COLOMBIA:
Questions Surround
Foreign Role in Hostage
Rescue
By Constanza Vieira*
BOGOTA (IPS) - Among the
many questions raised by
Operation Check, which
ended with the Jul. 2
release of Revolutionary
Armed Forces of Colombia
(FARC) hostages Ingrid
Betancourt, three U.S.
contractors and 11
members of the Colombian
army and police, is the
role played by the
United States, France
and Switzerland.
According to the
leftwing Alternative
Democratic Pole (PDA)'s
publication Polo,
launched on Jul. 4,
there are between 2,000
and 3,000 U.S. military
contractors working in
Colombia, like the three
who were freed with
Betancourt.
"Many of the decisions
taken in Colombia
[follow] prior
consultations with the
United States," a source
described by Polo as
"close to the U.S.
embassy in Bogotá" told
the newspaper.
Defence Minister Juan
Manuel Santos himself
said that the rescue
operation had been the
subject of consultation
with U.S. Ambassador
William Brownfield "a
week" or "10 days" in
advance, and Brownfield
had given it his
approval.
Brownfield, for his
part, said he had been
informed of the
operation "two weeks" in
advance.
Santos pointed out that
Colombian President
Álvaro Uribe had
promised the governments
of the United States and
France not to attempt,
without their prior
approval, a military
rescue of U.S. hostages
Keith Stansell, Marc
Gonsalves and Thomas
Howes, and of Betancourt
who has dual
Colombian-French
nationality.
France has not said
whether it was consulted
beforehand, but on Jun.
26 two recognised
European facilitators
working for a
humanitarian exchange of
prisoners arrived in
Colombia and on Jun. 27
asked for government
permission to contact
the FARC "in the south
of the country,"
Minister Santos said on
Jun. 29.
The European
facilitators "have not
informed us that they
have made any contact,"
he said at that time.
Meetings between
facilitators and the
FARC are not normally
publicised, but the
government decided to
leak this news because
their presence
contributed to "the soap
opera," as Santos called
the intelligence
operation to trick the
FARC rebels guarding the
hostages.
IPS learned that the
French and Swiss
facilitators met that
very day with a member
of the FARC high command
who acted as a courier
to and from "Alfonso
Cano", the rebels' top
commander.
The mission's principal
success was
reestablishing contact
between the Europeans
and the FARC high
command for the first
time since the death of
"Raúl Reyes", previously
the guerrillas' main
interlocutor, who was
killed Mar. 1 in a
Colombian military
action on Ecuadorean
territory.
The talks ranged "over
many subjects, with no
taboos," a European
source close to the
negotiations, who
requested anonymity,
told IPS. Among several
proposals discussed was
the release of two
hostages, whose identity
could not be
established.
Cano sent word that the
facilitators could wait
for answers to the
series of proposals, but
they replied that it was
too dangerous, both for
themselves and for the
FARC. They were in a
very remote location,
which they had never
been to before, but
there was Colombian army
presence in the area.
The facilitators
returned to the
Colombian capital on
Jul. 1, and the next day
the hostages were freed.
The French diplomatic
facilitator Noël Sáenz,
a former consul in
Colombia, stayed in
Bogotá and returned to
France on the same plane
as French Foreign
Minister Bernard
Kouchner and Ingrid
Betancourt, whom
Kouchner had come to
fetch. Jean-Pierre
Gontard, the Swiss
facilitator, apparently
left for Geneva the
night of Jul. 1.
Their meeting with the
FARC was lengthy, "very
positive", and it was
agreed that the contacts
should continue, a
European press source
who requested anonymity
told IPS.
The facilitators are
"waiting for comments
and an answer from Cano.
With everything that has
happened, it will take
more time," said the
European source close to
the negotiations.
"For the time being,
there is no definite
agreement," the source
said.
On Thursday Jul. 3,
Foreign Minister
Kouchner said in Bogotá
that "they were two
parallel operations, I
don't know whether they
were coordinated or
not."
"It's true" that there
were two parallel
operations, the source
told IPS: "The meeting
(of the facilitators
with the FARC) and at
the same time what they
did in Guaviare," the
province where the
hostage rescue operation
was carried out.
But "they were not
coordinated. Absolutely
not." The facilitators
had no knowledge of the
operation, the source
said.
However, they knew some
time ago that Bogotá was
trying to bribe the
guerrillas guarding the
hostages to obtain their
release. President Uribe
announced the creation
of a 100-million-dollar
fund for that purpose on
May 24.
The source said that
"the only people" who
knew about the rescue
operation, and at the
same time about the
presence of the
facilitators, were
Colombian government
officials.
"But there was no
coordination. The
Guaviare operation
depended on a great many
details, even on whether
it was cloudy or not. An
operation of that kind
cannot be coordinated
with another mission.
That relationship is
complex," he said.
According to a source
close to the rebels,
located on the border
between Colombia and
Ecuador, the government
operation has cast doubt
on the role played by
the facilitators from
the "friendly
countries", which have
been working for years
for a humanitarian
agreement to exchange
FARC hostages for
imprisoned guerrillas.
"Every time an agreement
has been reached with
the French and the
Swiss, something has
happened," said the
source close to the
guerrillas. "Therefore,
even though a
humanitarian exchange is
still being sought,
there will be no more
conversations. In the
Betancourt operation
they put the lives of
the hostages in danger,
so now there must be a
change," he said.
The source was referring
to the bombing of Reyes'
camp at a time, as IPS
was able to reconstruct,
that three European
facilitators were
preparing to meet with
him, and to the capture
in 2004 of two other
FARC negotiators,
Rodrigo Granda in
Venezuela and "Simón
Trinidad" in Ecuador, as
well as to an attempted
meeting between the
French and the rebels,
frustrated by the
Colombian government in
2003.
Sáenz and Gontard are
officially recognised by
Bogotá as facilitators,
but they must report
their presence in this
country to the
authorities.
Facilitators have met
with Reyes a total of 22
times since 1999. During
the failed peace
negotiations (January
1999 to February 2002)
in the southern
Colombian region of
Caguán, these meetings
were semi-public.
During that period,
Reyes and the FARC's
negotiating team made a
highly publicised visit
to Europe, and held two
known meetings with
European facilitators,
in Norway and
Switzerland. The rest of
the meetings were held
in Colombia, the
European source told IPS.
After March 2002, the
meetings have all been
extremely discreet, with
the goodwill of the
Colombian government but
without its knowledge of
where and when they take
place, a condition
insisted upon by the
facilitators, whose
mission also has the
political support of
Spain.
Their last meeting with
Reyes was in June 2007
and coincided with the
deaths of 11 regional
lawmakers held hostage
by the FARC.
On that occasion, an
official statement from
the facilitators
recommended that the
parties make use of the
services of the
International
Humanitarian
Fact-Finding Commission,
constituted under
Article 90 of Additional
Protocol I to the Geneva
Conventions, to
establish how the 11
lawmakers had been
killed.
An angry Uribe rejected
the proposal and
cancelled further
facilitator missions to
Colombia. However, he
reinstated them this
year.
*With additional
reporting from Kintto
Lucas in Ecuador.
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