COLOMBIA:
Hostages Release Goes
Far Beyond Personal
Ordeal
Analysis by Ana Carrigan
LONDON, (IPS) -
The long ordeal of two
of the 45 hostages held
by the Revolutionary
Armed Forces of Colombia
(FARC), whose release
was promised by the
guerrilla leadership on
Dec. 18, appears at long
last to be coming to an
end.
Weather permitting,
former congresswoman
Consuelo González, and
Clara Rojas, the former
running-mate of
ex-presidential
candidate Ingrid
Betancourt, together
with Clara's
three-year-old son
Emmanuel -- the product
of a relationship with a
FARC guerrilla -- should
be safely reunited with
their families in
Caracas by Saturday
evening.
That at least is what
all those now in
Caracas, waiting as
Venezuelan President
Hugo Chávez launched his
elaborate plan Friday to
fly helicopters and
planes into Colombia to
pick up the hostages in
the jungle, are hoping.
Yet on Thursday night,
the Colombian
government, apparently
without prior warning to
the Venezuelan
government, posted a
communiqué on the
website of the Colombian
president’s office
unilaterally setting a
deadline for the complex
rescue operation.
The statement said that
Colombia's permission
for Venezuelan aircraft
to operate within
Colombian airspace was
set to expire at 1900
local time on Sunday.
But on Friday, Colombian
President Álvaro Uribe
reportedly received a
call from his
counterpart in France,
Nicolas Sarkozy.
Apparently, the deadline
had been lifted by
Friday afternoon.
Underlying this
announcement, it is not
hard to sense the
frustration of the
Colombian government,
which has been
diplomatically isolated
by the enthusiastic
international support
for Chávez' successful
efforts to secure the
release of at least a
few of the hostages.
Nor is it difficult to
imagine the dismay of
those Colombian generals
who apparently believe
they can, and are,
winning the country’s
four-decade civil war
against the FARC, and
who this week have found
themselves suddenly
outwitted, as their
enemy has emerged into
the international
spotlight, escaping the
political and diplomatic
isolation in which the
government's refusal to
negotiate has succeeded
in keeping them boxed in
for the last six years.
Meanwhile, it can only
be upsetting for the
Colombian high command
to find that in the
midst of a major
offensive in the
rainforest war zone,
they must obey orders to
pull back their forces
so as to create a de
facto demilitarised area
without any conditions
attached.
Among those waiting in
Caracas for the release
of the hostages are the
families of González and
Rojas, who have both
been held in guerrilla
camps in the jungle for
six years, and
politicians and
diplomatic
representatives of five
Latin American countries
(Argentina, Bolivia,
Brazil, Cuba and
Ecuador) and two
European countries
(France and
Switzerland), whose
governments have come on
board to support Chávez'
efforts and serve as
international
"guarantors" of the
handover of the hostages
by the FARC.
In addition, there is a
delegation of the
International Committee
of the Red Cross (ICRC),
whose participation as
neutral intermediaries
has been requested by
the Colombian and
Venezuelan governments
and by the FARC, and
reporters from all over
the world, for whom
Chávez has organised a
flight to Colombia to
report live on the
release of the hostages.
But when this operation
has run its course, what
comes next? There are
rumours a-plenty that
the FARC may release one
of the three U.S.
hostages -- military
contractors captured
while working for the
U.S.-financed Plan
Colombia
counterinsurgency and
anti-drug strategy --
who is reportedly in
poor health.
The FARC wants U.S.
politicians to join the
international effort to
find solutions, not only
to the large and complex
issues standing in the
way of a humanitarian
exchange of all of the
hostages for imprisoned
insurgents, but also to
engage U.S.
policy-makers in longer
term efforts to tackle
issues like the drug
trade and rural
development, and
eventual peace talks.
On Thursday, Brazilian
delegate Marco Aurelio
García, a seasoned
diplomat and the
personal envoy of
Brazilian President Luiz
Inácio Lula da Silva,
spoke briefly to a radio
reporter on his arrival
in Caracas. "We have
firm hopes," he said,
"that this will be the
first step in a long
process, aimed first at
resolving the hostage
crisis and secondly at
finding a peaceful
solution to the conflict
that has gripped
Colombia for more than
40 years."
At the end of the day,
what is happening this
weekend in Colombia and
Venezuela is about more
than the release of
three hostages. What is
happening right now, if
all goes well, has the
potential to
dramatically alter the
future of war and peace
in Colombia. |
