Failed Attempts: the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC) and the Union Patriotica (UP)

Abstract

The kidnapping of the presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt in February 2002 by the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC) and the numerous attempts to free her, by force or through negotiations, have made the headlines. Three US citizens, who are US Defense Department contractors, were also caught by FARC after their plane came down during a surveillance mission in February 2003. Hope was on the rise again as to their freedom when the re-elected President of Colombia, Alvaro Uribe, announced in 2006 he would resume talks for prisoners/hostages exchanges. However, the negotiations took an abrupt end after a bombing in Bogota in October 2006.2 In 2007 a hostage escaped after spending nine years held by the movement. More recently, President Chavez tried to act as an intermediary to have all FARC’s prisoners released. However, it seems today that the Uribe government seems less inclined to engage in peace talks and seems ready to interfere violently to free the other hostages, despise the hostages’ families’ fears of a bloodbath.3 The question remains as to how a peaceful solution can be found to the hostage crisis, knowing that it is diffi cult for a government to negotiate with a group that mixes violence and politics in order to rise to power. FARC has demonstrated in the past it cannot be trusted when it is given the opportunity to act as a political actor during negotiations and peace talks, as it has abused the situation. The successive Colombian governments have chosen a politics of repression of the movement that has also crushed all hopes of transformation of FARC into a political machine. What, therefore, are the prospects for peace in Colombia and how are they linked to FARC’s insertion in political life?