SOUTH AMERICA:
Brazil Under Pressure to
Mediate Conflict
By Mario Osava*
RIO DE JANEIRO - (IPS) -
Colombia’s military
incursion into Ecuador
is at the centre of the
current crisis between
three Andean nations,
which must be resolved
within the framework of
the Organisation of
American States (OAS),
according to the
Brazilian government’s
official position as
expressed Monday by
Foreign Minister Celso
Amorim.
Ecuador announced Monday
that it was breaking off
diplomatic ties with
Colombia, while
Venezuela closed its
embassy in Bogotá and
expelled the Colombian
ambassador and other
diplomatic personnel
from Caracas.
Both Ecuador and
Venezuela sent troops to
their borders with
Colombia after soldiers
from that country
entered Ecuadorian
territory on Saturday to
carry out a bombing raid
in which a top FARC
(Revolutionary Armed
Forces of Colombia)
guerrilla leader was
killed.
A new apology by
Colombian President
Álvaro Uribe, more
straightforward and
without the limitations
of the first, could
reduce the tension,
which is the immediate
objective, said Amorim.
The question of
Venezuela is not a
problem for the time
being, he added.
"The violation of
Ecuadorian territory is
condemnable," said the
Brazilian minister, who
ruled out the possible
"extenuating
circumstances" set forth
in the Colombian
government’s arguments
of its need to defend
itself.
The Brazilian government
of Luiz Inácio Lula da
Silva called for an OAS
commission to
investigate the
Colombian military
operation that took
place in Ecuador.
According to Ecuadorian
President Rafael Correa,
Saturday’s military
raid, in which the
guerrilla leader known
as FARC’s "foreign
minister," Raúl Reyes,
and around 20 other
insurgents were killed,
was "a massacre, not a
hot pursuit."
Correa, who said
Colombian aircraft
entered at least 10 km
into Ecuadorian air
space in order to attack
Reyes’ camp from the
south, said the incident
was "extremely grave and
intolerable."
He said Ecuador "cannot
trust a government that
betrays the confidence
and trust of a sister
nation."
"We have consistently
expressed our
condemnation of the
actions and methods of
the FARC," but "there is
no justification
whatsoever for a foreign
military operation in
our territory,
regardless of the
motive. International
law requires that we be
informed and that
Ecuadorian forces carry
out the capture, as has
already occurred on
numerous occasions,
always with total
respect for human
rights," said Correa.
The Ecuadorian leader
said he spoke Sunday
with the presidents of
Argentina, Bolivia,
Chile, Costa Rica, Cuba,
El Salvador, Mexico,
Nicaragua, Panama,
Paraguay, Peru, Spain,
Uruguay and Venezuela
and with the
secretary-generals of
the OAS and the Andean
Community trade bloc.
He called on the OAS and
the Andean Community, as
well as the Southern
Common Market (Mercosur)
trade bloc (made up of
Argentina, Brazil,
Paraguay and Uruguay) to
meet to discuss
Colombia’s violation of
Ecuador’s national
sovereignty.
In response to Colombian
allegations that Ecuador
has not cooperated in
the past in pursuing
Colombia’s insurgent
groups, Ecuadorian
Defence Minister
Wellington Sandoval said
his country’s armed
forces have discovered
and destroyed 47 FARC
camps in the last few
years and have arrested
Colombian guerrillas in
Ecuador.
"Well aware of its
obligations, Ecuador has
constantly guarded the
720-km
Colombian-Ecuadorian
border, which is, if not
impossible to control,
at least extremely
difficult in terms of
keeping citizens from
crossing from one side
to the other, which is
not only an Ecuadorian
task," said Sandoval.
"Our cooperation with
the armed forces of our
sister nation Colombia
has been amply
demonstrated. In fact,
there is a joint
security pact between
the armed forces of both
countries and CONBIFRON
(the Binational Border
Commission) to act in
cases in which there is
suspicion of problems
along the border," said
the minister.
The Ecuadorian
government said it was
breaking off ties with
Colombia as a result of
"the clear violation of
Ecuador’s national
sovereignty and
territorial integrity
and the grave
accusations" by the
Colombian government,
which insinuated that
the Correa
administration had
agreements with the FARC.
"These unfounded
accusations constitute
an unfriendly act and a
deliberate attempt to
divert attention from
the violation of
Ecuadorian territorial
sovereignty, which was
admitted by the
Colombian government
itself in communiqués
and diplomatic notes,"
said the Ecuadorian
government.
The Brazilian
government’s position
that the crisis should
be dealt with at the
level of the OAS runs
counter to a widespread
view among legislators
and analysts who have
called for broad, active
mediation by Brazil in
general, and not only in
the current crisis.
But Amorim said the
government is attempting
to "facilitate
dialogue," with
President Lula remaining
in close contact by
telephone with his
counterparts in the
countries involved in
the crisis.
The Brazilian government
should take a proactive
role in creating a group
of Latin American
countries that would
mediate in the conflict,
Senator Cristovam
Buarque, a member of the
Senate Foreign Relations
Committee, told IPS.
Acting on its own, "it
would not be
successful," but the
question must be
resolved within the
regional sphere, without
the participation of
countries from outside,
especially the United
States, he said.
But "it has to happen
fast" because South
America is facing the
risk of the most serious
conflict since the War
of the Pacific, a border
dispute in which Chile
fought Bolivia and Peru
between 1879 and 1884,
said the senator, who
belongs to the
Democratic Labour Party
(PDT).
An armed conflict, even
one of limited scope
"lasting a single day
and with as few as two
soldiers killed, would
leave a permanent blot"
on South American
relations, and would
completely undermine the
regional integration
process, he warned.
Mediation is necessary,
and Brazil should
exercise its leadership
role, joining together
with other countries to
keep the current crisis
from causing damages
throughout the region,
said the president of
the lower house of
Congress, Arlindo
Chinaglia of the
governing Workers Party,
expressing a view shared
by other lawmakers.
Brazil is also the
supplier of the planes
used by the Colombian
air force to bomb the
FARC camp in Ecuador,
which according to
Correa was located three
km from the border.
The planes formed part
of a batch of 25 Super
Tucans sold to Colombia
in 2005 by the Empresa
Brasileira de
Aeronáutica (EMBRAER),
which manufactures both
military and passenger
aircraft.
But Brazil has no
responsibility in the
matter, said Senator
Buarque, who pointed out
that the sale of
airplanes is a "question
of trade," not "a
donation or military
cooperation."
Colombia would simply
have purchased aircraft
from another source if
EMBRAER had not sold it
the planes, he argued.
Venezuela was also
interested in buying the
same kind of planes from
Brazil, but was blocked
from doing so by the
United States, because
some of the parts in the
Brazilian-made planes
come from the U.S. The
Venezuelan air force
eventually upgraded its
fleet with Russian-made
aircraft.
But while Buarque
sounded dire warnings of
armed combat, Amorim
said there was very
little chance of the
crisis escalating to
that point.
The crisis is more a
matter of aggressive
rhetoric, agreed Clóvis
Brigagão, director of
the Centre of American
Studies at a Rio de
Janeiro university that
works at spreading
information on research
on the prevention and
mitigation of
international conflicts.
The incident has
generated "a unique
opportunity" for
collective mediation
similar to that carried
out by the Contadora
Group which helped bring
peace to civil war-torn
Central America in the
1980s, he told IPS. As a
"silver lining," the
conflict could even give
a boost to negotiations,
he added.
This is the moment, he
said, to negotiate a
"broad, lasting peace"
among the Andean
countries that are
currently in conflict,
and also within Colombia
itself.
Brazil, which already
gained legitimacy and
credibility as a peace
broker in the brief
border war between
Ecuador and Peru in
1998, should join
together with other
countries, like
Argentina, Chile and
Peru, in the search for
solutions, said the
analyst.
The conflict between
Colombia and Ecuador,
aggravated by the
hostile stance taken by
Chávez, could reduce
attendance at the Mar.
28-29 summit of the
Union of South American
Nations (UNASUR) in
Cartagena, a Caribbean
resort city on
Colombia’s northern
coast.
Since the U.S.-financed
Plan Colombia
counterinsurgency and
anti-drug plan got
underway eight years
ago, there have been
many moments of tension
between Colombia and
Ecuador.
In 2006 and 2007,
Ecuador sent formal
protest letters to
Colombia 10 times
because of violations of
Ecuadorian sovereignty
during aerial spraying
of coca crops by
Colombia along the
border between the two
countries or incursions
by Colombian troops over
the border.
However, the tension has
now reached boiling
point. * With additional
reporting by Kintto
Lucas in Ecuador. |
