Colombia Peace Talks Reborn
President Andres Pastrana emerged from the heart of guerrilla territory Friday with an agreement from the leader of Colombia's largest rebel army to resume formal peace talks.
"Today, the peace process has come back to life," Pastrana proclaimed in a joint press conference with rebel chief Manuel "Sureshot" Marulanda after their two-day meeting in the humid and rainy savannas of southern Colombia.
But the 13-point accord was unlikely to clear the way for immediate relief from the bloodletting in this South American country. Some 3,000 people are killed each year in the war, now in its 37th year, which pits two rebel groups against the army and a right-wing paramilitary group.
A statement signed by Pastrana and Marulanda — the 70-year-old leader of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC — said formal peace talks will resume on Wednesday in this rebel-held village, located in a safe haven which Pastrana ceded to the FARC two years ago.
After the summit, the government extended the safe haven until Oct. 9, the eighth extension Pastrana has signed. It was to have expired Friday night.
The FARC had walked away from peace talks in November because it maintained the government had not severed its links with the right-wing paramilitary United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, or AUC, which is massacring suspected rebel supporters.
The parties agreed that the peace commission would "resume its tasks on Feb. 14 … and begin to discuss a cease-fire and cessation of hostilities."
The statement also said both sides would speed up agreement for a humanitarian exchange of sick rebels and security forces being held captive, and invites a group of unnamed "friendly countries" to a meeting on March 8.
"Concrete elements came from this meeting," Marulanda said at the joint press conference.
Hundreds of armed rebels clad in combat fatigues and wearing black berets, and sixty members of Pastrana's police security detail were at the summit, which provided a rare chance for combatants from the warring sides to work together in providing security for their leaders.
Pastrana even spent Thursday night in an abandoned army base in the safe haven in his quest to reach substantive agreements with Marulanda. He departed in the evening for the capital, Bogota.
The 17,000-member FARC agreed to resume peace talks, even though it received a watered-down pledge from Pastrana to "advance discussions about mechanisms to end paramilitarism and diminish the intensity of the conflict," according to the joint statement.
The communique said the two sides would name a panel of respected Colombians to offer recommendations on ways to curb rightist violence as well as rebel kidnappings and child recruiting.
Tensions have also been fueled by a growing U.S. military aid program in Colombia. Washington insists the helicopters and troop training are only for anti-narcotics operations. But the rbels — who earn huge profits by "taxing" drug crops — see it as veiled counterinsurgency support and have questioned Pastrana's sincerity about peace.
"Instead of investing money in war it should be invested in social programs," Marulanda said when asked about Plan Colombia, Pastrana's drug fighting initiative backed by $1.3 billion in U.S. aid.
Colombia's second, and smaller, rebel group, the National Liberation Army, is pursuing separate peace initiatives with the government.