Rebels hold hostages, France holds talks

Patrick Makenen. Staff Reporter

Patrick_makenen@csumb.edu 

March 27, 2008

A new era of action could soon be taking place as France talks about giving new designation to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in return for hostages. Since a near crisis between Colombia, Ecuador, and Venezuela involving the death of 17 rebels weeks ago, many ties between these countries have since been reinstated.

FARC is a leading example of the growing number of terrorist organizations around the world that have been on the rise since the 1960’s. 

Recently, FARC lost a key leader when Colombia’s military broke international law and raided a rebel camp a mile inside the border of their neighbor Ecuador. 

 The manner in which Raul Reyes was killed created controversy with much of South America. Ecuador and ally Venezuela moved close to six thousand troops and armored vehicles to their border with Colombia.  

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has been acting the role of mediator for the FARC rebels in recent years, resulting in the release of prominent hostages in return for money from other countries.

Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa said he wanted the international community to condemn Colombia’s actions or “we [Ecuador] will have to defend ourselves by our own means.”

Native born Colombian and professor at CSU Monterey Bay (CSUMB) Rafael Gomez said, “For the internal politics of Colombia it was a triumph to kill Reyes and weaken the FARC, but for the rest of Latin America it was a questionable way to deal with the guerillas.”

French Prime Minister, Francois Fillon is in talks with FARC about the release of a number of French Colombian hostages in return for asylum. This could also spur a possible new designation for them as something more than a terrorist group.  FARC has been trying hard to become a political organization, but their operations with kidnapping, drug money, and guns have kept them from it.

France gave a similar designation to other Latin American guerilla groups in the 1980’s.

Juanita Darling, a former reporter on FARC and CSUMB professor of Human Communications (HCOM) commented, “They want social change and try to make progress but often times they do more harm to the environment and to the people then for the good of the state.” 

“The bigger problem is the inability of the state to control its own people.  The state can not protect the people from the guerillas even inside its own borders.” Gomez continued.

 Guerillas move quickly across the borders with ease since it is hard to tell exactly where the line lays because of the dense jungle and terrain.

 In upcoming weeks as talks continue, the FARC network may see change as it has never seen before.