A fairy tale from a guerrilla laptop

[Judi Lynn]

A fairy tale from a guerrilla laptop
FARC Hostages, Uribe Government Security Policies, U.S. Congress

Yesterday, the Colombian newsmagazine Semana published a series of guerrilla communications, apparently recovered from computers found at the site where FARC leader “Raúl Reyes” was killed on March 1.

They include this tantalizing passage, in an August 23, 2007 communication from FARC Secretariat member Alfonso Cano to the other six secretariat commanders.

The Democrats of the USA, in Colombia, who were in Venezuela before, say they have a clear position about a political negotiation with the FARC. {Colombian Nobel Laureate author Gabriel} García Márquez is in charge of this intermediation with the FARC on behalf of the USA, and they want Panama to be the country through which to talk to the FARC. For this, García Márquez has already transferred that request to Torrijos, and he accepted. Clinton told García Márquez in Cartagena, “I want to have a personal task. I want to help Colombia. An accord with the FARC must be sought.” Senator McGovern told García Márquez that: Bush wants to make Colombia play the role that West Germany played against socialist Europe, and this must be stopped. He also said that the Democrats’ political analyst specialized in Colombia is Adam Isackson {sic.}

I was pretty surprised to see my name there, however misspelled. But since it is, perhaps I’m in a position to clear up some of this.

I don’t know of Bill Clinton expressing any recent desire to be involved in talks with the FARC. That would be surprising, since he has had to dedicate so much time to his wife’s presidential campaign.
• The involvement of Gabriel García Márquez and Martín Torrijos is also something I had never heard before. If true, it would be encouraging, because both have sufficient credibility with both sides to be useful interlocutors.
• The “Senator McGovern” in question is definitely not former Senator and presidential candidate George McGovern (D-South Dakota), who has not been to Colombia anytime recently.
• This leaves Rep. Jim McGovern, who has been to Colombia twice in the past year. But Rep. McGovern has never set foot in Venezuela. In fact, very few congressional Democrats have paid visits to Venezuela since Chávez made his “sulfur” speech at the UN in September 2006.
• Neither has Rep. McGovern ever met Gabriel García Márquez.
• Rep. McGovern denies making any bizarre comments about West Germany. (And of course, defenders of U.S. policy could easily point out that West Germany emerged from the Cold War as a stable democracy and an economic powerhouse.)
Though more of a legal detail than anything else, I should make clear that I have no formal ties to the Democratic Party. It just so happens that many more Democrats than Republicans agree with CIP’s critiques of, and recommendations for, U.S. policy toward Colombia and Latin America. Getting those recommendations enacted, in fact, requires the support of at least a fair number of Republicans.

More:
http://www.cipcol.org/?p=555