As a fighting force of some 9,000 combatants and the oldest guerrilla insurgency operating in the Western Hemisphere, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia – FARC – have been engaged in a far too long and costly battle with the Colombian government. At a critical time in the group’s fifty year history, the FARC, now more than ever, need a peace process in order to distance themselves from dangerous factions, such the Urabeños and the Rastrojos (of the BACRIM criminal bands), who are firmly entrenched in former paramilitary strongholds and financing another land grab through extortion and drug money.
Recent security issues on Colombia’s northern coast, such as the assault and kidnapping of Spanish tourists, the ambush, killing of police officers near Venezuela, are fueled by a deadly cocktail of drug money, contraband and oil, now spilling out of control. The high levels of violence in La Guajira have their roots back in the late 1990s, when the Castaño brothers of the paramilitary AUC (United Self Defense Forces of Colombia) entered the region with two of their henchmen, Salvatore Mancuso and Rodrigo Tovar, alias ‘Jorge 40.’
Having committed massacres on Wayúu land to force communities into submission, what remains of the paramilitary expansion in La Guajira are mass graves, rampant poverty and displacement. La Guajira once again is becoming a battleground between cartels and a territory which Semana magazine referred to as “without God and Order.”
With decades of experience in planting land mines, running drug corridors and orchestrating mass kidnappings, the FARC appear to have made a major policy shift and change of tone – from a highly-combative and radicalized one – when the Peace Dialogues opened in Oslo, to one of rare compromise and consensus: as witnessed this week when the guerrilla’s chief negotiators reached far-reaching agreements with the Colombian government over land.
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Land being the first of a long and difficult list of grievances, and the FARC’s most contentious issue with any state, or entity, which tries to challenge its sovereignty over the land. But the moment the Colombian government sat down at the same table with FARC, it strangely legitimized a half century old fight by the rebels for social justice in the countryside, and something it can never do with BACRIM (or other shadow forces), which emerge to take its place.
Few in Colombia know what was negotiated in Havana with FARC, if anything material. What was “negotiated” was a philosophy over land, rooted in how to protect the Colombian farmer, how to maybe work together after a signed peace to protect the most valuable of assets: our food supply.
The closed door talks inevitably have created a new level of trust and ‘appeasement’ between the state and the guerrilla. This in part could be the result of the FARC’s recent personality offensive. The commanders in Cuba have been sending signals that they are the rightful heirs of a people’s army, with a clear historical mandate to fight for social justice in Colombia. This seems to be resonating at a time when dangerous threats are being made by self-professed ‘neo-paramilitaries’ against Colombian journalists and anyone who dare stand in their way.
While the FARC does have a historical mandate and responsibility to correct many wrongs committed, the Marxist force needs to prove ideologically that they are not part of the global terror network which sets out to kill and maim innocents, as tragically witnessed recently in Boston and London. In interviews from their Cuban Camelot, the FARC seem to be talking like a bunch of reasonable men.
The global ‘War on Terror’ pushed FARC to negotiating table. While Plan Colombia upgraded the Colombian military with billions of U.S dollars invested in hardware, the training of soldiers, it is modern weapons of war such as Drones which will make life impossible for FARC to operate post-peace talks. And their commanders know this. If no deal is reached, at this historical juncture, there’s nowhere left to hide.
If a peace agreement is reached between FARC and the Colombian government only part of the violence in this country will end. The FARC may not want a peace right now as there’s still much money to be made in drugs and controlling cocaine routes. But they urgently need this peace; because if they don’t emerge as the men and women in defense of a higher cause, a greater good if you will, they will be remembered in history as yet another gang of armed thugs who used land as an excuse to sow terror.
