Posted on 04/14/2002 4:01:40 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
A commander of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, issued the threat late Tuesday during an interview with Reuters. He said the nation's 1,097 mayors and all its municipal judges must step down by midnight Wednesday as the rebels press their monthlong crusade to drive out local officials. "The government has declared total war against us, and our response is to politically disregard the state, its representatives and its laws," said the leader of the FARC's 51st front, who is known as "Byron." "A new grass-roots power must be built by the people," he said from an isolated mountain region just south of Bogota, the Colombian capital. "The birth of this new power will not recognize old institutions." ***
The United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, a 10,000-member militia, said in a letter that it supports a shadowy Venezuelan sister group that announced its creation earlier this week in a video sent to Colombian television.
In the video, a man wearing a ski mask to conceal his identity said he had mustered 2,200 fighters to fight leftist Colombian guerrillas who cross the long jungle border into oil-rich Venezuela and declared the left-wing populist Chavez "a military target."
Chavez, a former paratrooper who was elected president, already faces rumors of discontent among his own officers despite a shake-up in the military that followed an unsuccessful coup in April.
Venezuela's relations with Colombia have been strained since Chavez's election, and he has angrily denied Colombian army claims that fighters of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, had taken refuge in Venezuela.
This time, Chavez suggested to reporters that the video was the work of a lone masked man with a big mouth.
"We'll have to confirm this. But as you well know, if there are self-defense forces anywhere, the sadly named paramilitaries, it's not Venezuela," said the president, whose leftist rhetoric has bitterly split his country between poor Chavez supporters and wealthier opponents.
Chavez has also been a prominent critic of the U.S.-backed "Plan Colombia" anti-cocaine offensive, which was partly aimed at sapping Colombian rebels' finances. The video was a sign Colombia's 38-year-old war could be spilling over its borders. [End]
'All they have to do is kill three or four mayors and everyone would say, `Oh! They were serious!' '' said Hernán Muñoz, the former clerk in Gigante, in Colombia's Huila state. ``I don't want to be that martyr. Let someone else be the martyr.''
What began last month as a small-town strategy to derail city government in southern Colombia has swept the nation. By Tuesday, the FARC had menaced nearly 125 mayors from throughout Colombia. Threats have now hit the mayors of Bogotá, Cali and Medellín, the nation's largest cities. In Antioquia on Saturday, 23 mayors quit. In the state of Arauca, nearly 100 city officials stepped down, although many officials nationwide withdrew their resignations this week. U.S. Ambassador Anne Patterson announced the American Embassy in Bogotá would include mayors and other city officials in its ongoing program that offers armored cars and other protection to activists, union leaders and other people in danger.
In small towns across Colombia, city halls are padlocked. Paving projects have stopped. Garbage is piling up, medical centers are running out of supplies and courthouses have shut down. Many mayors are working from their state capitals or homes, refusing to sign contracts or do anything that resembles governing.
A FARC strategy to destabilize Colombia's municipal government has the potential of bringing the nation to its knees just before a new president takes office, the mayors say. As Colombia's federal government grapples with its options -- more security, exile mayors -- it has refused to accept resignations. Democracy, federal officials say, isn't a card game: You can't just fold. ''Resigning does not solve the situation at all,'' said Nelson Rodolfo Amaya, interior vice minister. ``We need to sustain democracy. These people were not chosen, they were elected. We'll need exceptional measures. We'll do whatever it takes.''***
Asked at a recent news conference why the United States had bailed out Mexico in 1995 but was refusing to do so with Argentina, O'Neill responded that the United States had backed several financial rescue packages for Argentina, only to see the money evaporate within weeks. In order not to continue throwing good money after bad, Argentina has to come up with a sound long-term economic recovery program, he said. O'Neill's position makes a lot of sense. But Argentina has since taken drastic measures to cut government spending and its economic collapse is threatening to spread to its neighbors. He may be playing with fire by making no exceptions to his anti-bailout doctrine. Latin American officials and many economists yearn for the days of the Clinton administration's financial rescue packages, which they say were highly successful. In Mexico's 1995 financial crisis, for instance, a $20 billion U.S. financial rescue package was repaid ahead of time, they say.
O'Neill's hands-off approach to foreign financial crises is a reflection of the Bush administration's ''compassionate conservatism,'' other Latin American officials say. In O'Neill's mind-set, there seem to be two worlds, they say. One -- made up of most countries -- must be governed by the market, and countries and corporations must be held accountable for their mistakes, even if it costs them dearly. The other world is made up of the poorest countries, like many nations in Africa, which deserve outside help.***
The threats have forced city governments to close their doors, and on Thursday prompted the national government to increase rewards for information leading to the capture of FARC leaders.
President Andres Pastrana announced during a nationally broadcast speech that the government would pay $2 million for information leading to the capture of the highest-ranking FARC commanders and $1 million for battalion leaders. Previously, the government had offered a little more than $400,000 for the most important commanders. Pastrana said the government was going to ''seek out and punish the terrorists, one by one, wherever they are.'' In a country where the annual minimum wage is approximately $1,675, the rewards are staggering.
''This is a tempting offer for peasants or even for guerrilla members,'' said Sabas Pretelt de la Vega, president of the national Merchant's Federation. He said many FARC leaders travel openly in the countryside they control, and even appear in villages occasionally. ''They can't do that anymore,'' he said.
In Cali, authorities were searching for the people who ordered the killing of Arango as he left church Thursday night. Police arrived at the church shortly afterward and shot a man dead. Cali's police chief, General Luis Alfredo Rodriguez, said police had shot the assassin, but relatives of the priest told Radionet that police killed Arango's nephew, who was standing nearby but was not involved in the attack. Bishop Libardo Ramirez of nearby Huila State said Arango's murder ''hurts our hearts.'' In April, a priest was shot and killed as he delivered Holy Communion in Huila State.
''With these deaths they want to sow panic,'' he said. ''These violent people don't feel the pain of the communities, of the families, of the church itself that has done so much to try to reach peace.'' National church leaders met with police yesterday to discuss security measures for all priests, but declined to give details. [End]
Pastrana's announcement of a special joint command to target the FARC's leaders is not credible considering that as a lame-duck president, he has lost much of his power. In fact, his speech likely was a response to charges that his government is doing nothing to protect thousands of locally elected or appointed government officials who have recently been threatened with assassination by the FARC if they don't resign.
Nevertheless, government sources in Bogota told STRATFOR July 1 that Uribe Velez, who takes office Aug. 7, would likely create the same kind of force Pastrana has discussed if the Bush administration agrees to provide such a unit with the critical transport, communications and intelligence support it would need to achieve its mission. The idea of a joint U.S.-Colombian command to help hunt down specific individuals in Colombia was tried successfully a decade ago and likely would appeal to Bush administration policy makers who view drug trafficking and political terrorism as inter-related threats to the American homeland.***
Pedro Carmona Estanga is scheduled to be the featured guest Wednesday at the Security Roundtable sponsored by FIU's Latin American and Caribbean Center. The roundtable is a discreet organization of about 100 academics, journalists, diplomats and business people, hosted alternatively by the center known as LACC, the University of Miami's North-South Center and the Pentagon's Southern Command.
But this weekend, roundtable members thought to be on a private e-mail distribution list received two angry messages from Caracas urging the university to cancel the talk. The most provocative, signed by a Professor Reinaldo Bolívar, called Carmona ''a terrorist,'' and said the United States would protest if a Venezuelan were to host a similar event with Osama bin Laden.
Carmona, 60, turned up in Miami last month on a short-term visa issued before his brief April 11-12 takeover of the Venezuelan presidency and the Miraflores presidential palace. He had fled to political asylum in Colombia after pro-Chávez forces restored to power their elected president, who had likewise previously plotted a coup.
In defense of the Latin American and Caribbean Center, Director Eduardo A. Gamarra wrote to members that the event will be held Wednesday afternoon as scheduled because the institute known as LACC ``has always been a forum for leaders, academics, activists, and others who have openly spoken their mind about affairs in the region. To allow the presence of controversial speakers has always been the role of universities in the United States.''
Moreover, he acknowledged that ``Mr. Carmona is certainly a controversial figure and his speech will undoubtedly generate great controversy. LACC does not endorse Mr. Carmona's views nor condone his actions during the coup against President Hugo Chávez.
``At the same time, LACC does not condone the actions of President Chávez before, during or after the coup. If the opportunity were to arise, we would be delighted to host speakers who represent the views of the Chávez government.'' [End Excerpt]
Fears of more political violence have middle-class and wealthy Venezuelans scurrying to buy weapons, stock up on supplies and fortify their homes as they fret over another military rebellion and attacks by the president's supporters. Security hysteria has seized parts of the capital. In plush apartment complexes, lawyers and executives form committees to repel marauding gangs and housewives bombard police officials with queries about tear gas and Molotov cocktails. "In my office, in the last four weeks, people have bought about 10 shotguns and enough ammunition to keep fighting for months. I'm talking about a type of collective panic," said Jose, a Caracas financial advisor. ***
….Many have quit the government talks, convinced that Chavez is not sincere about changing the leftist direction of his revolution, cannot manage Venezuela's faltering economy and will not prosecute the killers of at least 20 people at a massive opposition march in April. Looming over Carter's four-day mission are plans by opposition parties and civic groups Thursday to march again on a presidential palace defended by ``Chavistas,'' held responsible for much of the violence in April.***
Meanwhile, public statements by the new government appeared to confirm Ramirez's bravado. Defense Minister Jose Vicente Rangel told the press that Ramirez was not considered a terrorist in Venezuela as he had committed no crime there and that the embassy would pay greater attention to the prisoner's plight. He challenged the French on the legality of Ramirez's detention in Sudan.
The change had to do with both the new president and those around him. According to analysts, the election of Chavez brought to power a clique of aging leftists, including a number of friends of Ramirez's father, Jose Altagracia Ramirez, the founder of the Venezuelan Communist Party. Among them were Defense Minister Rangel and National Assembly President Luis Miquilena. Miquilena had at one stage shared a jail cell with Ramirez senior. Rangel had grown up in the same province, Tachira, as the Ramirez family. "They are old family friends," said Pastor Heydra, a member of Congress and former Communist Party leader. Rangel, he pointed out, had twice been a presidential candidate for the Venezuelan Communist Party.
Moreover, in left-wing circles a myth had built up around Carlos, said Castellano. "People saw him as a Robin Hood figure. Books were written about him. They saw him as a Venezuelan who did something original. They forgot about all the deaths he caused." According to Castellano, sympathy for the terrorist soon translated into pressure on the Venezuelan Embassy in Paris.***
The opposition claimed Chavez wasn't sincere about dialogue and quit the talks. Many Venezuelans fear the deadlock and deteriorating economy will produce a social explosion. Some opposition politicians want the Organization of American States, not the private think tank Carter Center, to intervene. Others said they felt Carter was being used by Chavez to buy time for his leftist government. Still others said they won't meet Chavez unless the government guarantees the safety of marchers who will commemorate the April dead on Thursday.
"We told former President Carter that we will not be part of a circus," said Antonio Ledezma, head of the opposition Brave People's Alliance party.
National Assembly President Willian Lara, a member of Chavez's Fifth Republic Movement party, said Carter asked top lawmakers their views on disputes over the elections commission, the judicial system, a stalled probe into the April violence and economic laws decreed by Chavez.
Julio Borges, a lawmaker with the Justice First party, said he wasn't impressed by a negotiating agenda Carter presented Monday. He declined to elaborate, and it wasn't clear whether Carter or the government drafted the agenda. Carter has declined comment during his visit, which ends Wednesday. "The agenda shown to us seems to us based more on the government's interests, or how the government can stay in power, than with the problems facing Venezuelan society," Borges said. "Trying to talk about all the country's problems tomorrow would be to talk about nothing."***
Opposition leaders had met Carter separately. Although the latest dispute was typical of Venezuela's volatile, polarized politics, it seemed to kill the peace initiative by Carter, who since leaving the White House in 1981 has made a career of trying to resolve world conflicts.
"It's good that he should see what kind of reality we have in Venezuela," opposition deputy Andres Velazquez told reporters. "How can there be a dialogue like this?" Despite the offer by Carter to personally chair a meeting between Chavez and his foes, opposition leaders said they would only meet the president if he formally agreed to disarm his supporters and guarantee the safety of Thursday's march.
They also urged the Organization of American States to join efforts to defuse tensions in Venezuela, which has been racked by coup jitters since the April putsch. Chavez's government has denied persistent opposition charges that it has organized its supporters into armed groups to harass and attack political foes and critics in the media.***
Carter said Chavez, a populist elected in 1998, was ready to discuss any opposition concerns. Among them: Chavez's inflammatory leftist rhetoric; his bickering with the business community; claims he is politicizing the military; a stalled investigation into violence that sparked an April coup; neighborhood political groups that harass dissenters; and a judiciary stacked with Chavez supporters. Even before Carter arrived Saturday, Venezuela's opposition rejected his mission as little more than a ploy by Chavez to buy time for his embattled government.
Chavez invited Carter to jump start government-sponsored reconciliation talks after an April coup. Prominent opposition leaders abandoned the talks, saying Chavez isn't sincere about changing the direction of his leftist "revolution." Among other demands, opposition leaders told Carter they wanted the OAS to mediate - a condition previously rejected by the government - and for him to extend his visit to dissuade violence when opposition marchers rally on Thursday in memory of 18 people killed during a opposition march in April. That bloodshed provoked the coup.***
On Thursday, Figueroa's group will face off with a march called by opposition groups commemorating the April 11 coup that ousted Chavez for two days; 18 people were killed and hundreds wounded when an opposition march was confronted by police, National Guard troops and civilian gunmen. Using the slogan "Never Forget," a coalition of opposition parties and civic groups has held demonstrations each month to commemorate the victims of the coup. To deter more violence in the march Thursday, the opposition agreed not to march to the palace and instead, march six blocks away. They insist Chavez, whose term ends in 2007, cannot govern the country, which is mired in recession and social unrest. They are organizing a referendum that will seek to shorten his term.***
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