OPINION:
COMMENTARY:
July marked the first anniversary of a little-known Colombian organization, Manos Por la Paz (Hands for Peace), and a very successful year it has been. The group was founded by imprisoned guerrillas of the country’s two most vicious narco-trafficking terror organizations, FARC and ELN.
Manos Por la Paz’s mission is to permit imprisoned guerrillas to demobilize and apply for trial under the government’s Justice and Peace law. Launched spontaneously by prisoners who did not wish to be exchanged for FARC hostages, it has become a major movement within Colombia’s prisons and is spreading to guerrilla groups in remote parts of the country.
In just 12 months, nearly 1,000 of some 3,000 imprisoned terrorists, both left-wing guerrilla and paramilitary groups, have signed a declaration. It took many government authorities nearly as long to realize this was not a trick to secure an early release. Quite the contrary: The prisoners are not seeking special treatment. They recognize they must pay for their crimes.
Colombia’s vice president, Francisco Santos, realized why captives opted for prison rather than returning to terrorism. Moreover, senior military figures understood that repentant prisoners could be excellent intelligence sources. The vice president’s special adviser in demobilizing terrorists, Mario Agudelo, notes that “about 200 imprisoned guerrillas formed a dissident group that has led to a remarkable movement within Colombia’s prisons.”
There is no doubt the ongoing success of President Alvaro Uribe’s six-year counterterrorist offensive - capped by freeing 15 high-profile hostages on July 2 - has had a withering impact on guerrilla morale, which has progressively suffered as rebel troops realize the vaunted Marxist revolutionary rhetoric is merely a cover for kidnapping and narco-trafficking.
Unfortunately, sufficient aid is not as yet provided to the terrorists’ innocent victims, forcing thousands to beg on the streets of major cities. Though the government is working to provide assistance via Plan Colombia and other foreign-supported services, Mr. Agudelo sees “no major effort to assist the victims of the guerrilla and paramilitary groups.”
Numberless leftist guerrillas, like their counterparts in the so-called right-wing paramilitary organizations, are forcefully recruited by, or unwittingly join, the outlaw groups in their preteens, in some cases at 9 or 10 years of age. Once separated from their families, the boys are taught the rudiments of soldiering and forced to commit often gruesome terrorist acts, laying land mines, kidnapping selected targets and burning villages, becoming hardened and fearful of being captured by Colombian security forces.
Liduine Zumpolle, representing the Dutch nongovernmental (NGO) foundation Support Reconciliation Colombia, with 40 years’ experience in Colombia and Latin America (she also represents an NGO devoted to Cuba, Fundacion Cuba Futuro), believes most terrorists “are victims themselves. They are not angels but were either forced by the FARC or by very poor living circumstances, many sincerely believing armed struggle was the way to a more just society.”
The FARC has been especially well-organized, its leaders mindful that they must keep a close eye on their terrorist troops. One of the seized laptop computers of senior FARC leader known as Raul Reyes, killed by a Colombian Air Force missile strike on March 1, held thousands of incriminating data sheets, including photos of FARC fighters.
There are many more imprisoned guerrillas who fear retribution from FARC and ELN prisoners if they sign the Manos Por la Paz form. According to Ms. Zumpolle, “The prisons hold many diehard guerrillas who believe they have nothing to lose, as they will probably be in prison for the rest of their lives. There is nothing to restrain them from taking vengeance on defectors, especially those who make guerrilla organizations look bad.
“Guerrillas still at large must be assured safe-conduct from wherever they are, before they dare demobilize or sign the declaration,” she contends.
” ’Safe conduct’ almost surely means time in prison, but they are willing to pay the price.” The imprisoned Manos founder and former FARC leader known only as “Raul” contends that 90 to 95 percent of guerrillas will demobilize “if they can trust the government.”
Colombian jails are notoriously bad, making it possible for wealthy, well-connected inmates to receive relatively deluxe treatment from corrupted prison officials. While four to seven prisoners are typically housed in a two-person cell, the infamous paramilitary leader known as “Don Berna” enjoyed a 12-cell complex, ostensibly for his protection, in La Picota, Bogota’s maximum security prison. He received unrestricted food shipments plus telephones, computers and, reportedly, female visitors.
After long delay, Don Berna and 13 other paramilitary chiefs were extradited to the United States on Tuesday, May 13. Perhaps coincidentally, their extradition followed a meeting of senior ministry and security officials the previous Friday, attended by Liduine Zumpolle, to discuss implementing new prisoner regulations. She forcefully contrasted the discrimination against demobilized guerrillas having no money to bribe with the special treatment for people like Don Berna.
Now backed by most government and security leaders, Manos Por la Paz has forced those running the prisons to treat all prisoners more fairly and humanely. Ms. Zumpolle and the group’s leaders are pushing for cell blocks where signers and other demobilized prisoners will be safe from credible death threats.
Shortly after the 14 were sent to the United States, their computers and/or hard drives mysteriously disappeared from three different prisons where the paramilitary leaders were imprisoned, raising more questions about the system’s corruption. This was particularly devastating to security forces who had recently gleaned critical information from captured guerrilla computers.
It is to be hoped that responsible authorities will find those who removed such important potential intelligence and gain a mine of information. That would indeed be a suitable, if slightly belated, birthday recognition of Manos Por la Paz.
John R. Thomson is a geopolitical analyst who focuses on developing countries.
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