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The civil war in Colombia is worth billions to the rightwing faction in Colombia, not to mention its usefulness to other recipients of phony "war on drugs" lard.
They will sabotage any peace, if they can. I'm not sure where Uribe really stands in all this (rightwing president of Colombia, with a bad history of connections to paramilitary death squads, with their heinous crimes, and drugs/weapons trafficking). But this negotiation seems to have his support. I think he may be trying to forge a new image for himself, since his old image has gotten exposed. He moved quickly to try to distance himself from exploding scandals in Colombia, where the death squads, etc., were revealed.
I also hope Chavez isn't walking into a trap. Colombia is a snakepit of people who would like to see him dead (and who would pull the trigger).
Settling of the Colombian civil war (30 years of carnage so far, most of it from the rightwing military, and its closely associated paramilitaries, with U.S. assistance) would be a very positive outcome for the South American left, the Bolivarian Revolution, and many of its goals. I imagine that's why Chavez is risking this negotiation. The Bolivarian Revolution is showing that peaceful, democratic change can occur, and that social justice can be achieved. The Colombian leftist guerrillas, like their rightwing enemy, are dinosaurs. At one time, there were no options for the poor or their leftist political supporters in South America, and their sufferings were immense--every kind of oppression was inflicted upon, including torture and mass slaughter. Things have changed--profoundly changed. The left is now in power in the great majority of South American countries--Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, and, to the north, Nicaragua. Colombia is still stuck in the past--where people fled into the hills and armed themselves, the oppression was so bad. The fascists in Colombia have maybe improved slightly, but there still have been hundreds of murders, mostly of innocent poor people, quite recently.
But I think that, were it not for the billions of dollars that the Bush Junta has poured into rightwing coffers in Colombia, this civil war would have been settled long ago. That is part of what Chavez is dealing with. The rightwing, armed by the Bushites, and rewarded with riches, keeps killing, despite a UN 'truth and reconciliation' process (which was too lenient toward the death squads), and FARC and ELN guerrillas see no reason to stop resisting. 30 years is a long time. Few can really like living in the guerrilla mode for that long; not to mention the danger of it. They keep it up because they see no alternative. The Colombian government is vastly unjust.
It's interesting that, in Bolivia, the fascists want their own state (the one with the rich gas and oil reserves). They want to split off from the leftist government of Evo Morales, for the obvious reason of greed, and their inability to outvote the vast poor majority, now that Bolivia has clean elections. But in Colombia, when FARC proposes this, the fascists react in horror. I really don't know if FARC is fit to govern, but they can't be much worse than the government of Colombia, and, with mentoring from the Bolivarians, they could maybe make a go of democracy. Perhaps OAS-sponsored elections could settle the matter. Give the FARC-ELN region some autonomy and hold neutral elections. And, of course, fully demobilize the U.S. "war on drugs" and the Colombian military/paramilitary forces in that region.
Back to Uribe: Maybe he sees "the handwriting on the wall." The Bolivarian Revolution is succeeding, and promises new prosperity and independence for South America. There could be much gain for Colombia in joining it, at least in projects of mutual benefit (pipelines, regional trade). And Colombian migrant workers in Venezuela are seeing free health care, free education through university, and numerous improvements in the lives of the poor, and are taking their visions of social justice back to Colombia. It's only a matter of time before the rich elite in Colombia has to yield to a more equitable distribution of wealth. Perhaps Chavez has gotten Uribe to glimpse a better future, and a peaceful transition for Colombia.
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