[R-G] Fwd: [killingtrain] colombia interlude - ingrid betancourt freed

[Anthony Fenton]

Begin forwarded message:

> Ingrid Betancourt Freed
> Celebrations, but dangerous days ahead
>
>
> Justin Podur
> July 3/08
>
> Colombia's most high-profile hostage of the FARC guerrilla group,
> French-Colombian former Presidential candidate, Ingrid Betancourt was
> just freed (July 2/08) in a military operation by the Colombian armed
> forces.
>
> This is a major event in Colombian politics and a cause for  
> celebration.
> Many were worried Ingrid was already dead, but after being freed she  
> is
> seen smiling and has already spoken out in ways that suggest the
> despondent videos that were released of her were actually forms of
> resisting her captors. 14 others were freed, including the 3 American
> security contractors that were captured and Colombian military and
> police personnel.
>
> For years, Colombian activists and people wanting change in Colombia
> have argued that FARC's practice of kidnapping was morally bankrupt  
> and
> politically destructive. One hopes that FARC will release its  
> remaining
> hostages rather than continuing this ugly practice any longer.
>
> FARC's leaders have been killed (Raul Reyes, Ivan Rios) or died  
> (Manuel
> Marulanda). They should have long since handed over all hostages, and
> one hopes that they do so now. Though the grievances that created the
> guerrilla, including the violent seizing of peasant lands, remain, the
> strategic and military balance has changed. No doubt much of FARC's
> infrastructure and organization remains, but the universal celebration
> of Ingrid's release only reveals the unpopularity of FARC.
>
> While this is definitely a time for celebration, it is also a  
> dangerous
> time for Colombia, for several reasons.
>
> Over the past few days, a conflict has been playing out between
> Colombia's constitutional court and the President, Alvaro Uribe Velez.
>
> The Supreme Criminal Court condemned a Colombian Congress Member,  
> Yidis
> Medina, for accepting a bribe. She took money to vote in favor of a  
> law
> permitting the re-election of Uribe. The Supreme Court passed the
> verdict on to the Constitutional Court, because the matter treats
> whether Uribe's current term in office is legitimate. The legal change
> allowing him to run again was now exposed as corrupt. Uribe's response
> was to discredit the court and to say, if the first election was
> illegitimate, let the people decide and have another election. Uribe  
> was
> confident in his own popularity and happy to let the court try to  
> argue
> that his government would be illegitimate even if it won  
> overwhelmingly
> in new elections.
>
> Uribe's confidence was boosted in part at least by the Free Trade
> Agreement with Canada, which will likely lead to an FTA with the US
> before too long, which was the logic of the Canadian FTA in any case.
> The regional isolation that came from the Raul Reyes assassination
> in Ecuador has not
> translated into unpopularity in Colombia. This popularity has left the
> Colombian government a free hand to repress peasant movements, as they
> are doing in Northern Cauca, attacking indigenous people attempting to
> reclaim territories in the "Liberation for Mother Earth" campaign of  
> the
> Nasa people .
>
> Uribe was completely confident in his own popularity before Ingrid
> Betancourt was freed in an operation by his army - an operation that
> went off flawlessly, with all hostages brought to safety. Now, whether
> FARC continues on its path of mistakes and moral failures or whether  
> it
> releases its hostages and comes to the negotiating table, Uribe will
> benefit politically. The idea that his regime is based on purchased
> votes, paramilitary violence, selling the country's assets to
> multinationals, will be lost in tales of the heroism of an operation
> that bloodlessly saved an innocent and long-suffering hostage. This
> danger, of what Polo Democratico activists have called a "populist
> dictatorship", is more acute now than ever.
>
> One hope is that Ingrid herself, like some of the hostages that were
> freed in rounds of negotiation through Chavez, might provide some
> perspective in the days to come. Colombian and other leaders,  
> including
> the Polo Democratico, the indigenous movement, and outsiders like
> Chavez, have long repudiated kidnapping and have made a lot of sense  
> all
> along on Colombia's conflict. Their voices shouldn't be drowned out in
> the dangerous days ahead.
>
> Justin Podur is a Toronto-based writer (currently on the road in
> Pakistan). He can be reached at justin at killingtrain.com.