COLOMBIA:
Door ‘Definitively’
Closed on Chávez’s
Mediation
By Constanza Vieira
CARACAS, (IPS) -
"Hey, I want to ask you
a question. How many
police officers and
soldiers are being held
hostage by the FARC?"
Venezuelan President
Hugo Chávez asked
Colombian army chief
General Mario Montoya.
The telephone
conversation lasted
maybe half a minute, but
the consequences were
dire.
At midnight local time
Wednesday, Colombian
President Álvaro Uribe
put an end to the
efforts by Chávez and
opposition Senator
Piedad Córdoba to broker
an agreement for an
exchange of 45 hostages
being held by the
Revolutionary Armed
Forces of Colombia (FARC)
for some 500 imprisoned
guerrillas.
An Uribe administration
spokesman said the
Venezuelan leader had
broken an agreement not
to talk directly with
the Colombian army chief
or other members of the
military about the
hostage question.
Córdoba was making phone
calls from the
presidential palace in
Caracas, to arrange
meetings with several
Colombian figures to
inform them of the state
of the negotiations and
of the results of
Chávez’s meeting with
French President Nicolas
Sarkozy Tuesday in
Paris.
Chávez and Córdoba were
even planning a quick
visit to Uribe, for the
same purpose.
From an adjoining
office, Chávez asked
Córdoba who she was
talking to, and she
responded "General
Montoya." The president
got on the phone, and
asked his brief
question.
Córdoba described her
call to Montoya as
"routine."
Uribe’s peace
commissioner, Luis
Carlos Restrepo, said he
had taken over the
efforts to facilitate an
agreement, and would
"redirect them as
necessary, in a discreet
manner."
"It is very clear to us
that this public
spotlight generates huge
risks," he added in a
press conference
Thursday in the seat of
the presidency in
Bogotá.
But journalist Carlos
Lozano, a senior member
of the Colombian
Communist Party and an
expert on the issue of
the hostage-prisoner
exchange, stated that
"to say that…Restrepo is
going to resume contacts
with the guerrillas for
this purpose is a bad
joke, because he has
never had contact with
them, and on the
contrary has invariably
thrown obstacles in the
way of the facilitators’
efforts."
In an email response
from Caracas to
questions from IPS,
Lozano said the efforts
made by Chávez and
Córdoba since August
were "productive" and
had "reawakened hope for
a humanitarian swap" of
hostages for prisoners,
which has broad support
among the Colombian
population.
Chávez and Uribe had
agreed that they would
talk before any eventual
decision to end the
Venezuelan leader’s
assistance in the
hostage talks. However,
that agreement was not
fulfilled. It was
Córdoba who informed
Chávez of the Colombian
leader’s decision.
The Venezuelan
government said it
accepted "this sovereign
decision by the
Colombian government"
but expressed
"frustration" at the
cutting short of a
process "carried out
amidst great
difficulties" and which
had made "important
advances that already
pointed to the
possibility of a
solution to this
essentially human
drama."
Caracas sent the
hostages’ families "a
message of faith, first
in God and then in the
good judgement of those
who have in their hands
the power to make, in
time, wise
rectifications and
decisions."
Venezuela, "despite this
regrettable decision by
the government of
Colombia, has an open
heart and arms to
continue lending its
humble services for the
sake of life and peace,"
the government said in a
communiqué released
Thursday.
Alfredo Rangel, an
expert in military
issues and director of
the Bogota-based
Security and Democracy
Foundation who
previously ran for the
Senate on a pro-Uribe
ticket, said the
government had
"definitively" closed
the door to Venezuela’s
mediation.
"The situation is worse
than before. That was
made clear by the
government’s
announcement that it
will no longer talk
about an ‘exchange’,
only about ‘humanitarian
actions.’ It will not
seek an agreement. The
few advances that had
been made have been
undone. And this no
longer has anything to
do with Venezuela or,
apparently, anyone
else," he told IPS on
Friday.
The underlying question,
said the analyst, is
that "the government was
unable to accept the
political recognition
that the FARC was
achieving" by means of
Chávez’s facilitation
efforts.
In Lozano’s view,
Uribe’s reaction
demonstrates "that the
Colombian government has
no interest in peace or
a humanitarian exchange.
The only option it
accepts is a fratricidal
war and military rescue
operations."
According to the
director of Colombia’s
Caracol Radio station,
Darío Arizmendi, from
the moment that Chávez
reached an agreement
that the FARC guerrillas
would provide him with
proof that the hostages
are still alive, the air
force began a steady
bombing campaign along
the entire border with
Venezuela.
The bombing operations
reportedly made it
impossible for an envoy
sent by Chávez to pick
up the solid "proof of
life" in Colombian
territory and bring it
to Caracas prior to the
Venezuelan leader’s
meeting with Sarkozy.
Chávez’s envoy already
has the evidence that
the hostages are alive,
according to Arizmendi,
and "right now is
holding tight here, in
some little village,
waiting for a miracle to
occur."
On Wednesday morning,
several ruling coalition
legislators visited the
Colombian seat of
government and, along
with Minister of Justice
and the Interior Carlos
Holguín, reportedly told
Uribe that the process
had gotten out of his
hands and that he should
bring it to an end,
Arizmendi reported.
But Lozano said the
president needed no
pressure from
legislators to call off
the process. "Uribe was
already annoyed with the
dynamics of the good
offices efforts, and was
looking for a pretext to
cut them off."
"It was a rude gesture
reflecting discourtesy
towards the altruistic
efforts offered in
solidarity" by Chávez,
said Lozano. "Why is
President Uribe afraid
of President Chávez
talking to the Colombian
generals? Maybe he's
worried they’ll become ‘Chavistas’."
General Montoya’s human
rights record has come
under fire in the United
States. U.S.
intelligence sources
have leaked to the press
in that country
suspicions that he
worked closely with
ultra-right
paramilitaries at the
service of drug lord
"Don Berna", who is now
in prison, to eradicate
urban guerrillas in the
northwestern Colombian
city of Medellín in
October 2002.
In Bogota, meanwhile,
U.S. Ambassador William
Brownfield complained
that the FARC had not
provided evidence that
the hostages were still
alive, prior to Chávez’s
meeting with Sarkozy.
France reiterated
Thursday its support for
Chávez’s efforts to
broker an accord, and
urged Uribe to keep open
the channel of dialogue
that the Venezuelan
president forged with
the FARC over the past
three months.
"We continue to believe
that Chávez’s efforts
are the best option for
achieving the hostages’
release," said Sarkozy’s
spokesman David Martinon,
who announced that the
French president would
be sending a letter to
Uribe in the next few
days.
The highest profile
hostage held by the FARC
is French-Colombian
citizen Ingrid
Betancourt, whose
release Sarkozy has made
a top priority.
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