and took a sip, apparently trying to mask his embarrassment.

After all, ELN armed forces were a left-wing organization and detested drugs, thus they rarely got involved in this business.

"Personnel are difficult to maintain... Speaking of the eight thousand strong force, it may sound powerful outwardly that my influence has increased. But the moment I open my eyes each day, that's just a few thousand more mouths to feed. Merely relying on the profits from the oil fields and pipelines at the border won't fill their stomachs. If soldiers don't eat, they'll rebel. So, I had no choice but to take on the drug business when I took over AUC's territory."

"Understood."

Song Heping nodded: "A lack of money can stumble even a hero. Your main goal after all is to oppose the government and fight for your legitimate political power, and that is the big picture."

Seeing that Song Heping did not show any contempt, but instead expressed understanding of his difficulties, Morins felt moved, experiencing a realization of "He who understands me, Heping does."

It's worth noting that when initially taking over AUC's territories and the entire drug business, there was discord within the ELN leadership.

The conservatives believed that what Morins did violated the initial intentions of the organization and went against previous principles.

The supporters of Morris, the reformist faction, were very pragmatic. They knew that in order to grow in Colombia, dealing in these dealings was unavoidable.

Drug trafficking is a way to make money for anti-government armed forces around the world – without it, sustaining armed forces would mean increasing taxes in their territories.

As a left-wing armed organization, they aimed to fight for the interests of the poor and the rights of farmers, and raising taxes would increase the burden on the farmers in their territories, which Morins and his reformist faction were even less willing to see.

"Song! You truly are a good brother to me. Sometimes I really wish you would stay in Colombia. If you joined our organization, I believe we would realize our political aspirations very quickly."

"Power should be fought for on our own. I am an outsider and do not interfere with your matters." Song Heping declined to muddle the waters and returned to the topic at hand: "So to say, what percentage of the Colombian drug market can you control?"

"I'm on the smaller end..." Morins replied: "After all, we only took over some of the business from AUC, we don't grow much ourselves, but the drug lords who grow on our territory do have to listen to us. Speaking about how much of the overall market we can control..."

He frowned and thought for a moment, then provided an answer: "About 15%, but if you include those drug lords we can influence, it should reach around 20%."

"20%..." Song Heping understood clearly.

Morins's ELN armed force had modest cultivation, but they had significant control over numerous major drug lords and farmers who were growing on their territory.

So he could roughly control one-fifth of the market share.

"Not enough. It's too little."

Song Heping scratched his chin and asked: "What about FARC? How much can they control?"