Home | Columns | Media Watch | Reports | Links | About/Contact

Column 020116 Brewer

Monday, February 1, 2016

The Political Expediency
and Exploitation of
FARC Peace Talks
By Jerry Brewer
Since 1964 one of the
worlds longest wars has
claimed the lives of an
estimated 220,000 people
and displaced 5.7 million.
This armed conflict against
Colombias homeland and
military by leftwing
guerrillas and rightwing
paramilitaries has
frustrated Colombias
leaders for decades.
It appears now that the
FARC guerrillas (Fuerzas
Armadas Revolucionarias
de Colombia) could
possibly have outlasted and

bamboozled the
government of Colombia
and others in finally
gaining exemption and
freedom from punishment
from the injurious
consequences of their
violent actions and
atrocities.
Last week Colombian
President Juan Manuel
Santos announced that he
is asking the United States
to remove the FARC from
its list of terrorist
organizations and suspend
drug warrants against
guerrilla commanders to
help him seal a peace deal
with Latin America's
oldest leftist insurgency.
Could it be that the evil
specter of impunity that
has viciously plagued so
many violent regimes of
this hemisphere has reared
its ugly head again? And if
it has, who are its
facilitators?
Santos will visit U.S.
President Barack Obama
on February 4. Santos
believes that it would be
appropriate for the Obama
administration to strike the
FARC from a State

Department list of terrorist

organizations.
FARC has rightfully been
on that list for nearly two
decades. Moreover, the
U.S. DEA has shown
direct and growing
criminal drug ties between
Colombia's FARC
guerrillas and Hezbollah.
What is a special concern
in all of this is that on May
29 of last year, President
Obama removed Cuba
from the State
Departments list of state
sponsors of terrorism. This
despite Cuba's ties to
Marxist, jihadist and other
separatist terrorist
organizations.
Cuban involvement in the
peace talks with FARC and
Colombia began in
November 2012, in
Havana, Cuba. The Cuban
involvement, location and
oversight of the process is
quite possibly an
explanation as to the past
slow movement of these
discussions that appeared
more of a skillfully
exploited situation; a
charade of sorts that has
seen rogue leftist
government regimes in

Venezuela and Cuba in

support of the guerrillas.
The political support by
Venezuelas leftist
government was obvious.
At the annual State of the
Nation address in the
National Assembly, on
January 11, 2008, then
President Hugo Chavez
referred to the FARC as "a
real army that occupies
territory in Colombia. As
well, he stated that the
FARC were not terrorists
because they had a
political goal.
Throughout the peace talks
in Cuba the FARC has
asked to be forgiven for
their atrocities and not to
surrender their arms, while
managing to maintain a
strong political position of
power and negotiation.
Consequently, the FARC
has taken advantage of
previous concessions by
the Colombian government
to talk, disarm, and seek
peace.
In the 1990s the FARC, via
the leftist Patriotic Union
Party, continued to wage
war during peace talks
with the Colombian
government. The

Colombian government
consistently cited the lack
of commitment by the
FARC as to the process of
talks, while the latter
continued its criminal acts.
As far back as 1998 former
Colombian President
Andres Pastrana withdrew
around 2,000 police and
soldiers from over 16
square miles in southern
and eastern Colombia,
turning over control of that
territory to the FARC as a
gesture of goodwill. The
FARC however did not
comply with the peace
accord efforts, and took
advantage of the
government by using the
territory as a training
ground for recruits and
future actions.
In March of 2015,
President Santos agreed to
halt aerial bombing in
recognition of a unilateral
cease-fire called by FARC
at Christmastime.
However, he subsequently
ordered air assaults to
resume in response to a
rebel attack that killed ten
soldiers in April. Offensive
operations then renewed as
guerrillas began sabotaging

roads, pipelines and

utilities.
In September of last year,
in what appeared to be
another clear nexus to
Venezuelas support,
guerrilla and FARC leader
Rodrigo Londoo
Echeverri (also known as
"Timochenko") arrived at
Havana airport in a
Beechcraft 1900 aircraft
owned by Venezuelas
state owned oil company
PDVSA. President Santos
and FARC leader
Timochenko later
described a major
breakthrough, saying that
they had agreed to
finalize a deal by March
2016. U.S. Secretary of
State John Kerry called
this "historic progress.
The FARC have said they
are willing to put down
their arms, but not hand
them over to the state.
Today FARC leaders are
continuing to insist on no
jail time for their atrocities,
and they want the right to
run for political office if
they are to demobilize and
peacefully reintegrate. Yet
they continuously and
consistently refuse to
disarm. Many FARC

commanders are wanted on

drug trafficking charges in
the manufacture and
smuggling of hundreds of
tons of cocaine.
One of the U.S. targets is
Timochenko, who flew
into Cuba on the
Venezuelan aircraft. He
has a bounty by the U.S.
placed on him for US$5
million for information
leading to his arrest.
Extradition issues are not
clear and not expected.
There also remains unclear
issues of trials by special
courts for crimes of the
war, from sexual abuse
and kidnapping to torture
and executions.
Santos now believes the
FARC should be
eliminated from the terror
list. He also said he would
like the U.S. to follow his
lead in Colombia and
suspend arrest warrants
targeting the FARC's top
leadership.

Jerry Brewer is C.E.O. of

Criminal Justice
International Associates, a
global threat mitigation firm
headquartered in northern

Virginia. His website is

located at www.cjiausa.org.
TWITTER: CJIAUSA
Jerry Brewer Published
Archives