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Colombia’s murder of FARC negotiator creates crisis in region
Berta Joubert-Ceci / Thursday 13 March 2008
 

Now, more than ever, the effort to achieve a humanitarian exchange of prisoners of war held by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC-EP) for its guerrilla members held in jails by the Colombian and U.S. governments is the main road to peace with justice in that country.

A month ago it seemed possible. Now the Colombian military has bombed Ecuador and massacred a group of FARC members, including the group’s main peace negotiator, Raúl Reyes.

One thing is certain: the struggle of the Colombian people goes on, as was demonstrated by mobilizations on March 6 against the crimes of the Colombian state and for the victims of paramilitarism.

The Colombian group MOVICE—Movement of Victims of State Crime—called the demonstrations. President Alvaro Uribe had falsely accused the organizers of being guerrillas, which is like putting them on the paramilitaries’ hit list. Over the past year, scandal has followed scandal showing the ties between the Uribe government and these unofficial death squads.

The call was responded to internationally. Demonstrations were held in Argentina, Uruguay, Mexico, Brussels, Britain, Spain, France, Switzerland, Australia, Chile, Brazil, Venezuela, Dominican Republic, Canada and the United States. In many countries there were protests in several cities. In the U.S., New York, Washington, Miami and Chicago had simultaneous actions.

In Colombia itself, the largest was in Bogotá and filled the Plaza Simón Bolí­var. Others took place in Cartagena, Bucaramanga, Pereira, Manizales and Medellín.

These demonstrations came on the heel of a brutal incursion of the Colombian military into Ecuador to massacre FARC guerrillas responsible for international negotiations.

Colombia massacre in Ecuador

The Colombian Army and police crossed the border into Ecuador on March 1 to bomb a FARC encampment. It was a deliberate action coordinated with Washington to destroy any prospect of peace through the process of the humanitarian exchange.

The main target was Raúl Reyes, the second in command of the FARC after Manuel Marulanda. This was not accidental, since he was in charge of negotiations for the exchange. Reyes was the contact person for talks about peace negotiations with several governments—among them France, Ecuador, Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Argentina—and with social and political figures inside Colombia.

In fact, Reyes was working with the Ecuadoran government for the release of 12 people retained by the FARC. Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa corroborated this: “I am sorry to communicate that the conversations were going forward for the release in Ecuador of 12 hostages, among them Ingrid Betancourt. Everything was frustrated by the warmonger and authoritarian hands; we cannot discard that this was one of the motivations for the incursion and attacks on the part of the enemies of peace.”

Ingrid Betancourt is a former presidential candidate in Colombia. Many sources in Colombia say Uribe does not want to see her freed because she might compete with him in the 2010 presidential elections.

Since Betancourt holds both Colombian and French citizenship, French President Nicolas Sarkozy has been very involved in the negotiations for her release. Precisely on the day that Reyes was killed, three envoys from the French government were in Ecuador. They were getting ready to meet with him when they received a call from Luis Carlos Restrepo, the “peace commissioner” appointed by Uribe, warning them not to go to the meeting with Reyes because they could “be in danger.”

New information—facts & fiction

Uribe lied blatantly to Correa and the world when his government announced that the Colombian army fired at the FARC members only after the guerrillas shot at them. Colombia had crossed the Ecuadoran border, bombed the camp and then sent troops by land to “finish” the job.

When Ecuadoran soldiers went to investigate the site, they found a horrific massacre: mutilated bodies were piled up and some scattered around. Except for the three guerrillas guarding the camp, all were in sleeping garb and many had bullet wounds in the back, showing they were killed in their sleep.

This illegal invasion of Ecuadoran territory has been condemned by most Latin American countries.

So far 25 bodies have been found. In addition, the Colombian Army took away the bodies of Raúl Reyes and Julián Conrado so the FARC could not bury its comrades. Several bodies are still in an Ecuadoran morgue, unidentified. Three injured women were left behind and subsequently taken to a hospital by the Ecuadoran Army, among them a Mexican student who was conducting research about the insurgent group. Several Mexicans who were not guerrillas were also killed.

The Colombian government, loyal to the instructions of its U.S. boss, is acting not only against the insurgency but also against the Bolivarian countries that oppose U.S. hegemony. It claims its army found three computers used by Reyes in perfect condition (after a bombing!) and that information in them compromises Ecuador and Venezuela as financial supporters of the FARC.

Brief period of heightened tension

Ecuador, Venezuela and later Nicaragua broke diplomatic relations with Colombia because of this aggression. Ecuador and Venezuela sent troops to their respective borders with Colombia. Tension in the whole region increased and it was feared that a regionalization of the Colombian conflict could explode, engulfing several countries.

It is important to note that Colombia is the most militarized country in the region. It gets advisers and technologically sophisticated war materiel from the United States. It is not accidental that many in the region call Colombia the Israel of Latin America; this recent action is reminiscent of Israel’s attacks in Palestine and Lebanon.

On March 7, during the Rio Summit held in the Dominican Republic, Dominican President Leonel Fernández pleaded with Uribe, Correa, Hugo Chávez from Venezuela and Daniel Ortega from Nicaragua to discuss the issue and try to diminish the tension, requesting that they “shake hands and embrace.” Correa, in a very serious and dignified speech, then spelled out all the infringements by Uribe’s administration upon Ecuador and said, “We cannot talk with a president and a government who has no credibility or sense of decency.”

After a clearly hypocritical speech from Uribe regretting the actions, tension in the region was diminished. Both Venezuela and Nicaragua reestablished diplomatic ties with Colombia. Correa said, “I am happy that this has been solved, but what is the basic problem? .... [I]t is the Colombian conflicts that are affecting neighboring countries. Ecuador is a victim of this conflict.”

Handshakes or embraces do not solve the Colombian conflict; only the people mobilized in struggle can do it.