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IPS: Uribe Shuts Down Chavez Hostage Mediation
Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit
[William Brownfield, the loathed former US Ambassador to Venezuela,
is now in Colombia. The destruction of any progress in the talks is not
unrelated to this fact. Whereas as recently as mid-October, Brownfield
was praising the Chavez mediation effort (See: "Even US ex-Ambassador
Brownfield Praises Chavez Efforts in Colombia," Oct 12, 2007
http://blythe-systems.com/pipermail/nytr/Week-of-Mon-20071008/070064.html,
here he is quoted as saying "that the FARC had not provided evidence
that the hostages were still alive." - NY Transfer]
IPS - Nov 23, 3007
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=40191
"Why is President Uribe afraid of President Ch!vez talking to the
Colombian generals? Maybe he's worried theyll become ~Chavistas."
COLOMBIA: Door ~Definitively Closed on Ch!vezs Mediation
By Constanza Vieira
CARACAS, Nov 23 (IPS) - "Hey, I want to ask you a question. How many
police officers and soldiers are being held hostage by the FARC?"
Venezuelan President Hugo Ch!vez asked Colombian army chief General
Mario Montoya.
The telephone conversation lasted maybe half a minute, but the
consequences were dire.
At midnight local time Wednesday, Colombian President lvaro Uribe put
an end to the efforts by Ch!vez and opposition Senator Piedad Crdoba
to broker an agreement for an exchange of 45 hostages being held by the
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) for some 500 imprisoned
guerrillas.
An Uribe administration spokesman said the Venezuelan leader had broken
an agreement not to talk directly with the Colombian army chief or
other members of the military about the hostage question.
Crdoba was making phone calls from the presidential palace in Caracas,
to arrange meetings with several Colombian figures to inform them of
the state of the negotiations and of the results of Ch!vezs meeting
with French President Nicolas Sarkozy Tuesday in Paris.
Ch!vez and Crdoba were even planning a quick visit to Uribe, for the
same purpose.
>From an adjoining office, Ch!vez asked Crdoba who she was talking to,
and she responded "General Montoya." The president got on the phone,
and asked his brief question.
Crdoba described her call to Montoya as "routine."
Uribes peace commissioner, Luis Carlos Restrepo, said he had taken
over the efforts to facilitate an agreement, and would "redirect them
as necessary, in a discreet manner."
"It is very clear to us that this public spotlight generates huge
risks," he added in a press conference Thursday in the seat of the
presidency in Bogot!.
But journalist Carlos Lozano, a senior member of the Colombian
Communist Party and an expert on the issue of the hostage-prisoner
exchange, stated that "to say that... Restrepo is going to resume
contacts with the guerrillas for this purpose is a bad joke, because he
has never had contact with them, and on the contrary has invariably
thrown obstacles in the way of the facilitators efforts."
In an email response from Caracas to questions from IPS, Lozano said
the efforts made by Ch!vez and Crdoba since August were "productive"
and had "reawakened hope for a humanitarian swap" of hostages for
prisoners, which has broad sup****t among the Colombian population.
Ch!vez and Uribe had agreed that they would talk before any eventual
decision to end the Venezuelan leaders assistance in the hostage
talks. However, that agreement was not fulfilled. It was Crdoba who
informed Ch!vez of the Colombian leaders decision.
The Venezuelan government said it accepted "this sovereign decision by
the Colombian government" but expressed "frustration" at the cutting
short of a process "carried out amidst great difficulties" and which
had made "im****tant advances that already pointed to the possibility of
a solution to this essentially human drama."
Caracas sent the hostages families "a message of faith, first in God
and then in the good judgement of those who have in their hands the
power to make, in time, wise rectifications and decisions."
Venezuela, "despite this regrettable decision by the government of
Colombia, has an open heart and arms to continue lending its humble
services for the sake of life and peace," the government said in a
communiqu(c) released Thursday.
Alfredo Rangel, an expert in military issues and director of the
Bogota-based Security and Democracy Foundation who previously ran for
the Senate on a pro-Uribe ticket, said the government had
"definitively" closed the door to Venezuelas mediation.
"The situation is worse than before. That was made clear by the
governments announcement that it will no longer talk about an
~exchange, only about ~humanitarian actions. It will not seek an
agreement. The few advances that had been made have been undone. And
this no longer has anything to do with Venezuela or, apparently, anyone
else," he told IPS on Friday.
The underlying question, said the analyst, is that "the government was
unable to accept the political recognition that the FARC was achieving"
by means of Ch!vezs facilitation efforts.
In Lozanos view, Uribes reaction demonstrates "that the Colombian
government has no interest in peace or a humanitarian exchange. The
only option it accepts is a fratricidal war and military rescue
operations."
According to the director of Colombias Caracol Radio station, Daro
Arizmendi, from the moment that Ch!vez reached an agreement that the
FARC guerrillas would provide him with proof that the hostages are
still alive, the air force began a steady bombing campaign along the
entire border with Venezuela.
The bombing operations re****tedly made it impossible for an envoy sent
by Ch!vez to pick up the solid "proof of life" in Colombian territory
and bring it to Caracas prior to the Venezuelan leaders meeting with
Sarkozy.
Ch!vezs envoy already has the evidence that the hostages are alive,
according to Arizmendi, and "right now is holding tight here, in some
little village, waiting for a miracle to occur."
On Wednesday morning, several ruling coalition legislators visited the
Colombian seat of government and, along with Minister of Justice and
the Interior Carlos Holgun, re****tedly told Uribe that the process had
gotten out of his hands and that he should bring it to an end,
Arizmendi re****ted.
But Lozano said the president needed no pressure from legislators to
call off the process. "Uribe was already annoyed with the dynamics of
the good offices efforts, and was looking for a pretext to cut them
off."
"It was a rude gesture reflecting discourtesy towards the altruistic
efforts offered in solidarity" by Ch!vez, said Lozano. "Why is
President Uribe afraid of President Ch!vez talking to the Colombian
generals? Maybe he's worried theyll become ~Chavistas."
General Montoyas human rights record has come under fire in the United
States. U.S. intelligence sources have leaked to the press in that
country suspicions that he worked closely with ultra-right
paramilitaries at the service of drug lord "Don Berna", who is now in
prison, to eradicate urban guerrillas in the northwestern Colombian
city of Medelln in October 2002.
In Bogota, meanwhile, U.S. Ambassador William Brownfield complained
that the FARC had not provided evidence that the hostages were still
alive, prior to Ch!vezs meeting with Sarkozy.
France reiterated Thursday its sup****t for Ch!vezs efforts to broker
an accord, and urged Uribe to keep open the channel of dialogue that
the Venezuelan president forged with the FARC over the past three
months.
"We continue to believe that Ch!vezs efforts are the best option for
achieving the hostages release," said Sarkozys spokesman David
Martinon, who announced that the French president would be sending a
letter to Uribe in the next few days.
The highest profile hostage held by the FARC is French-Colombian
citizen Ingrid Betancourt, whose release Sarkozy has made a top
priority. (END/2007)
*
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