WASHINGTON, Jan 15 (Reuters) - The U.S. Treasury said on Tuesday it will freeze U.S. assets of a money exchange firm and six individuals linked to Colombian guerrillas behind high-profile kidnappings, ratcheting up financial pressure on the group. The Treasury designated the firm and individuals as narcotics traffickers connected to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or the FARC, which Washington has branded as a drug-trafficking terrorist group. The action under an executive order prohibits Americans from doing business with the individuals and the Comercializadora Colombian Money Exchange Ltda. The Treasury said the firm helped launder the FARC's narcotics proceeds by converting foreign currency derived from drug sales abroad into Colombian pesos. The order also seeks to freeze any assets they may have under U.S. jurisdiction. The Treasury said five of the individuals are listed as owners or managers of the money exchange firm, while a sixth, Norberto Antonia Agduelo Velasquez, was responsible for part of FARC's production and sale of cocaine and coordination of FARC drug exports. "With this action, we are commencing a campaign against the FARC's financial network to undermine this deadly narco-terrorist organization," said Adam Szubin, director of the Treasury's sanctions arm, the Office of Foreign Assets Control. The FARC last week freed two Colombian hostages, politicians Clara Rojas and Consuelo Gonzalez, under a deal brokered by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. The group is still holding Colombian-French politician Ingrid Betancourt, three American Defense Department contract workers and more than 40 other people captive in jungle camps. The group wants to exchange them for jailed rebels. The FARC wants Colombia's U.S.-ally president, Alvaro Uribe, to pull government troops back from a New York City-sized rural area to allow a safe haven for a hostage swap. But Uribe, whose own father was killed in a botched FARC kidnapping, says that would allow rebels to regroup. (Reporting by David Lawder, editing by Philip Barbara)
Colombian politician Clara Rojas embraces her son Emmanuel at a foster center in Bogota January 13, 2008. The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, rebels on January 10 freed Colombian ...
