Colombia, Internalization of the conflict... Or peace fades away?

Caracas, March 5 ABN (Aurelio Gil Beroes).- The murder in Ecuadorian territory of the guerrilla leader from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People's Army (FARC-EP), Raúl Reyes, and other 16 members of that insurgent group, filled the complete region of tension.

Reactions from the Ecuadorian and Venezuelan Governments did not take long. President Correa retired his ambassador from Bogotá, expelled Colombia's and called Uribe a lier; while President Chávez ordered to close Venezuelan Embassy to Bogotá and to expel the Colombian diplomatic corps from our country. Hours before that, the Venezuelan president had
prepared the mobilization of troops towards the shared frontier area.

A few days after the unilateral release of captives Gloria Polanco, Luis Eladio Perez, Orlando Beltrán and Jorge Géchem on behalf of the FARC-EP, a fact which might be considered as a warrant for the humanitarian agreement and the subsequent peace agreement for Colombia, the Government of Alvaro Uribe progressed a military operation on Ecuadorian territory, in the midst of an action that shows disdain and contempt to
the peace in his own country and, now, in South America.

It is as well an act of rejection to the efforts that previous presidents had done in order to get close to the end of one of the most extended armed conflicts of contemporary history.

Peace efforts

Despite President Uribe has until now denied to give political belligerence status (acknowledgement as political actors) to the main insurgent groups, the FARC-EP and the National Liberation Army (ELN), five presidents in the period of 20 years comprised between 1982 and 2002, accepted the political status of the Colombian armed conflict and
recognized, in fact, their condition of political agents. Likewise, they endeavored to achieve peace agreements as much as possible.

The origin of this war seems to be diffuse, but it can be generally located on April 9 1948, in Bogotá, when a murderer hand killed Jorge Eliécer Gaitán, people's leader from the Liberal Party and who represented the aspirations of justice of the immense majority of poor in Colombia.

This situation set off the furiousness of the people, firing Bogotá during three days, seeking to whom charge for their anger and frustration, and which led to 'La violencia', name given to the conflict which took place from 1948 to 1953, which trascended its term and still has not ceased.

Armed insurgency

After the 'Bogotazo', as it was named that historical event, the Government of conservative President Mariano Ospina Pérez suppressed violence. Liberals, defeated, retired to the countryside and organize the resistance joined to the communists.

During the consecutive years, armed groups of different nature appeared and the violence of both parties generalized in the country, until June 1953 when General Gustavo Rojas Pinilla, in a bloody coup which counted with liberal and conservative's consent, took power with the slogan of
pacification. Three months later, with an offer of amnesty for those raised in arms, Rojas Pinilla managed the liberal guerrillas to endorse an armistice.

Marquetalia

The communist guerrillas remained active and strengthened mainly in Marquetalia, a rural area located in the midst of the Andean Range, at the south of the Department of Tolina.

However, ten years later, President Guillermo León Valencia, authorized by the Congress, ordered a military operation destined to assassinate those armed groups, charging them of creating an “independent Republic”. The attack did not achieved its aim and in response to that, on May 27,
born out the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People's Army (FARC-EP).

Two months later, on July 4, at the Simacota municipality in the Department of Santander, starts the National Liberation Army (ELN), the second Colombian guerrilla force speaking in numbers.

Belisario Betancur's initiative

Two decades had to pass so the Colombian State issued its first reaction in order to search a solution to the situation of the armed conflict, and it was during the Belisario Betancur's administration when it was endorsed the first bilateral cease to fire between the FARC-EP and the Government, on May 28 1984, in La Uribe, Department of Meta.

The agreement was endorsed by Manuel Marulanda, on behalf of the insurgents, and by president Betancur himself. It envisaged the constitution of a National Committee for the Verification of the agreements, periods of proof and the cease of confrontations, warrants and encouragement for the incorporation to the political and social life, as well as political and social reforms.

The accord, ratified in March 1986, was preceded by the Law 35 in August 1982, proclaimed by Betancur himself, which stated amnesty for the armed groups and norms to reestablish and preserve the peace in Colombia.

Thanks to this agreement started the Union Patriótica (Patriotic Union), a political group formed by the communist party and other left-wing organizations, which rank and files in a short time were decimated by the State's security forces and the rising paramilitary groups. Approximately five thousand leaders and political commissions were killed.

Virgilio Barco accords with the M-19 and the EPL (1986-1990)

President Barco, who took post on August 7 1986, not only maintained the peace commissions and verification of the agreements achieved by his predecessor with the armed organizations, but four years later, on March 8 1990, he undersigned a peace agreement with the Movimiento 19 de Abril
(Movement April 19, M-19) a group which did not returned to the arms despite the killing of his leader, Carlos Pizarro León-Gómez, on April 26. Barco also achieved peace with the People's Army of Liberation (Ejercito Popular de Liberación, EPL), on May 16 of that year.

FARC dialogues with Gaviria despite Operation Centauro (1990-1994)

This process of searching the peace was interrupted on December 9 1990, when the recently inaugurated President Cesar Gaviria, trying to surprise the FARC-EP high command, orders 'Operation Centauro', against the Secretariat headquarter of the organization in La Uribe, Department of Meta. The action did not succeed

Despite all of that, the FARC-EP and Gaviria's government retake the talks, and in May 15 1991 they meet in Cravo Norte (Department of Arauca); then in Caracas, on September and October of that year; and then in Tlaxcala, Mexico, where they hold two new encounters: on March 10 1992 and on October 10. However, on October 31, in Bogota, Gaviria declares the end of the negotiations and decrees “integral war” against
the guerrilla.

Ernesto Samper searching for conditions (1994-1998)

By the half of his term, on August 12 1996, President Samper announced through radio and television the creation of a “exploratory mission” responsible for “defining the terms and conditions” in which “a first negotiation of peace might be held” with the armed groups, but the initiative did not progressed.

In different opportunities, Samper expressed to be interested on the peace process which took place in Guatemala and which finished successfully at the end of 1996.

Pastrana meets three times with Marulanda (1998-2002)

Out of Uribe's predecessors, maybe it was Pastrana who went further in the search of agreements with the armed groups.

This president met in three opportunities, at the Colombian jungle, with the FARC-EP chief, Manuel Marulanda, and he undersigned the 'Shared Agenda for the Change towards a new Colombia', a document formed by 12 items which defined the perspective for a debate upon the basis of the building of a new country.

The negotiation process between Pastrana's administration and the FARC-EP lasted three years and ended up without making specific decisions, but with the record of a relevant experience.

Uribe, point of inflection (2002-2006 / 2006-2010)

Nowadays, Alvaro Uribe govern his second term and though his emissaries held six unsuccessful round of negotiations with the ELN in La Habana in 2007, since his first term in office he marked a point of inflection in the negotiation line of the Colombian governments with the armed groups.

An article published on May 28 2002, in La Jornada journal, from Mexico, regarding Uribe's first press conference, elected for the period 2002-2006, clearly defined his point of view:

“Santa Fe de Bogotá, May 27.- The elected president of Colombia, right-wing Alvaro Uribe, requested an international mediation leaded by the UN aiming for a dialog with the ilegal armed groups, after he had focused his electoral campaign in military proposals to confront them, and asking military help to the United States in order to combat terrorism.”

Uribe has reiterated that the democratic progress in his country does not justify the insurgence, just as he did -in accordance with a press release- on August 31 2007, during the setting off of the fourth meeting of South American intelligence chiefs:

“Bogotá, August 31 (Xinhua) – The president of Colombia, Alvaro Uribe, affirmed today, again, that the guerrilla groups who operate in his country should not be labeled as insurgent because their actions answer more to terrorism.”

Finally, on January 11 2008, in a communique to answer President Chávez's request of recognizing political belligerence to the FARC and the ELN, Uribe described those groups as “terrorist organizations which changed their old ideas of Marxist revolution for mercenariness, financed through ilegal drugs and, besides, caused paramilitary terrorism.”

Hope persists

Hopefully, the FARC-EP have expressed that the murder of Reyes and their 16 comrades will not change the organization's disposition to concrete a humanitarian swap.

However, in the midst of the tension prevailing in the region, new contacts with this purpose appear to be improbable. Still less to think about peace agreements, at least for the time being.