Monday, August 23, 2010

The FARC and Unasur

The FARC has written a letter (text here) asking Unasur to act as mediator with the Colombian government.  It is pretty surreal.  All the FARC wants is "peace with social justice" and it is tired of always being asked to make unilateral concessions (by which I guess it means why should it give up some juicy hostages for nothing?).  So it wants Unasur to provide it with a forum through which it can make its own vision of the Colombian conflict known.

I think President Santos' stance has been pretty clear, namely that before any negotiation the FARC will have to make unilateral concessions, such as releasing hostages.  I don't see a problem with providing a forum for establishing guidelines for dialogue.  It could even backfire for the FARC, which has virtually no sympathy anywhere, and so a rant would weaken its position even further.

3 comments:

Justin Delacour 11:13 PM  

So it wants Unasur to provide it with a forum through which it can make its own vision of the Colombian conflict known.

In light of the historic insularity of the FARC, the fact that it is now reaching out to an organization with such an ideologically diverse membership as UNASUR would seem like a step forward to me.

a rant would weaken its position even further

Which is precisely why we shouldn't necessarily expect it to deliver a mere "rant." The FARC leadership may very well be coming to the realization that it can't win power (and that its armed struggle has paradoxically assisted the Colombian right), so the FARC's stated willingness to enter into peace negotiations shouldn't necessarily be dismissed as a mere ploy.

Boli-Nica 6:40 PM  

The reason the FARC wants to go through UNASUR because they want political legitimacy, and think Chavez is the sort of international sugar daddy who will give it to them in an international forum.

They (and probably Chavez) think that an internationally sponsored negotiation will help politically neutralize Colombia's Democratic Security/Plan Colombia.

Look for them to ask for some sort of cease-fire or truce.

Justin Delacour 9:29 PM  

The reason the FARC wants to go through UNASUR because they want political legitimacy, and think Chavez is the sort of international sugar daddy who will give it to them in an international forum.

Given that Chavez is obviously trying to keep the peace with Santos at the moment, how exactly would it make sense for the FARC to have any such expectation of Chavez?

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