Talks With Colombian Rebels Postponed

An escalation in fighting, requests for increased U.S. military aid and a growing skepticism about the government’s conciliatory policy toward Marxist rebels culminated Saturday in an announcement that peace talks to end Latin America’s longest-running guerrilla war have once again been postponed.

Unable to agree on membership of an international commission to monitor the talks, which were scheduled to begin Monday, negotiators decided to put off discussions, a presidential spokeswoman said. Holding out some hope, she added that government representatives would try again on July 30 to iron out differences with negotiators from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, this country’s oldest and largest guerrilla army, known as FARC.

Negotiators had been scheduled to take on the crucial issues of land redistribution and the promotion of legal crops to replace cocaine and heroin production. The rebels “tax” narcotics production in areas under their control, providing them with a lucrative source of funding for their war effort to complement profits from kidnapping ransoms and extortion.

With the postponement, the peace process that began with an almost festive air in January has taken on a dark and depressing aspect for many Colombians. A poll recently published in the respected El Espectador daily newspaper, for example, found that of 550 people questioned, 70% characterized FARC as a terrorist organization, rather than a guerrilla group, and 61% said the rebel army’s aims were economic rather than political.

Much of the growing impatience with the peace process is focused on the demilitarized zone, an area the size of Switzerland that the government turned over to guerrilla control in November to create a safe place for negotiations to take place.

Since then, the local press has reported that FARC is using the demilitarized zone to hide kidnapping victims, train recruits and stage attacks on police garrisons outside the zone.

During the week preceding the talks, the People’s Defense, a quasi-governmental human rights agency, confirmed fears of human rights abuses in the demilitarized zone by announcing that 11 people had been executed there, apparently by a rebel-imposed judicial system.

Further, military leaders say that the rebels used the demilitarized zone as a staging area for a nationwide offensive a week ago, in which about 300 people died.

“The majority of these insurgents came out of the demilitarized zone,” said Gen. Jorge Enrique Mora about the intense fighting in Puerto Lleras and other rural communities near the demilitarized zone.

Public revulsion over FARC tactics was confirmed when the military displayed the bodies of dozens of dead rebel soldiers whom military forensics experts said were younger than 18.

Attitudes in Washington may also be shifting. The latest delay in the peace process comes only days after Colombia’s Defense Minister, Luis Fernando Ramirez, met with U.S. officials and lawmakers to plead his case for increased military aid to combat drug traffickers and groups working with them, an apparent reference to the rebels.

His request appears to have received a favorable reception from the U.S., which has been reluctant to provide the Colombian army with military aid.