COLOMBIA:
Chávez Brokers Pact for
Gov’t-FARC Talks
By Constanza Vieira
HATO GRANDE, Colombia,
(IPS) - Venezuelan
President Hugo Chávez’s
efforts to broker a
humanitarian agreement
for the release of
hostages held by
Colombia’s guerrillas
have already begun to
bear fruit.
The main announcement
after Chávez’s meeting
with Colombian President
Álvaro Uribe Friday was
that talks on an
agreement will begin in
Caracas between the
Colombian government and
the Revolutionary Armed
Forces of Colombia (FARC).
"That has already been
agreed by the two
sides," a source close
to the meeting told IPS.
On Thursday night, Uribe
accepted Chávez’s
proposal for talks in
Caracas, which the FARC
had already agreed to.
The talks will be
"exclusively on the
question of the
humanitarian accord"
which would involve a
swap of 10 civilian
hostages, like former
senator Ingrid
Betancourt, three U.S.
military contractors
working for the
U.S.-financed
counterinsurgency Plan
Colombia, and 34 members
of the police and
military captured in
combat by the FARC, for
around 400 imprisoned
insurgents.
"If that goes well, the
mechanism will remain in
place" for future peace
talks, added the source.
Colombia has been in the
grip of armed conflict
for over four decades.
Peace talks between the
FARC and the
administration of Andrés
Pastrana (1998-2002)
broke off in 2002.
"I see it as extremely
significant that talks
that would benefit the
families and the
hostages themselves
could begin," Bruno
Moro, the United Nations
resident coordinator in
Colombia, commented to
IPS from abroad.
"We hope this will serve
as a phase of
rapprochement that could
facilitate political
dialogue," he added.
At the urging of
Colombian opposition
Senator Piedad Córdoba,
Chávez agreed less than
two weeks ago to help
mediate a humanitarian
accord.
Thanks to the Venezuelan
leader’s involvement,
which was welcomed by
all of the parties,
Uribe has agreed for his
government to sit down
at the negotiating table
with the FARC to discuss
a humanitarian exchange
of prisoners for
hostages.
In December, two of the
hostages -- two soldiers
-- will hit the 10th
anniversary of their
capture by the FARC.
Chávez also got the FARC
to agree to negotiate
outside of Colombian
territory. But the
exchange of hostages for
imprisoned guerrillas
would take place within
Colombia, as demanded by
the rebels.
The guerrillas had
refused to negotiate
outside of Colombia ever
since the collapse of
peace talks held with
previous governments in
the Venezuelan capital
and in Mexico, in the
1990s.
Ruling out that
possibility made it
imperative to "demilitarise"
a safe haven in Colombia
where the two sides
could hold talks, as the
Pastrana administration
did from January 1999 to
February 2002 in the
Caguán region in the
south.
Chávez also "wants a
FARC office to be opened
in Caracas, in order to
be able to speak
directly with them," the
anonymous source told
IPS.
The longest stage of the
talks on a humanitarian
agreement would take
place in Caracas, while
the actual swap itself
could take just a few
days, under
international
monitoring.
Uribe has staunchly
refused to withdraw
government troops from
any part of the country,
as demanded by the FARC,
to create a safe haven
for talks.
He has also refused to
budge from his
insistence that any
rebels who are freed
from prison must not
take up arms again. But
Chávez and Córdoba have
worked out a compromise
formula, which will be
set forth in the
negotiations in Caracas.
The Venezuelan leader
reached Bogotá Friday
morning for a six-hour
visit. He was driven in
a motorcade of 15
armoured vehicles to the
Hato Grande presidential
estate 20 km north of
Bogotá, where Uribe had
stayed Thursday night to
prepare for the meeting.
Early Friday, the
Colombian leader met
with Senator Córdoba,
who he had appointed as
facilitator of a
humanitarian accord, and
with the government’s
peace commissioner, Luis
Carlos Restrepo.
On his own initiative,
Chávez also planned to
meet with the families
of imprisoned guerrillas
in the Venezuelan
embassy in Bogotá, and
with Colombian media
executives.
Chávez’s meeting with
local media owners and
columnists was a
proposal put forth by
the Venezuelan and
Colombian facilitators
on the argument that
"the entire undertaking
could fail if media
executives continue to
oppose the idea of an
exchange. Since Piedad (Córdoba)
began to get involved,
the media have taken a
critical stance," said
the source, who is close
to the senator.
"The aim is to soften
opposition to the swap,"
the source added.
When Uribe named Córdoba
facilitator of a
humanitarian agreement,
he also instructed
Agriculture Minister
Andrés Felipe Arias to
launch a parallel
campaign against a
demilitarised zone, "to
which all of the media
outlets have given ample
space," said the source.
Arias has been touring
the country offering
benefits from government
programmes, and handing
out -- and wearing --
t-shirts with slogans
against the creation of
a safe haven.
Friday’s second major
announcement, a request
by Bogotá that was
accepted by Chávez, was
for Venezuela not to
withdraw from the Andean
Community trade bloc
(also made up of
Bolivia, Colombia,
Ecuador and Peru), a
plan that the Venezuelan
leader had announced in
April 2006.
As part of his efforts
to broker an agreement,
Chávez will meet soon
with French President
Nicolas Sarkozy, who,
since taking office in
May, has pressed Uribe
to negotiate the release
of Betancourt (who holds
dual Colombian and
French nationality) and
the other hostages.
Largely as a result of
Sarkozy’s pressure, the
Colombian government
released Rodrigo Granda,
FARC’s international
relations chief, who was
illegally seized in
Caracas in December
2004.
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