Now at this sort of level of things, (as you might guess), when things look bad for FARC they also look bad for lots of other people. Take for example thier hundreds of hostages. Take for another example the many tens of thousands people who live or are engaged in subsistence agricultural activity within the zones the previous proposals for peace process negotiations would have assigned as under "de facto" FARC influence. If you can't swallow that example and the jungles of South America and their product are far far away land, then think about the scallywags of Merseyside and the Liverpool mafia and the £2bn cocaine market and renegotiation of narcotic supply lines which a US Democrat presidency always seems to imply just like a US Republican presidency means just what we've grown too used too.
Many people react badly to drug talk. So before reminding the readership what was proposed by Raul Reyes in 2005, I'd like to also remind them how much political credit (both nationally and geopolitically) has been invested in a peaceful and just resolution of the FARC and Colombia narcostate problem by the Bolivarian revolutionary movement in Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador. Or to put that in easier terms - the future of Chavez after this his last term, the future of Bolivia united between coca producing indiginous and miner workers, and the future of Ecuador people who like Indymedia and Che posters. I'd like them to put the newsflash on BBC English version of Venezuela saying the US are violating their airspace in some extra context.
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Raul Reyes proposed 23/7/06 a process based on open recognition by Colombia and the international community of the need to discuss these points:-
* Opening of a Negotiation process would have to follow the demilitarisation of both Caquetá and Putumayo provinces.
* the suspension of Colombian state military actions under "plan patriot" (which counts on largescale US involvement)
* an exchange of hostages & missing people (total 60) fnord, for FARC "POW's". (there are roughly 5,000 such people in Colombian jails)
* Raul Reyes also emphasised that the Colombian state must recognise a state of "internal conflict" [sic]*
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To date the only third party state which supported these tabled ideas was Venezuela under Hugo Chavez when he got a wee bit too excited and thought "operation Emmanuel" conceived by him which saw Venezuelan Russian made Helicopters painted in International Red Cross colours allowed demilitarised passage to the southern parts of the Colombian state was going to work over Christmas 2007/2008. That process also brought to light the scandalous presence of "baby Emmanuel" who contrary to worldwide public belief was not in FARC hands but had been in an orphanage of the Colombian state since 2005.., Both the intervention of France under Sarkozy to secure release of Ingrid Betancourt as much as that of Chavez were efficiently treated like unwelcome snouts in the trough by Uribe's Colombia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Emmanuel
Things sort of looked good on the FARC side of the table. Yep, they had pretended to have a baby hostage which was really in the Colombian narcostate's orphanage system, but they had got some much needed 1st Aid supplies dropped on them.
Of course that all changed when Luis Edgar Devia Silva a.k.a. Raul Reyes was assassinated by Colombian special forces when they attacked the FARC "mother base" on the 1st of April 2008. ( You can look at it on google earth, it's your planet after all :- North 0º23`10.66 West 076º20`59.88 ) exactly 1.85 kilometres on the Ecuadorian side of the Colombian border.
Within 48 hours of the illegal incursion by Colombia into its neighbour Ecuador to kill Raul Reyes & alledgedly take as "evidence" his computer systems, Venezuela had mobilised ten battalions of its army on the frontier with Colombia & Ecuador likewise had mobilised its much smaller forces on its northern border & demanded no more invasions. Uribe responded by filing charges for genocide against Chavez at the International Court at The Hague citing data found on Reyes' computers implying Venezuela had funded FARC to the tune of 300,000,000$ and that FARC was preparing attacks with radioactive material on the capital of the narco-state of Colombia which has yet to be proven at international legal level to be anything other than a front for 3 cocaine cartels and a far-right terrorist grouping. Oooops. I'm almost back to the scallywags in your local yard over in United Kollectives land where "Britain's £2bn cocaine market" rates far below the market in my own local Barcelona's Spanish state..
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/may/18/drugstrade.internationalcrime
Aside from the Venezuelan owned Russian helicopters & the Colombian acess to American Spy Satelites, the major provider of arms to both Venezuela and Colombian states is Spain. Both Aznar & Zapatero excelled themselves in increasing their share of arms supply to both potential enemies. Really excelled themselves.
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(cut the line and snort it)
News sources :-
http://www.el-nacional.com/www/site/detalle_noticia.php?q=nodo/28677
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/spanish/latin_america/newsid_7409000/7409211.stm