NICARAGUA:
Asylum for Survivors of
Attack on FARC Camp
By José Adán Silva
MANAGUA (IPS) -
The Nicaraguan
government of Daniel
Ortega granted asylum to
two young Colombian
women who survived a
Mar. 1 bombing raid by
the armed forces of
their country on a FARC
guerrilla camp in
Ecuador.
Doris Torres Bohórquez,
21, and Martha Pérez
Gutiérrez, 24, were in
the camp when it was
bombed. The late-night
attack killed 26 people,
including the FARC’s
(Revolutionary Armed
Forces of Colombia)
international spokesman,
Raúl Reyes.
The two women were flown
in to Nicaragua on
Sunday. Ortega had
already given asylum to
Lucía Morett, a Mexican
university student who
also survived the raid,
and who arrived here in
April.
Four other Mexican
students and former
students of the
Autonomous National
University of Mexico
were killed in the
cross-border incursion
ordered by Colombian
President Álvaro Uribe.
The attack triggered a
major diplomatic crisis,
with Ecuador breaking
off ties with Colombia,
and Venezuela mobilising
troops to its border.
The Nicaraguan
government also briefly
severed relations with
Colombia, in solidarity
with Ecuador, whose
territorial sovereignty
had been violated.
Morett, Torres Bohórquez
and Pérez Gutiérrez were
all injured in the
aerial bombing on the
FARC camp, and were
rescued by the
Ecuadorean military and
taken to the armed
forces hospital in
Quito.
Ortega’s wife Rosario
Murillo announced on the
governing Sandinista
National Liberation
Front’s (FSLN) radio
station that the
government "reiterates
its decision…to take in,
for humanitarian
reasons, those who
present a well-founded
request for the rights
and benefits of asylum
in Nicaragua in line
with the International
Convention on Human
Rights."
Murillo added that "the
Colombian women have
asked for the care
indispensable for their
complete recovery, and
will appear before the
press when their health
allows them to do so."
No information was given
out on where the women
are staying, for safety
reasons. It was only
reported that Morett was
staying at a rural hotel
owned by Foreign
Minister Samuel Santos
on the outskirts of
Managua, under police
custody.
"Their stay in the
country, safety and
well-being are private
matters," Deputy Foreign
Minister Manuel Coronel
Kautz told IPS. "The
government is going to
respect their right to
recover from their
injuries, and will not
make any more comments
on the matter. This is a
strictly humanitarian
question."
The FSLN’s international
relations secretary,
Jacinto Juárez, said his
party could not
"pronounce itself on the
arrival of the Colombian
compañeras."
"The matter falls
strictly within the
realm of the Foreign
Ministry of Nicaragua,"
he added.
Citing off-the-record
official sources, the
Nicaraguan press
reported that the two
Colombian women arrived
on a Nicaraguan air
force plane sent to
Ecuador from Managua.
The rightwing opposition
criticised Ortega for
granting asylum to the
three women, complaining
that the move made
Nicaragua "a sanctuary
for terrorists."
The Colombian women had
stated in Ecuador that
they carried out
domestic tasks in the
FARC camp.
But rightwing lawmaker
José Pallais, chairman
of the legislative
Justice Committee,
insisted that they were
"terrorists."
Pallais argued that
"they were involved in
drug trafficking and
guerrilla activities and
belonged to the FARC,
and the FARC are
considered terrorist
forces by Colombia, the
United States and the
European Union. The
group carries out
kidnappings for ransom,
and kills innocent
people. This means they
cannot be considered
innocent without an
investigation."
Maximino Rodríguez, head
of the parliamentary
bloc of the
Constitutionalist
Liberal Party, to which
Pallais belongs, said
Ortega does not consider
the FARC a terrorist
group because he feels
an "ideological
affinity" with it.
"He will never recognise
(that it is a terrorist
organisation) because he
comes from the leftist
guerrillas and for them
it is normal to back
terrorists and call them
‘brother’," he told IPS,
referring to Ortega’s
role as one of the top
leaders of the
Sandinista guerrillas,
which toppled the
dictatorship of
Anastasio Somoza in
1979.
Other opposition
legislators have called
for Foreign Minister
Santos to be questioned
in parliament.
In the past, Ortega has
referred to the members
of FARC as "brothers."
And as the leader of the
FSLN, he decorated the
Colombian rebel group’s
chief, Manuel Marulanda,
in 1999 in the southern
Colombian municipality
of San Vicente del
Caguán, when that area
was demilitarised to
create a safe haven for
peace talks with the
government of Andrés
Pastrana (1998-2002).
The director of the
non-governmental
Institute of Strategic
Studies and Public
Policies, Javier
Meléndez, said Ortega’s
decision to grant asylum
to the women injured in
the attack on the FARC
camp was "a political
mistake," given
Nicaragua’s need for aid
from countries that have
included the FARC on
their list of terrorist
groups.
"My fear is not what
they will say about
Ortega, but how
Nicaragua will be seen
abroad," said Meléndez.
"If Ortega is in favour
of peace in Colombia, as
he has stated, he should
call for the release of
(French-Colombian FARC
hostage) Ingrid
Betancourt with the same
intensity with which he
backs the FARC
guerrillas."
The Colombian Embassy in
Managua made no comment
on the Nicaraguan
government’s decision to
grant asylum to the two
Colombian women. |
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