[R-G] Colombians devastated at Chávez’s ‘dismissal’

[Anthony Fenton]

Colombians devastated at Chávez’s ‘dismissal’
by Paul Haste
	
November 25, 2007

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=9&ItemID=14364

Bogotá, 22 November 2007 -- ‘Listen, I want to ask you - how many  
police and soldiers are held hostage by the Farc?’ Venezuelan  
President Hugo Chávez’s simple question to Colombian General Mario  
Montoya has now been used as an excuse by Colombia’s President Álvaro  
Uribe to end the first positive attempt in many years to reach a  
humanitarian agreement with the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de  
Colombia (Farc) guerrillas.

On Wednesday, Chávez was in his office in Caracas’s Miraflores  
Presidential Palace with Colombian Senator Piedad Córdoba, who had  
been personally chosen by Uribe to conduct negotiations together with  
Chávez, in the hope of reaching an agreement to exchange guerrilla  
prisoners in jail for politicians and soldiers held by the Farc.

Córdoba was making a round of telephone calls to inform Colombian  
politicians and the families of kidnap victims of the latest progress  
in the negotiations. When she called General Montoya, Córdoba passed  
the phone to Chávez, who then asked the question he must have asked  
everyone since being invited by Uribe to help with the humanitarian  
agreement.

That Uribe has now used this 30 second telephone call to claim Chávez  
is interfering in Colombia’s internal politics, and that it warrants  
an abrupt end, not just to the Venezuelan President’s efforts, but  
also Senator Córdoba’s work towards an agreement to free those  
kidnapped, has been met with confusion, disbelief and dismay by  
Colombians hopeful that an agreement, and even, eventually, an end to  
the war, had become a real possibility.

Chávez’s question is a relevant and pertinent one - particularly as  
no-one seems to know exactly how many hostages are held by the Farc.  
Humanitarian organisations that assist the families of kidnap victims  
in Colombia, such as País Libre, estimate the guerrillas are holding  
2,000, including police, soldiers, local politicians and also high  
profile hostages such as 2002 presidential candidate Íngrid  
Betancourt, but a definitive figure is not known.

The reaction from the hostages’ families to Uribe’s unilateral  
decision to end the negotiations has been heartbreaking. ‘Mr  
President, please reconsider,’ implored Marleny Orjuela, a mother of  
one kidnap victim, ‘put yourself in our shoes for one minute - just a  
single minute - to understand how we feel.’

‘Please don’t take away our hope,’ read a hurriedly written placard  
at an impromptu demonstration in Bogotá’s central plaza, but a  
statement issued by the presidential palace declared Uribe’s decision  
to be ‘irreversible.’

While the French government stated that ‘President Chávez’s  
involvement is the best option to liberate the hostages’, Chávez  
himself went on Venezuelan television to say that although he  
‘respected President Uribe’s decision, I feel sorry for all those  
prisoners in the hands of the Farc, the guerrillas in jail, their  
families and loved ones, and also for Colombia.’

Chávez continued, saying that he believed peace would ‘return to  
Colombia’, and that he would talk with Uribe to try to convince him  
to reconsider his decision. Declaring his ‘love for our sister  
country’, Chávez said he was ready to do everything he could to  
‘alleviate the suffering of the Colombian people.’

For Carlos Lozano, Voz newspaper editor in Bogotá, Uribe’s  
‘dismissal’ of Chávez as a negotiator shows that the Colombian  
government is ‘not interested in peace.’ Citing Uribe’s recent  
declaration that he had ordered the military to kill any Farc  
commanders who emerged from the jungle to participate in  
negotiations, Lozano said, ‘he wants the war to continue - this is  
clear.’