COLOMBIA:
Chávez Asks Uribe for
Patience in Hostage
Talks
By Constanza Vieira
CARACAS, (IPS) -
"Impatience is not a
good thing," Venezuelan
President Hugo Chávez
responded to the
Colombian government’s
announcement of a
December deadline for
his efforts to broker an
agreement for an
exchange of imprisoned
guerrillas for hostages
held by the rebels.
The Venezuelan leader
made his remarks in
France, where he met
Tuesday with French
President Nicolas
Sarkozy.
Shortly after Chávez
arrived in Paris late
Monday, the Colombian
government said it was
setting a 40-day
deadline for reaching a
deal on a
prisoner-hostage swap --
an agreement that has
not been reached in the
five years since
rightwing President
Álvaro Uribe took
office.
On Monday, the Council
of the European Union
expressed in Brussels
its support for the
efforts to negotiate a
humanitarian
prisoner-hostage
exchange.
After he reached France,
Chávez said he was not
carrying any proof that
French-Colombian citizen
Ingrid Betancourt,
seized by the
Revolutionary Armed
Forces of Colombia (FARC)
in February 2002 while
campaigning for
president, was still
alive.
"But I am absolutely
certain that Ingrid is
alive," said the
Venezuelan leader.
A huge poster of
Betancourt, the
highest-profile hostage,
hangs from the façade of
the town hall in Paris,
and she has been
declared an honorary
citizen of over 1,000
cities around the world.
Chávez’s certainty is
based on the word of the
world’s oldest guerrilla
fighter, FARC commander
Manuel Marulanda, who
gave orders to collect
proof that all of the
hostages held by the
FARC are still alive.
Colombian Senator Piedad
Córdoba, who was
appointed by Uribe to
facilitate an agreement,
also said in the French
capital that a
"surprise" could be
forthcoming, and added
that evidence that the
hostages are alive would
be handed over
"tomorrow, in two days,
or in a week."
The press in the
Venezuelan capital was
certain that Chávez did
not go to his meeting
with Sarkozy on Tuesday
with empty hands.
According to two sources
who talked to IPS,
Chávez already has solid
evidence that some of
the hostages are still
alive, possibly
including the three U.S.
citizens -- Marc
Gonsalves, Thomas Howes
and Keith Stansell --
who were seized by the
FARC in 2003 while
carrying out
intelligence work as
part of Washington’s
military assistance to
Colombia.
In Colombia, where the
government staunchly
refuses to even
recognise the existence
of an armed conflict,
both the FARC and
independent experts say
the security forces are
bombing every area where
guerrilla camps are
suspected to be located
-- a move that would
clearly stand in the way
of collecting and
handing over proof of
life.
There is no precise
figure on how many
hostages the FARC is
holding. The
longest-held are two
soldiers, Libio Martínez
and Pablo Moncayo, who
will have been living in
captivity in the jungle
for 10 years as of
December.
"Between 45 and 50"
soldiers and civilian
hostages will be swapped
for "between 400 and
500" jailed insurgents,
according to a recent
statement by the FARC.
But when he reached
Paris, Chávez wasted no
time in diverting
attention from the
"proof of life"
question.
He said that in a
50-minute private
meeting with his
Colombian counterpart
during the 17th Ibero-American
Summit earlier this
month in Chile, he and
Uribe "talked about the
possibility of a meeting
somewhere between
Marulanda and Chávez,"
and Uribe said "I could
even go."
The Uribe administration
immediately put out a
statement clarifying
that a meeting between
the Colombian president
and the FARC would only
be possible once the
rebels released all of
the hostages, and within
the context of formal
peace talks. It also
announced the year-end
deadline for the current
negotiations.
The government also said
that Uribe’s
hypothetical willingness
to eventually meet with
Marulanda was a secret,
to which Chávez
responded in a press
conference in Paris that
he had not been asked
for discretion on that
point, which at any
rate, he said, showed
that Uribe was
interested in peace.
The Venezuelan leader
gave indications in
France that he is not
only seeking a
hostage-prisoner swap,
but is interested in
brokering a full-fledged
peace process in
Colombia, said analysts.
Not long ago, on Nov. 6,
it was Uribe himself who
called for "patience" to
allow Chávez and Senator
Córdoba to facilitate
the talks and carry out
their work in a
"prudent, and hopefully
effective, manner."
But the race against
time is not only a
question of whether or
not Uribe is running out
of patience. Another key
aspect is how long the
hostages can hold out,
living in harsh
conditions in the
jungle. For example,
Senator Luis Eladio
Pérez, who was kidnapped
by the guerrillas in
June 2001, has diabetes.
Equally important is
that four military
operations aimed at
wiping out FARC camps or
units have been reported
this year.
The first apparently
took place in June, when
11 provincial
legislators held hostage
by the FARC for five
years were killed in the
midst of an armed
confrontation between
their captors and an
unidentified adversary.
Since early August,
Córdoba and Chávez have
been working hard to
bring about a
hostage-prisoner
exchange. One of the
seven members of the
FARC Secretariat even
met with the Venezuelan
leader in the
presidential palace in
Caracas this month.
In the meantime, even
rightwing voices in
Colombia have agreed
that Venezuela’s leftist
leader is "the last
card" in the effort to
achieve a humanitarian
exchange of prisoners
for hostages.
The hostages’ families
also fully back the
current negotiations.
"If Chávez does not
negotiate quickly in
Venezuela with the FARC,
I believe the group (of
hostages) will not come
back whole," Ángela de
Pérez, Luis Eladio
Pérez’s wife, told IPS.
"That is because they
are just barely
surviving; they are
exhausted after so many
years" of hardships, she
added.
She urged the FARC "at
least to produce a list
of names, and proof of
life" for all of the
hostages.
And she asked "the
government to facilitate
things, for the love of
God, to not torpedo the
efforts anymore, because
it is very clear that
the government has been
throwing up obstacles to
and opposing the release
of Colombians in
Colombian territory."
"Other countries, (and
other leaders) like
President Chávez, have
had to assume the task
of solving a problem
that is the
responsibility of the
Colombian president, but
which he has not
assumed," she
complained.
De Pérez urged those
personalities around the
world who are helping to
broker a humanitarian
accord "to support the
effort more
emphatically," because
otherwise, "many of the
hostages, due to health
problems, are not going
to be reunited with
their families."
She also called on "the
world to help us," and
said "it seems atrocious
to me that the president
will not even recognise
the existence of the war
and will not acknowledge
the victims of that
war."
Gustavo Moncayo, whose
son, army corporal Pablo
Moncayo, is one of the
hostages held by FARC,
set out Monday on a
march from Bogotá to
Caracas to mobilise
support for a
prisoner-hostage
exchange.
From Jun. 17 to Aug. 1,
the teacher, who has
been dubbed the "peace
walker", received shows
of support from millions
of people along the
1,000-km trek from his
hometown in southwestern
Colombia to the capital. |
