[Marxism] Patience Crucial in Colombian Rescue Operation

[Walter Lippmann]

Patience Crucial in Colombian Rescue Operation

Caracas, Jan 1 (Prensa Latina) Patience has become a key element in
the quest for alternatives in the complex process of release of three
people announced by Colombian insurgents, an operation which has
involved seven countries.

The rebel Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) announced on
Monday the impossibility to hand over the group for now due to
persistence in military operations in the area where the group might
be released.

The version was denied by President of Colombia Alvaro Uribe, while
his Venezuelan peer Hugo Chavez, whom the FARC offered to hand over
the group, replied by accusing him of lying in a number of issues.

Uribe turned down the proposal of a ceasefire to facilitate the
operation and proposed instead to establish a corridor from the
Colombian city of Villavicencio to the point of release, which was
considered unacceptable by Chavez.

Uribe argues that, in order to establish the corridor, they need to
know the exact point of release, which is most unlikely to be
accepted by FARC, given previous instances ending in bombardment of
its positions or detention of guerrilla members.

A new element was added with the hypothesis presented by Uribe that
the child Enmanuel, who is part of the group to be released, is not
in the hands of the guerrilla, but in a charity institution in
Bogota.

Defining whether the boy is in fact the son of former Colombian vice
presidential candidate Clara Rojas, another member of the group to be
released, requires DNA tests so that this new knot in the process can
be undone.

In Chavez's opinion, this was in fact an attempt to "undermine, blow
up" the operation, as there was enough time to carry out DNA tests
and no need to present the hypothesis precisely when the guerrilla
denounced the continuation of military operations.

Given the repeated Colombian government refusal to decree a ceasefire
for two or three days, the situation increasingly points to a
clandestine release, despite Chavez's reluctance, considering it
unsafe.

Former Venezuelan Interior Minister Ramon Rodriguez, who is
coordinating the operation, warned that the situation demands a lot
of patience, in a context in which security measures are unknown, as
it occurs in combat areas, while Chavez has called both Uribe and
FARC Commander Manuel Marulanda to work for peace.

In Chavez's opinion, the biggest obstacle to peace is the United
States, which exercises a strong influence in Colombia. He urged
Uribe to look more to the South and less to the North and get rid of
the government of George W. Bush.

His proposal now is for the Colombian government to decree a
unilateral ceasefire within at least a 124-mile radius, to facilitate
the captives' transfer to the point where they would be received.

Red Cross helicopters assigned to the operation remain in
Villavicencio, and Venezuelan commissioners maintain a communication
channel with FARC, according to Chavez, while DNA tests are being
carried out on Enmanuel's grandmother in order to define another
element in the complex plot of the release operation announced by
Colombian insurgency.

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PL-7