COLOMBIA: Colombian government and FARC rebels move closer to hostage talks

Colombia's left-wing FARC rebels are preparing for talks with the government in an attempt to reach an accord to release hostages held in secret camps as an initial step toward peace. Deep in the Colombian jungle, FARC commanders are saying they are ready to begin talks and are just waiting for the government to pull back troops from the Florida and Pradera municipalities in southern Colombia. According to one FARC leader, Commander Leonel, the left-wing rebel group are checking final details like the location of talks, to ensure that they are not ambushed by government forces. "We're an army and all armies take security measures. In this case, I imagine it would be ten days to get near to completing all the requirements of the area that are necessary, to look at the location, in what place to locate the first meetings and to look at the guarantees of the land so that in the case of a military situation we aren't taken by surprise," he said. The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known by its Spanish acronym FARC, wants the government to release jailed fighters in exchange for 62 key hostages, some held as long as eight years. Last month, Colombia's President Alvaro Uribe, a key U.S. ally who has led a security crackdown on Latin America's longest insurgency, agreed to a proposal to withdraw troops from a rural area almost the size of New York City to negotiate the release of the hostages. The withdrawal concerns the areas of Florida and Pradera, where according to Alvaro Leyva, a former senator who is facilitating the peace talks, the FARC have been dominant for the past four decades. "The FARC have been in Florida and Pradera for the past forty years. They are there, people know that they pass through there but the thing is, it's not just that, they are permanently there," Leyva said. Florida and Pradera are in mountainous and jungle territory considered a strategic corridor the rebels. The government has demanded guarantees that the 17,000-member FARC will not use the demilitarisation to regroup and rearm as it did with a similar initiative under Uribe's predecessor, Andres Pastrana. Those talks failed even after Pastrana yielded an area the size of Switzerland. But this time, Leyva, who acts as a go-between, said the government and FARC are the closest they have ever been to reaching an accord. "I think everything is ready, the party is ready, the water is in the pool, what they're thinking about is how to get in. Some put their foot in first, others need a push, others grab each others hands, but it's all ready, so you can't not take advantage of it. The only thing to do is continue creating elements of trust," he said. Among the FARC hostages Uribe wants to swap for guerrillas held in government jails are three U.S. contract workers and Ingrid Betancourt, a French-Colombian national and former presidential candidate who the FARC kidnapped during her 2002 campaign. The guerrillas, who number about 17,000, also want two key leaders held in the United States to be included in the exchange, a demand that could complicate negotiations. But relatives of the kidnapped are hopeful that the latest advances could mean they get to see their loved ones again. Yolanda Pulecio, the mother of Betancourt, said she believed there was reason to hope as talks progressed. "I think this is the moment in which we have been closest to achieving the humanitarian accord, and that gives me hope and I think that that is how all the relatives of the kidnapped feel. I have great hope that the President will not go back (on the agreement), nor the guerrillas. I am visualising the moment of embracing Ingrid, of seeing her," Pulecio said. According to political analyst Alfredo Rangel, the only thing left is for the two parties to fine tune some of the procedural details, like whether there will be a military presence at the talks from the FARC or the state. "Really, what is missing is that the two parties reach an agreement in the first place about procedural aspects, I mean, whether there will a military presence of just guerrillas, of guerrillas and from the state, or no guerrilla nor state presence in the procedure. But I think that inevitably this exchange is very linked, inseparably linked, to the subject of peace talks in the future," said Rangel. Thousands are killed in Colombia's guerrilla war every year, although violence has abated under Uribe, who has received millions of dollars in U.S. aid in his fight to push back the rebels and attack the cocaine trade that helps finance the conflict. The government has started talks with a smaller rebel group, called the ELN, and disbanded right-wing paramilitaries while peace with the 17,000-strong FARC has remained elusive. The release of hostages is a key challenge for Uribe since he was re-elected in May. Voters rewarded him for driving back rebels out of urban areas and key highways in his first term, but many Colombians now want progress in the peace talks. Uribe, whose father was killed by the FARC in a botched kidnapping, wants more guarantees the rebels will not try to take advantage of the demilitarised zone. But he appears more open to talks since his re-election.

ITN Source | October 11, 2006

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