Colombia's leftist rebels unite
The country's two main groups announced a military alliance against the government on Monday.
By Rachel Van Dongen | Special to The Christian Science Monitor
BOGOTÁ, COLOMBIA - Just as momentum is building for President Alvaro
Uribe's push to end Colombia's four-decade civil war, the
country's two main leftist rebel groups have renewed their efforts to stop
him.
The 17,000-member Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the
5,000-member National Liberation Army (ELN) publicly
declared on Monday that they had joined forces in their war against the
government. Until the declaration, the ELN was thought to be
amenable to a possible peace deal.
The declaration comes at a time when Mr. Uribe is engaged in peace talks
with right-wing paramilitaries and has proposed granting
alternative penalties for drug traffickers and members of illegal armed
groups. Some 70 percent of the public backs the hard-line president,
who just ended his first year in office.
But while the groups are trying to gain the upper hand against the government,
defense analysts are divided on whether this will
significantly alter the balance of power in the 39-year conflict.
Leon Valencia, a former ELN commander turned political analyst, says the
alliance is serious and will give "new air to the armed conflict."
He views the alliance as "very worrisome for the country."
"The ELN will contribute to the FARC a long tradition of urban operational
experience and perhaps a political vision that is more agile and of
greater vision," Valencia said in an e-mail from Uruguay, where he is now
living. "The FARC will impose on the ELN greater military goals,
and if the alliance is solid, contribute economic resources that could
revitalize the ELN."
Valencia argues that the conflict will "intensify" as a result of the alliance
and "this will ensure that the end of Uribe's tenure won't be rose
colored."
In contrast, Alfredo Rangel, a defense analyst who runs a security think
tank here, says that the course of the war is unlikely to change
much. He says the two groups have already been working together in several
regions.
"There is an intention to widen the cooperation," Mr. Rangel says. "The
ELN may receive [a boost], but I don't think that changes the
situation."
Combating Uribe's moves
Since Uribe came to office last August, he has taken the fight to Colombia's
rebel groups, increasing military spending, authorizing new war
taxes, and creating an army of peasant soldiers. He has also initiated
peace talks with the right-wing United Self-Defense Forces of
Colombia in an effort to demobilize some 20,000 troops by the end of 2005.
The government has even tried unsuccessfully to advance
peace negotiations with the ELN.
Additionally, just last week Uribe proposed granting "conditional liberty"
to drug traffickers and rebels, right- or left-wing, who have
committed crimes against humanity. Instead of going to jail, low-level
offenders would pay alternative penalties such as prohibition from
serving in office and carrying firearms.
But the two leftist groups have rejected any kind of peace deal with the
Uribe government. Perhaps trying to grab the public-relations image
edge back from Uribe, who has succeeded in getting the international community
to condemn the FARC as terrorists, the rebels released a
six-point communiqué on Monday that condemns Uribe's "democratic
security" policies.
The document dubs Uribe's government as "an enemy of peace" and "war-like
by conviction." "For that reason, we declare that while the
illegitimate government of Alvaro Uribe persists in its fascist and militaristic
policies, we will not advance any process of political accord and
national dialogue," it reads.
Yet the guerrilla groups claim they are dedicated to peace, as long as
it is outside the rubric of the antinarcotics and terrorism program
heavily funded by the US known as "Plan Colombia." The ELN also jumped
on board the FARC's long-standing plea for an exchange of
hostages for jailed rebels. Uribe has rejected such a swap.
The rebels further called on Colombians and the international community
to "denounce" Uribe's platform of "democratic security" that has
been criticized by human rights groups for curtailing civil liberties and
involving more civilians in the war.
As well, the FARC and ELN rejected a proposed national referendum, which
will be put to a vote on Oct. 25, saying the government is
looking for a "consolidation of state[-sponsored] terrorism." Ending on
a bellicose note, the statement calls for "liberation or death."
Escalating violence
The war cry comes in the midst of escalating violence in certain regions.
On Monday, at least five people died, including a 1-year-old boy,
when the FARC allegedly planted a bomb on a dock in Meta. The Cano-Limon
oil pipeline in the eastern province of Arauca, where US
Green Berets are training Colombian antiterror troops, was bombed this
weekend for the 20th time this year. And earlier this month, the
FARC allegedly detonated a car bomb in the town of Saravena in Arauca,
killing four civilians, including two children.
Rangel notes that the two groups have tried unsuccessfully to work together
before. The rebels once comprised the now-defunct "Simon
Bolivar Guerrilla Group" that failed to broker peace with the government
in 1991 and 1992.
Since then, they have operated on largely separate tracks and even fought
against each other for power and recognition from the
government as the dominant guerrilla force.
The FARC was founded in 1964 to establish Marxism in Colombia. It has at
least 70 fronts that roam up to 60 percent of the country,
mainly to the plains east and south of the Andes.
Although it was originally created to promote social justice, during the
1990s it became heavily involved in the drug trade. Along with taxing
coca, the FARC earns its income from kidnappings and extortion.
The ELN was also founded in 1964, by a group of radical students and Spanish
priests trained in Cuba. It has been losing power and
numbers in recent years, but has been responsible for mass kidnappings
and the abduction of two Los Angeles Times journalists in
January.
It largely focuses on attacking infrastructure, such as oil pipelines and
electrical towers. Earlier this year, the ELN condemned the February
bombing of a nightclub in Bogotá, which killed dozens.