Pubdate: Tue, 5 Feb 2008
Source: New York Times (NY)
Copyright: 2008 The New York Times Company
Contact:  http://www.nytimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298
Authors: Jenny Carolina Gonzalez and Simon Romero
Note: Jenny Carolina Gonzalez reported from Bogota, and Simon Romero 
from Caracas, Venezuela. Andrea Zarate contributed reporting from 
Lima, Peru, and Angelica Medaglia from New York.
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topic/FARC

MARCHES SHOW DISGUST WITH A COLOMBIAN REBEL GROUP

BOGOTA, Colombia -- Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators marched 
here and in other cities around Colombia on Monday to protest the 
abductions and killings carried out by the country's largest rebel group.

The marches, which also took place on a smaller scale in foreign 
cities from New York to Tokyo, were a vivid display of growing 
outrage in relation to the rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed 
Forces of Colombia, known as the FARC. Demonstrators also criticized 
President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela for his plea to remove the FARC 
from lists of terrorist groups.

"The FARC made themselves into criminals a long time ago," said 
Martin Orozco, 32, a surgeon who marched to the Plaza Bolivar 
downtown here to voice chants like "No more FARC!" and "We want peace 
and liberation!" "We are simply tired of this," he said.

Until several months ago, such a mass gathering against the FARC 
would have been improbable in this country. Large cities like Bogota 
and Medellin had been largely pacified in recent years, with war 
still raging in parts of the countryside, and the FARC and other 
guerrillas groups had become less of a pressing concern as the economy boomed.

But then 11 lawmakers held by the FARC were shot to death in a jungle 
camp last June. And Mr. Chavez's efforts to win the release of dozens 
of other hostages held by FARC changed things. President Alvaro Uribe 
of Colombia withdrew his support for Mr. Chavez's mediating role last 
November, triggering a political dispute that has intensified in recent weeks.

The FARC released just two high-profile hostages last month and was 
found to be lying about the whereabouts of a 3-year-old boy born into 
captivity, discovered living in foster care here and not in jungle 
camps. Shortly after the release of the two hostages, Mr. Chavez 
called on the FARC to be seen as a "real army" and not terrorists.

That assessment did not sit well with many Colombians already upset 
with delays in releasing hostages. A group venting their rage at the 
FARC on Facebook, an Internet social-networking site, had formed in 
early January before Mr. Chavez's comments. It organized Monday's 
marches, gaining the support of Mr. Uribe's government.

"The Colombian people were lethargic, with an almost cynical 
indifference to the problems of violence," said Oscar Montes, 33, a 
civil engineer in Barranquilla who helped organize the marches on 
Facebook. "At this time the FARC can say whatever they want," he said 
in a telephone interview. "But they will not have legitimacy."

The FARC said over the weekend that it would hand over three more 
hostages to Mr. Chavez, citing the deteriorating health of the 
captives, former lawmakers who have been held for more than five 
years. No date was set for the release of the captives, Gloria 
Polanco, Luis Eladio Perez and Orlando Beltran.

The FARC lashed out at the marches and at Mr. Uribe in a statement 
Monday, claiming "inhuman intransigence" on his part had blocked 
efforts to achieve a prisoner exchange.

The Marxist-inspired FARC continues to hold more than 40 political 
hostages, including Ingrid Betancourt, a former presidential 
candidate, and three American military contractors captured when 
their plane crash-lnaded in the jungle in 2003. The guerrillas are 
also accused of holding 700 captives for ransom.

Support for the marches was not unanimous in Colombia. Relatives of 
some of the FARC's captives opposed them, contending that they 
lowered chances for a release.

The FARC, one of the main actors in Colombia's long internal war, 
finances itself through kidnapping and cocaine trafficking. A smaller 
rebel group, the National Liberation Army also carries out abductions 
for profit, largely along the long border with Venezuela.

Private militias, which battled both guerrilla groups for much of the 
1990's and well into this decade, have largely disbanded. But many of 
the combatants in the militias, which carried out their own 
kidnappings and massacres, have resurfaced in Mafia-like groups that 
profit from drug trafficking and extortion.

Mr. Chavez's role in mediating Colombia's conflict has come under 
increasing scrutiny here. At the march on Monday, people chanted, 
"Chavez guerrilla, the people are offended!" among other chants 
critical of Venezuela's president.

A report in Semana, a leading news magazine, claimed this week that 
Hugo Carvajal, Mr. Chavez's chief of military intelligence, provided 
logistical assistance and forged Venezuelan identity documents for 
FARC commanders. Mr. Chavez lashed out at the report Monday night, 
calling it an "attack against the revolution."

Anti-FARC marches took place in Venezuela and other countries 
affected by the war throughout the Americas. In Lima, Peru, more than 
800 people gathered in front of Congress. One demonstrator there was 
Jorge Santamaria, 56, who was kidnapped by the FARC in 1999 when he 
fled attacks by Shining Path guerrillas in Peru.

"I don't think they killed me because I made it clear I am not afraid 
of death," said Mr. Santamaria, abducted at Bogota's airport and held 
for eight months. "I convinced them I was no one important," said Mr. 
Santamaria, who was working for a palm oil company in the Peruvian 
Amazon at the time.

One of the most poignant expressions against the FARC could be seen 
outside the United Nations headquarters in New York where hundreds of 
demonstrators gathered. Salvador Zapata, 37, a restaurant worker in 
Edgewater, N.J., held his thoughts high above his head, written in a 
bright blue poster.

"FARC stop this dirty and fractious war against the people," read one 
line of his comments.

"They say that they represent the people," said Mr. Zapata, who is 
from Caldas, Colombia. "This is a lie."
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake