Colombia's leftist rebels unite against government–Cuban trained ELN; Marxist FARC

BOGOTÁ, COLOMBIA - Just as momentum is building for President Alvaro Uribe's push to end Colombia's four-decade civil war, the country's two main leftist rebel groups have renewed their efforts to stop him.

The 17,000-member Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the 5,000-member National Liberation Army (ELN) publicly declared on Monday that they had joined forces in their war against the government. Until the declaration, the ELN was thought to be amenable to a possible peace deal.

The declaration comes at a time when Mr. Uribe is engaged in peace talks with right-wing paramilitaries and has proposed granting alternative penalties for drug traffickers and members of illegal armed groups. Some 70 percent of the public backs the hard-line president, who just ended his first year in office.

But while the groups are trying to gain the upper hand against the government, defense analysts are divided on whether this will significantly alter the balance of power in the 39-year conflict.

Leon Valencia, a former ELN commander turned political analyst, says the alliance is serious and will give "new air to the armed conflict." He views the alliance as "very worrisome for the country."

"The ELN will contribute to the FARC a long tradition of urban operational experience and perhaps a political vision that is more agile and of greater vision," Valencia said in an e-mail from Uruguay, where he is now living. "The FARC will impose on the ELN greater military goals, and if the alliance is solid, contribute economic resources that could revitalize the ELN."

Valencia argues that the conflict will "intensify" as a result of the alliance and "this will ensure that the end of Uribe's tenure won't be rose colored."

In contrast, Alfredo Rangel, a defense analyst who runs a security think tank here, says that the course of the war is unlikely to change much. He says the two groups have already been working together in several regions.

"There is an intention to widen the cooperation," Mr. Rangel says. "The ELN may receive [a boost], but I don't think that changes the situation."

Since Uribe came to office last August, he has taken the fight to Colombia's rebel groups, increasing military spending, authorizing new war taxes, and creating an army of peasant soldiers. He has also initiated peace talks with the right-wing United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia in an effort to demobilize some 20,000 troops by the end of 2005. The government has even tried unsuccessfully to advance peace negotiations with the ELN.

Additionally, just last week Uribe proposed granting "conditional liberty" to drug traffickers and rebels, right- or left-wing, who have committed crimes against humanity. Instead of going to jail, low-level offenders would pay alternative penalties such as prohibition from serving in office and carrying firearms.

But the two leftist groups have rejected any kind of peace deal with the Uribe government. Perhaps trying to grab the public-relations image edge back from Uribe, who has succeeded in getting the international community to condemn the FARC as terrorists, the rebels released a six-point communiqué on Monday that condemns Uribe's "democratic security" policies.

The document dubs Uribe's government as "an enemy of peace" and "war-like by conviction." "For that reason, we declare that while the illegitimate government of Alvaro Uribe persists in its fascist and militaristic policies, we will not advance any process of political accord and national dialogue," it reads.

Yet the guerrilla groups claim they are dedicated to peace, as long as it is outside the rubric of the antinarcotics and terrorism program heavily funded by the US known as "Plan Colombia." The ELN also jumped on board the FARC's long-standing plea for an exchange of hostages for jailed rebels. Uribe has rejected such a swap.

The rebels further called on Colombians and the international community to "denounce" Uribe's platform of "democratic security" that has been criticized by human rights groups for curtailing civil liberties and involving more civilians in the war.

As well, the FARC and ELN rejected a proposed national referendum, which will be put to a vote on Oct. 25, saying the government is looking for a "consolidation of state[-sponsored] terrorism." Ending on a bellicose note, the statement calls for "liberation or death."

The war cry comes in the midst of escalating violence in certain regions. On Monday, at least five people died, including a 1-year-old boy, when the FARC allegedly planted a bomb on a dock in Meta. The Cano-Limon oil pipeline in the eastern province of Arauca, where US Green Berets are training Colombian antiterror troops, was bombed this weekend for the 20th time this year. And earlier this month, the FARC allegedly detonated a car bomb in the town of Saravena in Arauca, killing four civilians, including two children.

Rangel notes that the two groups have tried unsuccessfully to work together before. The rebels once comprised the now-defunct "Simon Bolivar Guerrilla Group" that failed to broker peace with the government in 1991 and 1992.

Since then, they have operated on largely separate tracks and even fought against each other for power and recognition from the government as the dominant guerrilla force.

The FARC was founded in 1964 to establish Marxism in Colombia. It has at least 70 fronts that roam up to 60 percent of the country, mainly to the plains east and south of the Andes.

Although it was originally created to promote social justice, during the 1990s it became heavily involved in the drug trade. Along with taxing coca, the FARC earns its income from kidnappings and extortion.

The ELN was also founded in 1964, by a group of radical students and Spanish priests trained in Cuba. It has been losing power and numbers in recent years, but has been responsible for mass kidnappings and the abduction of two Los Angeles Times journalists in January.

It largely focuses on attacking infrastructure, such as oil pipelines and electrical towers. Earlier this year, the ELN condemned the February bombing of a nightclub in Bogotá, which killed dozens.

Colombia sends message to rebels via Venezuela [Full Text] BOGOTA, Colombia, Aug 20 (Reuters) - Colombia's President Alvaro Uribe said on Wednesday he had asked Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez to pass a message to leftist guerrillas that he is willing to start peace talks. Uribe's comments are the first time the Colombian president has publicly suggested a link between the left-leaning Chavez and the Marxist-inspired Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known by its Spanish initials FARC.

Relations between Bogota and Caracas have been strained periodically over accusations by the Colombian military that Chavez is letting FARC rebels use Venezuela as a staging ground for attacks. In February, Colombia's interior minister accused Chavez of meeting "frequently" with FARC rebels, but was publicly reprimanded by Uribe after Venezuela threatened to break off diplomatic relations. Chavez, who has criticized Colombia's U.S.-backed "Plan Colombia" offensive against drug-traffickers and guerrillas, denies he is collaborating with the guerrillas, who are described as "terrorists" by Washington.

"Last week I told Chavez: 'President, stop worrying so much about Colombia's security policies. Tell the FARC that if they are bored with our policies, they can negotiate with me in five minutes'," Uribe told a university audience in Bogota. Colombian media have alleged that Manuel "Sureshot" Marulanda, the top FARC commander, has been hiding in neighboring Venezuela since the Colombian government broke off peace talks with the rebel group in February 2002.

Uribe, a close U.S. ally in the war on drugs who took office in August 2002, has launched an offensive against the 17,000-strong FARC, which originated 39 years ago in a peasant uprising. He has said he will only negotiate peace with rebels if they agree to a cease-fire. On Sunday, FARC guerrillas fired assault rifles as Uribe's helicopter flew into a village in northern Colombia. [End]

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Uribe and Chavez sitting together (lower left corner ) last week in Paraguay.

From left seated at table are Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, Colombia's President Alvaro Uribe, Spain's Prince Felipe, Cuban President Fidel Castro, Ecuadorean President Lucio Gutierrez and Bolivia's Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada, Chilean President Ricardo Lagos and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva during lunch in Asuncion, Paraguay, Friday, Aug. 15, 2003, after attending the inauguration for Paraguayan President Nicanor Duarte.(AP Photo/Dado Galdieri)

Colombia's President Alvaro Uribe, right, shakes hands with U.S. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld during a meeting at Bogota's presidential palace, Tuesday, Aug. 19, 2003. Rumsfled is in Colombia to pledge Washington's commitment to bolster Colombia's counternarcotics effort. (AP Photo/HO-Cesar Carrion, CNE)

Crises in Venezuela***Recently, Venezuela's permissiveness — if not outright support — for terror groups inspired U.S. Army Gen. Richard Boyer to compare Venezuela with Syria. The next day, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said "the government of the United States and the people of Venezuela have a differing view of democracy than does President Chavez." Taken together, these comments are a clear shot across the bow of Mr. Chavez. Mr. Chavez's anti-democratic behavior and support of terror groups is earning him an associate membership in the "axis of evil."

But these events go almost totally unnoticed within the American media. We've largely ignored the comments of U.S. Southern Command's Gen. James T. Hill, who said that there is a proliferation of terror groups in Latin America. Instead, the war-weary American media turns its tunnel vision to the Laci Peterson investigation or the Kobe Bryant scandal.

One of the most important fronts in the war on terror is being left behind, and probably won't get the coverage it deserves until the powder keg explodes. Who will be to blame when Americans again ask, "Why didn't we know?"***

U.S. Says Closely Watching Venezuela Referendum Steps***CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - The United States, which has clashed with leftist Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez over policies, on Friday strongly backed plans for a national referendum on whether he should stay in office. The United States, like other nations in the hemisphere, backs a constitutional solution to the crisis (in Venezuela)," Stephen McFarland, charge d'affaires at the U.S. Embassy in Caracas, told a news conference. "We are all following very closely the referendum process," he added. ***

(Marxist terrorists) July 20, 2003 - FARC declares candidates military targets in Oct. 26 elections [Full Text] BOGOTA, Colombia -- Colombia's largest guerrilla army, the Marxist-inspired FARC, has threatened to kill all candidates for October municipal elections, saying they and their families will be declared military targets. In a letter sent to the nation's mayors, obtained by Reuters on Saturday, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia said the threat extended to candidates for mayor, governor, city council members and provincial lawmakers.

The nationwide vote, the first election under the government of President Alvaro Uribe, will take place Oct. 26. The president took power last year promising to make Latin America's most violent nation safe again. "Those who register as a candidate for the election will be declared military targets. You and your families in any place where the FARC are found will subjugated to country's armed conflict," the letter read.

Commanders of Colombia's armed forces said they were aware of the letter and would guarantee security for all of the candidates, who must register within the coming weeks to be eligible. In mid-2002, the FARC threatened to kill or kidnap all mayors and municipal government officials in a move it said was aimed at destroying the state from the bottom up. The threat forced many politicians to take refuge in distant military bases, governing remotely. Twelve Colombian mayors were killed in 2002, and police blamed most of the killings on Marxist rebels. The FARC also kidnapped 12 provincial lawmakers last year. [End]

(Paramilitary) July 29, 2003 - Castano: Colombia Violence Was Inevitable - Pledged To Demobilize ***As his United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia prepare to disband as part of a peace agreement with the government, Castano sought to justify the tactics the outlawed right-wing militia group used to fight leftist rebels for nearly two decades. In a message dated Sunday and posted on the Web site of the AUC, as the group is known by its initials in Spanish, the paramilitary chief claimed his fighters prevented guerrillas from taking over Colombia…….

…….Government peace commissioner Luis Carlos Restrepo has said the government is endorsing a plan in which paramilitary leaders would avoid jail if they follow through on promises to disarm. The militia leaders could face alternative sanctions such as paying compensation to their victims' families, Restrepo said. Castano has pledged to demobilize his estimated 12,000 fighters by the end of 2005, removing a brutal element in Colombia's war, now in its 39th year. Paramilitary splinter groups, estimated at 6,000 fighters, have refused to join the peace process.***

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