Chicago, January 10th, 2002
Plan Columbia comes to blossom.

The peace process has come to an end. President Andras Pastrana announced its end on Wednesday during a public television address. "It needs two partners for negotiations, but unfortunately the Farc (Revolutionary Army of Columbia) do not want to negotiate." The Farc itself blamed the government to phase out the peace process. The official army was called into the state of alert.
Now it looks as if the civil war, which already lasted for 37 years, will be intensified. Pastrana set a time limit of 48 hours for the FARC to leave their territory. During the last months the army surrounded the area and flew with controlling plains over it.
The end of the dialogue came last Tuesday when the guerrilla requested, as a condition to enter a cease- fire, the army to stop controlling their territory.
UN- diplomats fear another level of war, since the Farc is able to spread the war out into the cities and there is also no reason to believe that they voluntarily evacuate their base, which they use to train their troops and hide the victims of their kidnapping tours.
The army itself is putting pressure on Pastrana, who negotiated the last three years with the Farc. They never understood why the guerrilla got their own zone. Since last summer the relationship between the right wing reactionary guerrilla, which has a great influence on state prosecutors, and the official army were improved. With $1,3 billion as a support from the Clinton administration, called "Plan Columbia", which are mend to be used on the war on drugs which interferes with the political constellation, the chances to end the civil war with war itself seem to increase. But also US military advisers and trainers have done their jobs, as mercenaries from US security agencies are already in there. Looks as if the pressure on president Pastrana who is facing elections in May and the stubbornness of the Farc have done the rest to make sure that there are no peace full solutions. It never looked good, but know it looks worse, that is sad.


Asa Kriener