cannabisnews.com: Clock Ticking on Colombian Leader's Peace Efforts





Clock Ticking on Colombian Leader's Peace Efforts
Posted by FoM on August 23, 2001 at 13:39:46 PT
By Tod Robberson, The Dallas Morning News
Source: Dallas Morning News
Irish rebels are accused of teaching their Colombian colleagues how to make "super-bombs," presidential candidates are pushing for military confrontation, and the nation's two largest guerrilla groups appear to be mobilizing for war. Prospects have rarely looked bleaker for President Andrés Pastrana's peace process as the beleaguered Colombian leader enters his final year in office. Candidates vying for the presidency in elections next summer say hopes are dwindling that the peace process can move ahead significantly during the time left in Mr. Pastrana's presidency. 
His potential successors say they would push for a hard-line military solution unless the nation's top guerrilla group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, takes radical steps toward peace. "This is not a problem of politics or presidential campaigns. It is a question of life and death," said Alvaro Uribe, a pro-American, conservative presidential candidate who advocates a tougher military posture against the rebels. "It is a question of whether we keep our democracy intact or surrender to the whims of these violent groups." For Washington, any increase in military confrontation poses serious challenges as deliveries of expensive U.S. military hardware continue and hundreds of U.S. trainers scramble to prepare Colombia's army for confrontation against insurgents supporting the drug trade. The changing climate could mean tough decisions for Congress in the coming months: whether to ratchet up the American military commitment to Colombia or switch strategies in an increasingly risky drug war. At the Pentagon Monday, the assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs, Peter Rodman, said that the Bush administration is reviewing its Colombia policy, specifically how deeply the United States should become involved militarily and whether there should be a change in drug-war strategy. A high-level delegation, headed by Mark Grossman, undersecretary of state for political affairs, is expected in Bogotá next week to begin the policy review. Mr. Rodman said that in Congress, "there's concerns about, are we getting deeper into a conflict or not, or what is at stake? Is it just narcotics, or is there some wider stake we may have in the survival of a friendly democratic government?" Three weeks ago, U.S. Ambassador Anne Patterson told reporters that the United States is thinking of broadening its current military-training mission to counter the growth of guerrilla and paramilitary forces in major drug-producing regions. Restrictions on a $1.5 billion U.S. counter-narcotics package to Colombia limit the U.S. military presence to 500 active-duty troops and 300 private contractors. Although most presidential candidates have been reluctant to call outright for an expanded U.S. military role, they are not necessarily ruling it out. "The candidates are dealing with an immense level of public skepticism and popular demands for a stronger hand" against the FARC, said Rodrigo Pardo, the new editor-in-chief of Colombia's largest newspaper, El Tiempo. "I believe the next president will be elected on this very issue." In spite of the pressures, Mr. Pastrana, one of Washington's chief Latin American allies in the war on drugs, continues working to salvage what he can from peace talks he initiated in late 1998 with FARC commanders. Mr. Pastrana has allowed the FARC to occupy a Switzerland-sized safe haven in southern Colombia, where the guerrilla group is permitted to conduct training and remain fully armed. Government forces are prohibited from entering. Earlier this month, the president reorganized his peace-negotiating team while pointedly warning FARC leaders that he would unleash the military if hostilities did not abate. He signed into law a measure that increases the military's power to curtail civil liberties while reducing the ability of civilian authorities to investigate and punish human-rights abuses by soldiers. Mr. Pastrana also aborted an 18-month effort to organize parallel peace talks with a smaller rebel group, the National Liberation Army. The FARC and National Liberation Army are responding with what appears to be a general mobilization, according to the Colombian military command. Last week, three members of the Irish Republican Army were captured after emerging from a FARC safe haven in southern Colombia, where military officials say the guerrillas were being trained to construct "super-bombs" using the Czech-made plastic explosive Semtex. In an eavesdropped radio conversation released by the army to the news media this week, a man identified as Jorge Briceño, the military commander of the FARC, is heard discussing the use of Semtex and the training his group received from "the three monkeys." Using the materials and training, Mr. Briceño says in the recording, "We must hit the cities hard." Last week, the Colombian military command said it had detected a massive deployment of FARC forces from inside the safe haven. A column of more than 1,300 guerrillas emerged from the zone in what Gen. Jorge Mora, the army commander, described as a guerrilla mobilization. Using U.S.-made combat aircraft, the military swooped down on the column, firing rockets at several vehicles loaded with FARC guerrillas. The military command said that up to 100 rebels were killed in the attack, although there has been no subsequent confirmation. The major presidential candidates, who span the political spectrum and include supporters of Mr. Pastrana, have said the nation can no longer tolerate the safe haven's existence while the FARC attacks towns, kidnaps civilians and profits from the drug trade. "If they want war, they will have me as the best and most committed of their adversaries," said opposition presidential candidate Horacio Serpa, who currently holds the lead in public opinion polls. "We will no longer tolerate the use of a [safe haven] zone, designed for dialogue, as a hideout for those who foment aggression." Mr. Serpa, who lost to Mr. Pastrana in a presidential runoff election in 1998, told a group of students last May that he still wanted to pursue some form of peace talks. "There will come a moment when Colombians will have to take a position in relation to the process. I will do that. I think that when there are conditions for negotiations, you should negotiate. When there aren't, you walk away from the table." Mr. Pastrana has prodded the candidates, without success, to tone down their rhetoric and avoid turning the peace process into an instrument for political advancement. The candidates say that the issue of peace and security is the No. 1 campaign issue and that voters are demanding a change in the way negotiations are being handled. "I don't believe we should be politicizing the peace process," said retired Gen. Rosso José Serrano, an independent presidential candidate who, until last year, helped lead the war against the FARC as commander of Colombia's National Police. He said he was very optimistic when the peace talks began but has been disappointed with the results. "We gave them every opportunity to pursue peace. We gave them every demonstration of good faith, and they gave us nothing in return," Mr. Serrano said. The rebels have emerged from the negotiations militarily stronger and richer than ever before, he said. "Instead of working to build peace, all indications are that they are making preparations for war." Daniel García-Peña, chief of peace negotiations under Mr. Pastrana's predecessor, Ernesto Samper, said the experiences of previous administrations suggest that the final year in office can bring positive results to peace talks and that "the final year of an administration doesn't necessarily have to mean a dead year" for negotiations. In this case, however, many Colombians have lost hope because they have come to view the peace process as inextricably linked to the personal identities of Mr. Pastrana and the FARC leadership, Mr. García-Peña said, adding: "I can't think of any two entities more discredited in Colombia today than the FARC and Andrés Pastrana." Note: 2 largest guerrilla groups appear to be preparing for war.Source: Dallas Morning News (TX)Author: Tod Robberson, The Dallas Morning NewsPublished: August 23, 2001Copyright: 2001 The Dallas Morning NewsWebsite: http://www.dallasnews.com/Contact: letterstoeditor dallasnews.comRelated Articles & Web Site:Colombia Drug War Newshttp://freedomtoexhale.com/colombia.htmColombian Deal With Rebels Is Vexing U.S.http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread10693.shtmlDusting of Colombian Crops Questioned http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread10678.shtml
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Comment #3 posted by zenfever on August 23, 2001 at 14:28:43 PT
colombia
more to the point, read this link
http://www.media-alliance.org/mediafile/20-3/chomsky.html
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Comment #2 posted by kaptinemo on August 23, 2001 at 14:09:43 PT:
My Pa can whip yer Pa's *ss!
That's what this looks like. Plain and simple.But if Pastrana's enemies think they can start something and expect us to come charging to their rescue, that blackout could turn into a torrent of unpopular feeling here. If Sr. Pastrana's opponents think they will be backed by Washington no matter what they do, because of political inertia and the 'investment' already made, then they have another thing coming. American taxpayer support for the war in Colombia is so soft, right now, that were ANY news stories worth the name 'journalism' presented to the taxpares, that support would disappear. Hence the news blackout by the Powers-That-Be. A few body bags coming back from Colombia with the Satrs and Stripes laid across them will change that real quick.God forbid.
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Comment #1 posted by Pontifex on August 23, 2001 at 13:55:06 PT:
LMAO, disaster prompts more of the same
Just look at the first sentence of this article. Columbia is vying for the distinction of Earth's number-one hell hole.So in the wake of such abject failure, and with the presidential election coming up, what is the response from Columbia's political class?More of the same!"If they want war, they will have me as the best and most committed of their adversaries," said opposition presidential candidate Horacio Serpa, who currently holds the lead in public opinion polls.So, voters of Columbia, which do you prefer? A muffled, drawn-out guerrilla war with aerial herbicides? Or an explosive, active guerrilla war with aerial herbicides?It's your choice, voters of Columbia, because you live in a democracy sponsored by America.LMAO!
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