Millions in Colombia Demand End to Conflict

Millions of Colombians marched Sunday in hundreds of cities and villages, chanting “No more, we want peace!” to demand an end to their country’s prolonged conflict and to abuses of civilians.

An estimated 2 million people turned out here in the capital, nearly 1 million each in Cali and Medellin, and thousands more in 800 villages across the country, along with hundreds of Colombians in 30 foreign cities. Even as they marched, one of the demonstrators’ key petitions was being met: Peace talks resumed between the government and Marxist rebels, who have been fighting for 35 years.

Sunday’s turnout was remarkable both because of a nationwide drizzle and because Colombia, unlike other Latin American countries, lacks a tradition of public demonstrations. Marchers were protesting a multisided civil war that has left more than 100,000 people dead in a country of 40 million and, in this decade alone, has displaced an estimated 1.5 million others.

So far this year, rebels and the right-wing armed groups that oppose them have killed more than 1,000 civilians, and rebels currently are holding an additional 221 for ransom, according to police and armed forces records. Protest organizers estimated that, each month, 25,000 civilians are driven from their homes.

Until Sunday, talks between the government and Colombia’s oldest and largest rebel group--the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known by the initials FARC--had been stalled for three months over the issue of international observers.

As the talks resumed, government officials attending the discussions acknowledged that the marchers’ other demands--an immediate cease-fire and an end to kidnappings--are two of the thorniest issues that negotiators confront.

Kidnapping, along with drug trafficking, is a major source of financing for the rebels, who control about 40% of the national territory. Any success in U.S.-backed efforts to thwart narcotics production in areas under rebel control would leave the rebels more dependent on funds from kidnapping, analysts warn.

Colombia is now the world’s No. 1 source of cocaine and a growing supplier of heroin.

Negotiators have dismissed calls for an immediate cease-fire from both the armed forces and the right-wing fighters, who call themselves self-defense forces, as extremist positions that would destroy any possibility of continuing talks.

In a reminder that finding a negotiated solution to the country’s complex civil war will be difficult, four peasants were reportedly slain and 20 houses burned Saturday on the road to the jungle town of Uribe, where negotiators met. Self-defense forces are suspected in the killings, which occurred in a Switzerland-size zone that the Colombian military evacuated almost a year ago to clear the way for peace talks.

Shortly after the peace march, authorities reported that three bombs had exploded in the old cocaine cartel headquarters of Medellin, where alleged leaders of a suspected new drug ring were arrested earlier this month pending extradition to the United States. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the explosions, which caused extensive damage but no casualties.

Terrorism Declines but Civil War Intensifies

Early in this decade, terrorism from drug traffickers opposed to extradition made Colombians feel increasingly vulnerable to attack in the cities. When bombings and kidnappings by drug traffickers subsided, the civil war became more intense, especially in the countryside.

The self-defense forces then became major actors in the conflict, displacing such people as 2,500 farmers from the northwestern province of Choco who have been living in refugee camps for 31 months.

“While they talk about peace, the number of displaced people is becoming critical,” said Marco Velasquez, 36, who fled his farm in the Cacarica region of Choco when self-defense forces threatened to kill anyone who did not leave.

While still afraid for their lives, refugees from Choco joined Sunday’s marches.

Uribe, the site of the peace talks, was one of the few places where the demonstrations took on an air of protest, with the relatives of soldiers and police being held by the FARC marching with their mouths taped to symbolize their feelings of exclusion from the peace talks.

In Los Angeles, about 500 protesters staged a noontime rally outside the Federal Building at 11000 Wilshire Blvd.

Carrying signs reading “No More Kidnappings” and “Peace in Colombia,” the marchers urged Americans to take an interest in the Colombian unrest.

“We want people to take a stand for peace down there,” said Silvia Martinez, a 35-year-old Los Angeles County social worker who immigrated to the United States in 1987.

Martinez said she was jarred during her most recent visit to Colombia when she saw photographs of the Colombian president “sitting at a table in the middle of the jungle” meeting with the rebels.

“Why does the Colombian government have to go begging for peace instead of taking military action?” she asked.

She said guerrillas and paramilitary groups have formed alliances with drug dealers for financial reasons and regularly shake down business owners--threatening that members of their families will be killed if they don’t make monthly payments.

“It’s extortion, and the Colombian government doesn’t do anything about it,” Martinez said.

A Festive Atmosphere in Bogota Demonstration

In Bogota, where most marchers wore white as organizers requested, the atmosphere was more festive. Streets along the three march routes were decorated with banners and balloons, and many demonstrators brought their dogs. Nearly all the participants waved flags reading No mas (No more), which local businesses distributed for free.

Marta Diaz, 37 and pregnant for the first time, said she was marching because “I think about where my baby is going to live and what his future will be.” Noting that she could go into labor “any minute,” she added, “Let him be born protesting.”

The marchers’ optimism reflected the renewed prospects for peace in Colombia after months of tension and disappointment.

Even before talks with the FARC broke down, the government had refused to meet with representatives of the second-largest rebel force, the National Liberation Army, or ELN, until it released civilians kidnapped during a Mass in Cali and from a domestic airline flight. However, talks with the ELN resumed in Cuba a week ago.

“I am convinced that we are living a historic moment and that we cannot fail to take advantage of it,” government peace commissioner Victor G. Ricardo told a small group of foreign reporters last week.

After Sunday’s protocol opening, negotiations with the FARC will begin in earnest today, Ricardo said. The first item on the agenda, he said, will be to reaffirm the commitment of both sides to finding a political solution to the conflict.

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Staff writer Bob Pool in Los Angeles contributed to this report.