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