A bold rescue is good news for Colombia - and Canada

JEFFREY SIMPSON
July 5, 2008

The day clock has thankfully stopped in front of city hall in Paris. It used to show how many days Ingrid Betancourt had been held captive by Colombian guerrillas.

Now she and 14 other hostages are free, thanks to a brilliant Colombian rescue mission backed by U.S. intelligence. No longer are they in the hands of the murderous guerrillas who abducted them and others whom they still hold hostage.

The news is obviously wonderful for the hostages, including Ms. Betancourt, a dual Colombian-French national whose cause had been taken up by France. But it is also splendid news for Colombia, whose citizens have overwhelmingly and vocally - through elections and street demonstrations - denounced the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), embraced democracy and now approve of their president, Alvaro Uribe, by margins other democratically elected leaders can only envy.

The FARC pretends to be one of those "people's movements," inspired by Maoist insurrectionary ideology, but it's really a criminal gang living on the proceeds of extortion and the drug trade. It's the last "movement" of its kind in South America, following the collapse of Peru's Shining Path guerrillas.
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In recent years, especially in the past 12 months, the supreme FARC leader has died of natural causes, the second-in-command has been killed, others have been betrayed and still others have given themselves up. The FARC's membership has been cut in half and the territory within which it operates has shrunk dramatically.

The key for any revolutionary movement is popular support, and the FARC has none. Thus, it cannot live off the land and local people; it has to use extortion and violence.

The guerrillas have even lost the support of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Earlier this year, Mr. Uribe authorized a raid against a FARC camp across the border in Ecuador. The raid was stunningly successful, although the leftish Ecuadorean government naturally objected.

The raid killed the No. 2 FARC leader and gave the Colombians FARC computers that Bogota turned over to Interpol for inspection. The evidence clearly showed Mr. Chavez caught red-handed aiding the guerrillas. He flustered and blustered, as is his style, denying any involvement, but the evidence was incontestable.

Mr. Chavez then did a volte-face, telling the FARC to give it up because Mr. Uribe was democratically elected and thus the legitimate representative of the Colombian people.

So to evident military success has now come the presumed end of assistance to the FARC from across the border in Venezuela. That, of course, will further weaken the guerrillas.

The long and nasty fight in Colombia also featured paramilitaries who, believing their past governments ineffectual, took the law into their own hands. They murdered people they believed supported the FARC, and past governments seemed to turn a blind eye to their violence.

It became the classic tit-for-tat: paramilitaries and the FARC each using violence to terrorize communities, with the country's drug trade never far from the bloodshed.

Colombia has moved a long way from those grisly days when judges, mayors, police officers and other symbols of authority were targeted by the FARC, while paramilitaries targeted unionists, teachers and others. Today, the government is making huge strides militarily, with the enthusiastic support of the population.

Which brings us to the proposed free-trade deal between Canada and Colombia that the NDP and Bloc Québécois oppose, with the Liberals (as so often happens on trade issues) sitting on the fence.

The opponents say Canada cannot sign such an agreement because of Colombia's human-rights abuses, of which there were undeniably many. But it is equally undeniable that those abuses have dropped dramatically, and that Colombia's government is legitimate and democratic.

Canadian trade unions, which hold sway over the New Democrats, don't like free-trade agreements, period. They sometimes say they do but, when one is actually on offer, they invariably find all sorts of reasons to reject it - in this case, because of violence against Colombian trade-union leaders.

Ironically, they also argue that, since the Democratic-controlled U.S. Congress, in an increasingly protectionist mood, is holding up a free-trade deal with Colombia, Canada should follow along. It's a surprising argument from Canadians who usually deplore this country following along with anything from Washington. If the U.S. is silly enough not to proceed with its bilateral deal with Colombia, all the more reason why Canada should move ahead to gain a small competitive advantage.

The deal in Canada now lies in the trembling hands of the Liberal Party, whose spokespeople have been mealy-mouthed, saying they want to wait until they see the final text.

Liberals used to be the party of free trade when in office. Out of office, they listen to interest groups and sometimes oppose for the sake of opposing. If they are serious about free trade - and they might not be - they should embrace this deal with a South American country that's come a long way in a short period of time.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/GAM.20080705.COSIMP05/TPS...

By tasco66 on Jul 5, 2008, 05:04 in Politics & the war.

tasco66 says on Jul 5, 2008, 06:37:

bump

Bravo, Presidente Uribe for the perfect operation!

0 funny, 0 helpful.

morphus says on Jul 5, 2008, 10:29:

The rescue only reminds the World how dangerous Colombia is.

0 funny, 0 helpful.