Analysis - Colombia's Tragedy: Brazil Looks But Doesn't See...
www.infobrazil.com by John Fitzpatrick Mar 08 - 14, 2003
John Fitzpatrick is an occasional guest Editor on InfoBrazil. He is a Scottish Journalist who first visited Brazil in 1987 and has been based in São Paulo since 1995. His 27-year career in journalism includes stints as a Reporter in Scotland and England, Deputy Editor of an English-language daily newspaper in Cyprus, News Editor of a radio station in Switzerland, Financial Correspondent in Zurich and São Paulo, and Editor of a magazine published by one of Switzerland's largest banks. He currently runs Celtic Comunicações, a São Paulo company which specializes in editorial and translation services for Brazilian and foreign clients.
None of Brazil’s neighbours has suffered as much as Colombia, which has experienced a savage guerrilla war for over thirty years. This has cost thousands of lives and involved a variety of left-wing guerrilla groups, right-wing paramilitaries, and security forces of the Colombian state. Countless peace talks have been held, but the main guerrilla group, called the FARC, has never abided by agreements and continued with its campaigns, killing civilian and soldiers, Colombians and foreigners alike.
The FARC is estimated to have at its disposal around 30 thousand armed men, who help it remain in control of a huge part of the country, ceded to it by the previous government in Colombia. The FARC routinely kidnap people, and have recently extended operations beyond the countryside and into cities, with deadly results. Most FARC operations are funded by the drug trade, itself a perpetrator of misery on the lives of millions, including Brazilians.
It should be recalled that Brazil’s most infamous criminal and drug lord, known as Fernandinho Beira-Mar, was extradited back to Brazil from Colombia, where he spent much of his time before being jailed. Drug bosses in Brazil are becoming as daring as the Colombian guerrillas, and their writ is law in their fiefs. Not only do they terrorise favela shanty towns, where they are usually based, but they have also shown they can bring business in large portions of a major city like Rio de Janeiro to a halt.
The conflict in Colombia is relevant to Brazil but, so far, the government of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva – like that of his predecessor, Fernando Henrique Cardoso – has done little to try and end it. Lula’s attitude has been that of a driver who stops at the scene of a terrible road accident, shakes his head ruefully and drives on.
In the past week, the recently elected President of Colombia, Alvaro Uribe, met in Brasilia with Lula and some of his ministers. The two leaders then emerged to announce an agreement to combat drug trafficking and the arms trade in their border area. Talks will also be held on allowing Colombia access to information from the Brazilian government’s SIVAM high-tech security system covering the Amazon region.
This sounds good at a glance, but the Colombians left for home frustrated with the Brazilian government’s refusal to adopt measures which the Colombians believe would bring more concrete results. Colombia wants Brazil to classify the FARC as a terrorist group, freeze its bank accounts in Brazil, and detain any of its members or supporters in Brazilian territory. In fact, according to Brazilian media who covered the meeting, this topic was not even raised.
One assumes the Colombians knew they were fighting a lost cause and wished to be diplomatic. Of course, the fact that it was not on the official agenda did not mean the Brazilians, as hosts, could not have raised it. But there was little chance of this since the Brazilian Foreign Minister, Celso Amorim, in one of the most absurd explanations imaginable, said a few days earlier that Brazil did not have a list of prescribed terrorist groups and, therefore, could not “add” the FARC to it. Using weasel words while people’s lives are at risk has always been the diplomatic way, and Amorim was following in the long tradition of the Brazilian diplomatic corps.
Another ludicrous statement from one of Lula’s advisors was that if Brazil were to call the FARC a terrorist group, this could compromise any future role for the country as an intermediary. Instead of stating such nonsense, why does Brazil not offer to host talks, if it believes in peace, or start cracking down on Colombian guerrilla activities spilling onto its territory, to show that it will not just stand by and watch the continuation of this threat to regional security and democracy?
This lack of action and willingness to act when it comes to Colombia compares negatively with the flurry of activity at the start of the year, when Brazil announced its support for Venezuela’s besieged President Hugo Chavez. Brazil even sent technicians to break a strike in the Venezuelan oil industry.
There is a faction within the leftist Worker’s Party – the PT, whose main icon, Lula, is now president – that regards the FARC as a progressive force fighting for social justice in Colombia. The fact the Americans have been helping Colombia with arms, equipment and advisors makes these PT radicals mistrust any Colombian government, and in their minds, allows them to turn a blind eye to guerrilla atrocities. The U.S. maintains a list of proscribed terrorist groups and, in the view of these Brazilian leftists, this is another reason for Brazil not to have such a list.
Paradoxically, it is this very ideological aspect that could bring about a solution. If the FARC is an organization fighting for social justice, then why does it not ask Brazil, under the impeccably left-wing Lula, to try and broker a solution? And why, instead of complaining, do the PT radicals not also try and use their influence with the FARC to get peace talks started? The answer is simple – the FARC is not interested in peace talks or social justice, but only in maintaining its own power.
Trying to broker a peace agreement of any kind in Colombia would be a nightmare, just as cleaning up the mess after a car crash. But it would be to Brazil’s credit if it tried.
Related sites: Itamaraty – Brazil’s Foreign Ministry www.mre.gov.br
SIVAM, the Amazon vigilance system - overview produced by its manufacturer, Raytheon www.raytheon.com
Resistencia, the official magazine of Colombia’s FARC (Spanish only) resistencianacional.org