CIAO DATE: 06/2008
April 2008
Almost six years of intense security operations against the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) by the administration of President Álvaro Uribe are beginning to produce tangible results. Government forces killed several important rebel field commanders in 2007 and two members of the central command in March 2008, including second-in-command Rául Reyes, and have severely disrupted insurgent communications, prompting a loss of internal cohesion and decreasing illegal revenues. However, this progress has come at the cost of severely deteriorating relations with Ecuador and Venezuela and increased risk of political isolation after the controversial bombing raid on Reyes’s camp inside Ecuador. Military gains can pay off only if combined with a political strategy that consistently pursues a swap of imprisoned insurgents for hostages in FARC captivity, reestablishes much needed working relations with neighbours along borders and strongly advances integrated rural development to consolidate security and broaden Colombia’s international support.
Achieving the hostages-for-prisoners swap is a key challenge for the Uribe administration. The issue has acquired great political significance in Colombia and internationally since mid-2007 and has contributed to increasing tensions with Venezuela. After an initial initiative of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who seeks the liberation of Colombian-French citizen Ingrid Betancourt, and Uribe’s unilateral release of some 180 FARC prisoners in May 2007, the government authorised Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez in August 2007 to facilitate a swap. Uribe officially sought to end Chávez’s involvement three months later, however, in the absence of results and following an open display of bias towards the FARC. The FARC unilaterally released six hostages in January and February 2008 (of a total of some 45 so-called “political” and another 700 “economic” hostages, with the latter not being considered part of any deal at this point) as a gesture of support for Chávez. This did nothing to advance a deal, however, despite the support of a group of friendly countries, among them France and Brazil.
Resource link: Colombia: Making Military Progress Pay Off - Latin America Briefing N°17 [PDF] - 205K