Is this the beginning of the end of Colombia's nearly 50-year
civil war?
Perhaps seeing their end in sight, FARC
guerillas want some assurances
from Washington that they will not be extradited to the U.S. if
they lay
down their arms and sign a peace treaty.
REVEALED: Fearing Extradition, FARC Guerillas
Reach Out to U.S. Authorities (El Espectador, Colombia)
"Although it may sound farfetched and no one has spoken officially
of these rapprochements, it is certain that they exist. ... There is no doubt
that extradition is one of the chief obstacles to the peace process. ... Today, 52 guerrilla leaders have pending
indictments in U.S. federal courts for drug trafficking and the kidnapping of
three Americans who spent 65 months in captivity. Whatever is agreed upon, the
fate of those 52 commanders will define the future of the nearly 8,000 strong force
controlled by the guerrillas."
By María del Rosario Arrázola and Juan
David Laverde Palma
A FARC negotiator in Havana with a cardboard poster of FARC Commander Ricardo Palmera Pineda: The rebel group is asking whether the U.S. would permit Pineda, who is serving a 60-year prison sentence in the United States, to take part in peace talks with the Colombian government. The suggestion has reportedly been flatly rejected.
El Espectador has discovered that the FARC [Revolutionary
Armed Forces of Colombia] are seeking informal channels through third
parties connected with the U.S. Embassy in order to put two issues on the
table: the likelihood of extradition to the United States if a peace treaty is
signed; and the possible inclusion of convicted FARC
commander Ricardo
Palmera Pineda, alias Simón
Trinidad, in the talks undertaken in Cuba. The sources consulted by this
newspaper insist that these contacts have been sporadic and very basic, the
main reason being “taking the temperature of the United States with respect to
the process.”
Although
it may sound farfetched and no one has spoken officially of these
rapprochements, it is certain that they exist. The case of Simón
Trinidad has been completely rejected. “There’s nothing to negotiate about there,”
a high-level source told El Espectador. This was in reference to the legal fate of
the guerrilla commander - arrested January 2, 2004 and extradited to the United
States on December 30 of that year - which was sealed with his sentence of 60
years in prison. The official position of the U.S. government is unchanged: to
support the peace process. With respect to extraditions, that issue must be
resolved by the Colombian government in its capacity as a sovereign nation.
Meanwhile,
it is clear that in parallel with negotiations in Havana, the FARC is aware that if a peace treaty is signed and the
guerrillas give up their weapons to return to civil society, they need further
assurances that their fates will not be those of extradited [right-wing] paramilitary
commanders who also negotiated with the government and are now serving
sentences of up to 30 years for their proven links to drug trafficking. On
April 29, 2005, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia [Washington]
ordered the extradition of 49 FARC leaders on charges
of narcotics trafficking. It was documented that the defendants controlled the
entire illegal trade process.
According
to the indictment, "the FARC initially involved
itself to the cocaine and cocaine paste trade by imposing a 'tax' on
individuals involved in every aspect of cocaine and cocaine paste production
that occurred within the territory it controlled, including, without
limitation, coca farmers, cocaine lab operators, cocaine traffickers who received
their finished cocaine for distribution, and individuals who operated clandestine
air strips through which the cocaine was transported." But according to the United
States, this approach changed over time to the point that in the 1990s, the
guerrillas, in their geographic areas of influence, declared themselves to be
the sole buyers of cocaine paste, which they then traded directly with mafias
who distributed it in the United States and Europe.
Four
years later, on May 15, 2009, the same U.S. District Court charged 18 FARC leaders, including Dutch woman TanjaAnamaryNijmeijer, for the February
13, 2003 kidnapping of Americans Keith Stansell, Marc
Gonsalves and Thomas Howes.
The incident took place after the small plane they were traveling on in the south
of the country was brought down by FARC'smobile
column TeófiloForero. El Espectadorhas
determined that64 guerrillas have
been under investigation in two U.S. federal indictments. Of those, 12 are already
dead.
Last
Monday [May 20] brought the death of the newest of these commanders, Ernesto HurtadoPeñalosa, alias, El Negro
Eliécer, one of the men closest to Timochenko, head the mobile column Antonia Santos, which
operates in North Santander [this is Timochenko's
Twitter page]. He is thought to have ordered a massacre of 34 people in Catatumbo in 2004, as well as the 2006 attack on a military
unit in which 17 uniformed soldiers were assassinated. “This is a major blow, as
this individual partnered with Megateo [another well-known FARC
commander] in the trafficking of drugs directed to generate resources for the
terrorist organization,” said Defense Minister Juan Carlos Pinzón.
Returning
to the backchannel approaches FARC emissaries have made
to their contacts who have links to the U.S. Embassy, our sources confirm that
these very basic communications began almost in parallel with the beginning of talks
in Havana last November. “They fear extradition. They know that their impending
trials are almost impossible to avoid since, as everyone knows, the United
States does not negotiate with terrorists,” admitted another senior source who spoke
on condition of anonymity.
Posted By Worldmeets.US
There
rest are political calculations. The visit of former President Bill Clinton;
the declaration of new Secretary of State John Kerry, who said that “any
negotiation that strengthens democracy, the rule of law, human rights, and which
leads to peace, is a good thing that deserves our support” [translated quote]; and
finally, a letter written by a group of 62 U.S. Congressmen who support the talks
in Cuba - all are signs that the subject of peace is embraced by the United
States. Moreover, at the end of this month, Vice President Joe Biden will meet
the senior staff of the Santos government. It's a given that Havana will be
part of their agenda.
There
is no doubt that extradition is one of the chief obstacles to the peace
process. IvánMárquez,
Pablo Catatumbo, JoaquínGómez, El SargentoPascuas, John 40, El Paisa, Andrés París,
Tanja herself, and other guerrillas on the list of 52
leaders with pending indictments in the United States, know that if they don’t
resolve the problem, negotiations may put them in an impossible situation. That
is why our source doesn't reject the notion that these tentative contacts on
the part of FARC have reached all the way to Washington.
Although
not formally a subject for discussion, and according to the [Colombia] government,
not on the agenda for talks, the specter of extradition is inevitably being invoked
behind the scenes in Havana. Today, 52 guerrilla leaders have pending indictments
in U.S. federal courts for drug trafficking and the kidnapping of three
Americans who spent 65 months in captivity. Whatever is agreed upon, the fate
of those 52 commanders will define the future of the nearly 8,000 strong force controlled
by the guerrillas.
