- Title: COLOMBIA: Colombia mulls proposed FARC peace talks.
- Date: 28th August 2012
- Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) RESIDENT, ALEJANDRO GONZALEZ, SAYING: "Seeing as we all want peace it would be a lot better to negotiate with a debilitated guerrilla force than with a guerrilla force that is getting stronger which is what's happened in the past several months." THE STREETS OF BOGOTA PEOPLE WALKING THROUGH THE STREETS POLITICAL ANALYST NESTOR HUMBERTO MARTINEZ (SOU
- Embargoed: 12th September 2012 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Colombia
- Country: Colombia
- Topics: Conflict,Politics
- Reuters ID: LVAAC5QL2RSEQQSDCOVCCZCG2WM2
- Story Text: Some Colombians greet news of government-FARC peace talks with scepticism.
Colombia's government confirmed on Monday (August 27) that it is seeking peace with the country's biggest rebel group, the FARC, and could consider also holding talks with a second guerrilla movement to end five decades of war, but many Colombians remain sceptical.
Despite hopes for peace, some Colombians say they still have reservations regarding the process after months in which the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia have fought back, stepping up attacks on economic targets like oil and mining installations and threatening the government's drive to restore Colombia's image.
A successful agreement with the rebels would secure President Juan Manuel Santos a place in history when so many other presidents have failed to bring a lasting ceasefire during years of bloody armed conflict, according to analysts.
Santos, at the mid-point of his four-year term, has said he would only consider peace talks with the FARC if he was certain the drug-funded group would negotiate in good faith.
However, news of the peace talks has already angered his predecessor, Alvaro Uribe, who has criticised any idea of negotiations with the rebels and has slammed Santos for wanting "peace at any cost."
Many Colombian's share the former president's reservations and have met the news with caution.
"Juan Manuel Santos was chosen in the first place because he was the one that was going to follow Uribe's steps; democratic security, social cohesion and now he has turned on his supporters, on those who voted for him. And it just goes to show that Juan Manuel Santos used the Uribe banner to get elected and not to govern," Bogota resident Jose Ricardo Zuluaga told Reuters.
Santos, a former defence minister, won election in 2010 by a landslide, pledging to cut unemployment and continue Uribe's hard line security policies, while fostering economic growth and reducing poverty.
A U.S.-backed offensive launched under Uribe weakened the FARC and drug gangs, making Colombia safer and fostering foreign investment.
Santos has said his government would learn from the mistakes of so many previous leaders who tried but failed to clinch a lasting ceasefire with the FARC.
In 1988 former President Andres Pastrana ceded the Marxist group a safe haven the size of Switzerland to promote talks in the last peace effort which ended in a shambles.
The rebels took advantage of the breathing space to train fighters, build more than 25 airstrips to fly drug shipments, and set up prison camps to hold its hostages.
More recent gains by the insurgency has led some to question the timing of the negotiations.
Moreover, the 61-year-old Santos has seen his own ratings slide in recent weeks amid criticism that he had allowed rebels to chip away at the security gains of the last decade.
"Seeing as we all want peace it would be a lot better to negotiate with a debilitated guerrilla force than with a guerrilla force that is getting stronger which is what's happened in the past several months," Bogota resident Alejandro Gonzalez said.
Attacks on oil industry installations have jumped 40 percent over the last year, while violent clashes between troops and indigenous protesters led to withering criticism of Santos for not protecting soldiers.
But political analyst Nestor Humberto Martinez told Reuters the government, which has delivered the rebel group its biggest set-backs in recent years as U.S.-trained special forces used sophisticated technology and spy networks to track its leaders, is in a good position.
"It is clear the army has won the positioning and the really important battles in facing the armed insurgency in Colombia and this makes it easier to negotiate. We can't expect to see immediate peace in the middle of starting this process. What we've seen over the past several weeks, in which the conflict was escalated by the armed insurgency, is part of the insurgency's strategy to go to the negotiating table a bit stronger," Martinez said.
The FARC, which calls itself "the people's army" defending peasant rights, has battled about a dozen administrations since appearing in 1964, when its founder Manuel Marulanda and 48 rebels fought off thousands of troops in jungle hide-outs.
A string of defeats began in 2008 with a cross-border military raid into Ecuador that killed its second in command. Marulanda died of a heart attack weeks later and was replaced by Alfonso Cano, who was later killed too.
The drug-funded group is now led by Timoleon Jimenez, known by his war alias "Timochenko."
As recently as last month Colombian security forces clashed with indigenous activists who stormed a hill-top military base in the volatile south giving fodder to Santos' critics.
Bloodshed in Cauca - one of the most violent areas in the conflict-wracked country - has generated more criticism of Santos, whose once-commanding approval ratings plummeted over concerns security gains were being reversed.
But news of the FARC negotiations have also opened the door to possible talks with the country's second biggest guerrilla group which has said it is willing to hold unconditional peace talks to end the decades of war, though it refuses to end its kidnapping, bomb attacks and extortion of foreign oil and mining companies before negotiations start.
The National Liberation Army, or ELN, has also suggested joint talks with the FARC and the government as the two Marxist groups currently maintain good relations despite being bitter enemies in the past and often clashing over territory.
"The FARC and ELN guerrillas have had different philosophic and political views. In this sense it would be a lot more difficult to move along talks with the FARC if they come together in a joint table with the National Liberation Army, but it is good news that talks could begin with the National Liberation Army," Martinez added.
Inspired by the Cuban revolution and established by radical Catholic priests, the ELN was close to disappearing in the 1970s but steadily gained power again.
By 2002 it had as many as 5,000 fighters, financed by "war taxes" levied on landowners and oil companies.
The ELN is now believed to have about 3,000 fighters. It has sought peace before, holding talks in Cuba and Venezuela between 2002 and 2007. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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