Interesante...

[Ricardo Ramirez]

[NOTE: The stage for an all-out-war in Colombia         is being set. The "vietnamization" of Colombia         continues to unfold.     -DG]                         On Capitol Hill, congressional Republicans used                         hearings on Panama last week to hammer Mr.                         Pastrana and the Clinton administration on their                         failure to take a more hard-line approach to the                         Colombian rebels. ____________________    DALLAS MORNING NEWS Tuesday, 11 May 1999                   Second rebel haven offered                  Colombian leader says peace                 talks may require ceding land                 -----------------------------         By Tod Robberson PANAMA CITY -- Risking further dismemberment of his war-ravaged country, Colombian President Andres Pastrana says he is willing to carve out a new safe haven for leftist guerrillas if it will advance the cause of peace. Mr. Pastrana already has garnered heavy criticism in the United States for ceding a Switzerland-sized chunk of his nation to rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. U.S. officials have labeled the group a terrorist organization that profits from Colombia's illicit drug trade. Mr. Pastrana told the Bogota daily El Tiempo in an interview published Sunday that he wants to discuss creation of a separate "peace zone" for the National Liberation Army, or ELN, Colombia's second-largest rebel group. "We must find a mechanism to sit down with the Liberation Army," Mr. Pastrana said. "The government is ready to find a mechanism. It can be a safe haven." The FARC and ELN have spent the last 35 years fighting to overthrow Colombia's democratically elected government. Since 1997, their combined forces of roughly 20,000 guerrillas have gained the upper hand against Colombia's 120,000-member armed forces and, according to U.S. assessments, have caused the central government to lose control of 40 percent to 60 percent of the Colombian countryside. The Colombian president also agreed last week to negotiate terms with the FARC for expanding its current safe haven southward to include one of the heaviest cocaine-processing zones in the world, where the guerrillas say they hope to establish a volunteer crop-substitution program. In addition, Mr. Pastrana agreed to extend for at least another month the expiration date for the current FARC safe haven, which was to have returned to government control last Friday. That concession followed an unprecedented, face-to-face meeting on May 1 between Mr. Pastrana and FARC commander Manuel Marulanda. In return, the FARC agreed to move from an ill-defined series of dialogues it has conducted with government representatives since January to full-blown peace negotiations based on a 12-point agenda to include judicial, political, social and economic reforms. But the FARC reiterated its longstanding demand that the Colombian military crack down on right-wing paramilitary groups.         Prediction of war         ----------------- "We have made clear to the government the threat posed by paramilitarism and that fighting against these groups is one of the fundamental elements that have kept the dialogues from dying since their start," FARC negotiator Raul Reyes said. He warned that if the peace process fails, "there will be in Colombia a war of unpredictable consequences." Both the FARC and ELN are on the State Department's list of international terrorist groups. In January, the Clinton administration dispatched two State Department officials to meet directly with FARC envoys in Costa Rica. In March, FARC guerrillas kidnapped and killed three American activists working in Colombia with an indigenous group. The ELN is the group responsible for last month's audacious hijacking of a Colombian commercial airliner carrying 45 passengers and crew. The rebels forced the plane down on a jungle airstrip, where all aboard were hustled away at gunpoint. The ELN continues to hold 25 of the hostages, including one American, but has said through intermediaries that it is willing to release the remaining captives. In Washington, a Clinton administration official warned that U.S. counternarcotics aid to Colombia, which this year will total nearly $300 million, could be jeopardized if Mr. Pastrana's peace concessions block U.S. efforts to fight drug traffickers in guerrilla-controlled areas. "We've laid down our clear markers as to what we expect out of the peace process," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Territorial concessions "can't interfere with counternarcotics operations." The official insisted that counternarcotics efforts in Colombia have not been hampered by the FARC safe haven, although Colombian authorities have expressed deep frustration over their inability to pursue drug traffickers operating in the zone. In addition, Colombian police say they have detected efforts by the FARC to rebuild clandestine drug-trafficking airstrips that police destroyed inside the safe haven before the government's departure. Independent analysts have criticized Mr. Pastrana's approach to the guerrillas, suggesting that he has sent the wrong message by making a lengthy string of concessions without having even won a guerrilla pledge to honor a cease-fire.         Unsavory options         ---------------- "Despite his repeated insistence that he will not trade land for peace, it appears that is where Pastrana is heading, at least with the FARC," said a report last week by Stratfor, an Austin-based international security think tank. "If a peace deal is not reached, the Colombian army may be forced either to fight to regain control of [the zone] or to abandon control of the region to the FARC - neither an attractive option," the report said. Robert Pastor, a former U.S. diplomat who helped negotiate a prisoner exchange between the government and FARC in 1997, said Mr. Pastrana appears more to be buying time than holding a true give-and-take negotiation with the rebels. The danger, he said, is that when Mr. Pastrana no longer can bow to rebel demands, all-out war will follow. "I think that's coming," said Mr. Pastor, a political science professor at Emory University. "I don't know if he [Mr. Pastrana] is going to be able to hold that off much longer." On Capitol Hill, congressional Republicans used hearings on Panama last week to hammer Mr. Pastrana and the Clinton administration on their failure to take a more hard-line approach to the Colombian rebels. "The message to the FARC has to be crystal clear," said Rep. Dan Burton, R-Ind., "that the United States and the government of Colombia are not dealing from a position of strength but a position of weakness, down there hat in hand, sitting across the table talking to these guys, even though they're killing people and kidnapping them."         Copyright 1999 The Dallas Morning News _______________________________________________________________________ *********************************************************************** * COLOMBIA SUPPORT NETWORK: To subscribe to CSN-L send request to     * * [EMAIL PROTECTED]   SUB CSN-L Firstname Lastname     * * (Direct questions or comments about CSN-L to [EMAIL PROTECTED])  * * Visit the website of CSN's Champaign-Urbana (Illinois) chapter at   * * http://www.prairienet.org/csncu  Subscribe to the COLOMBIA BULLETIN * * For free copy and info contact CSN, P.O. Box 1505, Madison WI 53701 * * or call (608) 257-8753  fax: (608) 255-6621  Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * * Visit the COLOMBIA SUPPORT NETWORK at http://www.igc.org/csn        * * Visit the COLOMBIAN LABOR MONITOR at http://www.prairienet.org/clm  * ***********************************************************************