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COLOMBIA: Senate, Civil Society Call for Prisoners-for-Hostages Swap

Helda Martínez

BOGOTA, Oct 26 2006 (IPS) - Lawmakers in Colombia have joined civil society groups in opposing President Álvaro Uribe’s decision to stage a violent rescue of hostages in the hands of the FARC rebels and to cut off preliminary contacts with the guerrillas that were aimed at negotiating a humanitarian exchange of hostages for imprisoned insurgents.

The Senate approved a resolution Tuesday demanding that the government reestablish contact with the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) to continue making progress towards a humanitarian accord for the release of the hostages.

The resolution also urges the government not to carry out a military operation to rescue the 33 members of the army and police, three U.S. military contractors and 26 politicians, the most prominent of whom is former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt.

The motion, which is non-binding, was sponsored by the Liberal Party – one of Colombia’s two traditional parties – and the opposition Alternative Democratic Pole.

The local press reported that Interior Minister Carlos Holguín said the resolution was unconstitutional because it meddled in security questions, which are the exclusive domain of the executive branch.

On Oct. 20, Uribe reasserted his hard-line stance against the FARC and ordered a military rescue of the civilian and military hostages in the hands of the guerrillas, some of whom have been held captive in the jungle since 1997. The insurgents are holding them with the aim of eventually swapping them for some 500 imprisoned guerrillas.

Uribe was speaking at the site of an Oct. 19 explosion in a key military complex in Bogotá, which left 23 people injured. The right-wing president immediately blamed the attack on the FARC, which has been fighting since 1964 and controls an estimated 35 percent of the national territory, mainly in rural, sparsely populated areas.

“A rescue operation puts the lives of the hostages at extreme risk,” said Yolanda Pinto, the widow of a former governor of the northern province of Antioquia, Guillermo Gaviria, who was killed along with other hostages in 2003 when the army tried to rescue them. “Why assume that risk rather than finding solutions that would bring them back alive, instead of dead, the way my husband was returned to me?”

Humanitarian accords have been reached by past administrations. The government of Andrés Pastrana (1998-2002) negotiated agreements with the FARC and the smaller National Liberation Army (ELN) that led to the release of 81 police and soldiers, three intelligence agents and 200 civilian hostages held by the guerrillas. In exchange, the government released 14 FARC insurgents from prison. The FARC also unilaterally freed 70 soldiers in 1997 and 350 in 2001.

The families and friends of hostages, as well as political leaders, artists and other demonstrators, expressed views similar to those of Pinto Tuesday during a sit-in at the central Bolívar square in the capital and in parallel protests held in 42 cities and towns in the southwestern province of Valle del Cauca.

“We don’t understand how the president can backtrack now, after five months of talking about a humanitarian accord and about his commitment to the governments of France, Switzerland and Spain (the international sponsors of an eventual humanitarian agreement). This is the word of a head of state, not just the word of Uribe himself,” Yolanda Pulecio, Ingrid Betancourt’s mother, said during the sit-in.

“We have felt very hurt by the president’s statement, but we have not lost our hope or our faith in God,” Mary Franco, the aunt of one of the soldiers captured eight years ago in the southern province of Caquetá, told IPS.

“We are not only opposed to bomb attacks but to the war in general. That is why we insist that dialogue is the right way to go. We reject the war and we want peace,” said Marleny Orjuela, president of a Colombian association that groups the families of members of the security forces who are now in the hands of the guerrillas, or have been in the past.

Representatives of more than 100 local and international peace and human rights groups also took part in the protest.

The demonstrators announced that they would continue holding protests to press for a prisoners-for-hostages swap, with the support of mayors Sergio Fajardo of Medellín and Luis Eduardo Garzón of Bogotá, and the governor of Valle del Cauca, Angelino Garzón..

Editorialists and columnists in local newspapers and magazines have also criticised Uribe’s decision.

“Despite the indignation over the bombing, closing the door to an exchange and ordering a military rescue of the hostages would not appear to be the best route to take,” stated an editorial in El Tiempo, the only newspaper that circulates nationwide in Colombia. El Tiempo belongs to the family of Vice President Francisco Santos and Defence Minister Juan Manuel Santos.

“Does this emphatic presidential decision have anything to do with worries about image, or internal polls that suggest that his reputation as a leader who absolutely does not give in to the guerrillas was hurt by his recent proposals to the FARC?” wondered the editorial.

Presidential adviser José Obdulio Gaviria, writing in the same paper, immediately responded Monday, saying “Colombia and its government are the most badmouthed institutions in the world,” while lashing out at the editorial.

Uribe told the local RCN radio station Tuesday that he felt “total solidarity with the families of the hostages.”

But “moving towards a humanitarian agreementàin the midst of terrorist actions would be like backing down and simply handing the country over to the FARC,” he added.

The hostages’ families have been calling for years for a humanitarian accord, which Uribe had been reluctant to negotiate. However, after he was reelected to a second consecutive term in May, he began to speak openly about a prisoners-for-hostages exchange, and even gave instructions to begin seeking preliminary contacts.

But he began to backpedal this month after the FARC issued a list of conditions for the talks.

In the meantime, the military has been at the centre of several scandals. For example, the army chief was forced to admit that a late July explosion in Bogotá that had been blamed on the FARC was actually the work of army officers seeking to simulate an attack by the insurgents.

And according to the Noticias Uno television news programme, a few minutes before the car bomb went off in the military installation in Bogotá on Oct. 19, the eight security cameras in that part of the complex stopped functioning.

On Wednesday, the International Federation of Human Rights condemned the Oct. 19 car bomb, but also expressed concern over Uribe’s decision to put an end to any contacts with the FARC, which it said was blamed for the attack before a full investigation was carried out by the authorities.

Uribe, meanwhile, planned to ask a delegation from the U.S. State Department headed by Under Secretary for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns, currently visiting Colombia, not to reduce military aid from Washington, which has totaled 4.7 billion dollars since 2000.

On Thursday, the movement in favour of a humanitarian swap planned a pilgrimage to Monserrate hill in the capital, with the participation of the mayors of Bogotá and Medellín.