[R-G] Chávez Brokers Pact for Gov’t-FARC Talks

[Anthony Fenton]

COLOMBIA:  Chávez Brokers Pact for Gov’t-FARC Talks
By Constanza Vieira
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39106
Credit:Venezuelan government

HATO GRANDE, Colombia, Aug 31 (IPS) - Venezuelan President Hugo  
Chávez’s efforts to broker a humanitarian agreement for the release  
of hostages held by Colombia’s guerrillas have already begun to bear  
fruit.

The main announcement after Chávez’s meeting with Colombian President  
Álvaro Uribe Friday was that talks on an agreement will begin in  
Caracas between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed  
Forces of Colombia (FARC).

"That has already been agreed by the two sides," a source close to  
the meeting told IPS.

On Thursday night, Uribe accepted Chávez’s proposal for talks in  
Caracas, which the FARC had already agreed to.

The talks will be "exclusively on the question of the humanitarian  
accord" which would involve a swap of 10 civilian hostages, like  
former senator Ingrid Betancourt, three U.S. military contractors  
working for the U.S.-financed counterinsurgency Plan Colombia, and 34  
members of the police and military captured in combat by the FARC,  
for around 400 imprisoned insurgents.

"If that goes well, the mechanism will remain in place" for future  
peace talks, added the source.

Colombia has been in the grip of armed conflict for over four  
decades. Peace talks between the FARC and the administration of  
Andrés Pastrana (1998-2002) broke off in 2002.

"I see it as extremely significant that talks that would benefit the  
families and the hostages themselves could begin," Bruno Moro, the  
United Nations resident coordinator in Colombia, commented to IPS  
from abroad.

"We hope this will serve as a phase of rapprochement that could  
facilitate political dialogue," he added.

At the urging of Colombian opposition Senator Piedad Córdoba, Chávez  
agreed less than two weeks ago to help mediate a humanitarian accord.

Thanks to the Venezuelan leader’s involvement, which was welcomed by  
all of the parties, Uribe has agreed for his government to sit down  
at the negotiating table with the FARC to discuss a humanitarian  
exchange of prisoners for hostages.

In December, two of the hostages -- two soldiers -- will hit the 10th  
anniversary of their capture by the FARC.

Chávez also got the FARC to agree to negotiate outside of Colombian  
territory. But the exchange of hostages for imprisoned guerrillas  
would take place within Colombia, as demanded by the rebels.

The guerrillas had refused to negotiate outside of Colombia ever  
since the collapse of peace talks held with previous governments in  
the Venezuelan capital and in Mexico, in the 1990s.

Ruling out that possibility made it imperative to "demilitarise" a  
safe haven in Colombia where the two sides could hold talks, as the  
Pastrana administration did from January 1999 to February 2002 in the  
Caguán region in the south.

Chávez also "wants a FARC office to be opened in Caracas, in order to  
be able to speak directly with them," the anonymous source told IPS.

The longest stage of the talks on a humanitarian agreement would take  
place in Caracas, while the actual swap itself could take just a few  
days, under international monitoring.

Uribe has staunchly refused to withdraw government troops from any  
part of the country, as demanded by the FARC, to create a safe haven  
for talks.

He has also refused to budge from his insistence that any rebels who  
are freed from prison must not take up arms again. But Chávez and  
Córdoba have worked out a compromise formula, which will be set forth  
in the negotiations in Caracas.

The Venezuelan leader reached Bogotá Friday morning for a six-hour  
visit. He was driven in a motorcade of 15 armoured vehicles to the  
Hato Grande presidential estate 20 km north of Bogotá, where Uribe  
had stayed Thursday night to prepare for the meeting.

Early Friday, the Colombian leader met with Senator Córdoba, who he  
had appointed as facilitator of a humanitarian accord, and with the  
government’s peace commissioner, Luis Carlos Restrepo.

On his own initiative, Chávez also planned to meet with the families  
of imprisoned guerrillas in the Venezuelan embassy in Bogotá, and  
with Colombian media executives.

Chávez’s meeting with local media owners and columnists was a  
proposal put forth by the Venezuelan and Colombian facilitators on  
the argument that "the entire undertaking could fail if media  
executives continue to oppose the idea of an exchange. Since Piedad  
(Córdoba) began to get involved, the media have taken a critical  
stance," said the source, who is close to the senator.

"The aim is to soften opposition to the swap," the source added.

When Uribe named Córdoba facilitator of a humanitarian agreement, he  
also instructed Agriculture Minister Andrés Felipe Arias to launch a  
parallel campaign against a demilitarised zone, "to which all of the  
media outlets have given ample space," said the source.

Arias has been touring the country offering benefits from government  
programmes, and handing out -- and wearing -- t-shirts with slogans  
against the creation of a safe haven.

Friday’s second major announcement, a request by Bogotá that was  
accepted by Chávez, was for Venezuela not to withdraw from the Andean  
Community trade bloc (also made up of Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and  
Peru), a plan that the Venezuelan leader had announced in April 2006.

As part of his efforts to broker an agreement, Chávez will meet soon  
with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who, since taking office in  
May, has pressed Uribe to negotiate the release of Betancourt (who  
holds dual Colombian and French nationality) and the other hostages.

Largely as a result of Sarkozy’s pressure, the Colombian government  
released Rodrigo Granda, FARC’s international relations chief, who  
was illegally seized in Caracas in December 2004. (END/2007)