FARC and Regional News

This article shows the complex international relations involved in combating the recent guerrilla movement in Latin America. Although regarding the Colombian guerrillas, FARC, the article appears in the Peruvian press. A similar neo-marxist (though Maoist) revolutionary movement continues in Peru, self-titled the Shining Path (Sendero Luminoso). Without much effort, an image of the guerrilla movement in Latin America can be formed from the late 1960s, perhaps all the way to Cuba and Che Guevara in 1958--hostages, crime, revolutionary ideology and an erosion of the state’s monopoly on violence. This forms part of regional, rather than national, news.

http://www.larepublica.com.pe/content/view/195521/676/
La República--Perú

The Wait Continues for the Release of Three Hostages Held by Guerrilla

Sunday, December 23, 2007

(10:22 PM) The awaited release of three hostages held by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Columbia (FARC) continues today with confidence, as the guerrilla could fulfill their announcement somewhere between Venezuela, Colombia and Brazil.

The released hostages would be Clara Rojas [vice-president candidate in the 2002 presidential elections in Colombia], her son Emmanuel and the ex-congresswoman Consuelo González de Perdomo. These three have been held by the FARC since 2002, when they were captured in two separate raids. Emmanuel, three years old, was born in captivity—the result of relations between Rojas and a common guerrilla.

For the families of these hostages, there is confidence the FARC will fulfill their announcement, given that President Chávez [Venezuela] claimed parts of the Colombian government do not want this result.

From Caracas [Venezuela] on Saturday, the Columbian senator Piedad Córdoba anticipates a “signal” from President Chavez regarding the FARC announcement to free hostages. Senator Córdoba and President Chávez were mediators between the Colombian government and the FARC, searching for an acceptable exchange of hostages. However, President Álvaro Uribe [Colombia] ended this role last November 21.

For the mother of Clara rojas, Clara González de Rojas, the freedom of her daughter and grandson would be “the best Christmas present that God could give us after so much suffering.” Close friends of the family say they are waiting with a traditional Christmas dinner, natilla and buñuelos [small fritter and custard], because they are confident the release will happen on Christmas Eve.

As far as the captured congresswoman Consuelo González, everything is ready for her return to a farm located near the municipality of Pitalito, in Huiloa [south central Colombia]. Her daughters, Patricia Helena and María Fernando, will recount everything that has changed since her absence. What is more, Colombian president Álvaro Uribe claimed last Friday, “we will be waiting on Christmas Eve, waiting for the release of these hostages. Let us pray! Let us pray they are found; this is what we want."

The FARC have in their control 45 politicians, soldiers, police officers, three U.S. citizens and the ex presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, also a French nationalist, which they hope to exchange for 500 imprisoned guerrilla. For the exchange, the rebels demand an end to martial law in the municipalities of Pradera and Florida, in Valle del Cauca (southeast Colombia). However, Uribe will not accept this deal for reasons of sovereignty and security.
(EFE—Bogotá)