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FARC Should Release All Civilian Hostages It would be a serious blunder from both the humanitarian and tactical
perspectives if the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC)
were to allow Ingrid Betancourt—or any other hostage for that
matter—to die Propagandizing Human Rights in Colombia It happens time and time again. Following the killing of Colombian
peasants, the government immediately blames guerrillas from the
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the mainstream
media in both Colombia Bush Administration Fails to Acknowledge Existence of New Paramilitary Groups in Colombia The US State Department released its annual human rights report
last week and one of its implications with regard to Colombia is
particularly startling: There are no new The Significance of the Deaths of the FARC Leaders The Colombian government and many analysts are calling the killing
of two top commanders of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia
(FARC) Recent Articles FARC Leader's Killing Sabotages Prisoner Exchange The Upside-Down World of Bush and Uribe: Slandering Chávez and the FARC Colombia Assassinates FARC Commander Raul Reyes The Bush Administration's Hollow Commitment to Colombian Democracy Oil and US Policy Toward Colombia Bush and Harper Ignore Colombia's Labor Rights Reality Uribe Didn't Want Prisoner Exchange Talks to Succeed Colombia's Elections Highlight Democratic Shortcomings Women and the Struggle for Social Change in Colombia Seven Years of Plan Colombia ... and Little Has Changed in Putumayo Reflections on Mining in Colombia: When "Development" Creates Deprivation Projecting La Memoria in Southwest Colombia Two Perspectives from the Colombian Left Interview with FARC Commander Raúl Reyes For more articles, visit the Archive
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Updated: May 8, 2008
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illness while in captivity. From a humanitarian point of view, it
is simply inhumane to continue to hold captive in the jungle without
access to essential medical care anyone who is deathly ill. From
a tactical perspective, the death of Betancourt would be a public
relations catastrophe for the FARC and would undo the positive international
exposure it gained by releasing four sick hostages in February.
In fact, from both a humanitarian and tactical perspective, it would
behoove the FARC to release not only Betancourt and any other sick
hostages, but all of its civilian captives.
and
the United States dutifully report the allegations. In most cases,
evidence later emerges showing that the Colombian military or its
right-wing paramilitary allies were the actual perpetrators of the
crime. The media, however, rarely reports the new evidence with
the same vigor with which it reported the original claims holding
the FARC responsible—if they report the new findings at all.
Consequently, the Colombian government’s propaganda campaign
has successfully created the impression in many people’s minds
that the FARC are responsible for a majority of Colombia’s
human rights abuses despite the fact that statistics released by
human rights organizations year after year contradict popular sentiment.
paramilitary
groups in Colombia! The politicization of the latest edition of
the report is most apparent in its de-politicization of Colombia’s
new armed groups by denying that they are actually “paramilitary
groups.” This is a political strategy on the part of the Bush
administration that allows it to blame virtually all of Colombia’s
political violence on the guerrillas and makes it easier to refute
allegations of links between the Colombian military and paramilitaries—after
all, there can be no such links if the paramilitaries do not exist.
last
week a turning point in the country’s long-running civil conflict.
Others suggest, despite the initial euphoria in many circles over
the killings, that the guerrilla group will simply replace its two
fallen commanders and continue on with business as usual. These
differing perspectives suggest that the deaths of Raúl Reyes
and Iván Ríos will either amount to little more than
a bad week for the FARC or the beginning of the end for Latin America’s
oldest guerrilla group.