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Colombia Clashes With Nicaragua Over Guerrilla Tie - WSJ

Colombia Clashes With Nicaragua Over Guerrilla Tie
Ortega's Bid to Push
FARC Peace Talks
Stirs Heated Debate
By JOSÉ DE CÓRDOBA
July 28, 2008; Page A8

BOGOT�?, Colombia -- Daniel Ortega, Nicaragua's president and the U.S.'s Cold War bête noire, has taken up the cause of Colombia's hard-pressed FARC guerrillas -- and set off a new regional spat in the process.

Diplomats had a heated exchange last week at a meeting called by Colombia at the Organization of American States in Washington to protest Mr. Ortega's bid to negotiate on behalf of the 9,000-strong Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as the FARC.

Things got worse when Managua's La Prensa newspaper reported that top FARC guerrillas flew to the Nicaraguan capital in a Venezuelan plane to meet Mr. Ortega July 19, the anniversary of the rise to power of Mr. Ortega's Sandinista revolutionaries in 1979. The Venezuelan government said the report was "totally false," as did Mr. Ortega, who accused La Prensa of "treason."

Mr. Ortega appeared to be trying to throw a diplomatic lifeline to the FARC, the region's biggest guerrilla army, considered a terrorist group by the U.S. and European Union for its reliance on kidnapping and drug running, among other things.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez had acted as the FARC's principal international sponsor, but after revelations that he appeared to be helping fund the group, he backed off and called on the group to disarm.

Mr. Ortega refers to the FARC as "brothers." His help would be welcomed by the rebels, who have suffered a string of recent setbacks, including the deaths of three of its top members and the recent rescue by Colombia's military of some of the group's most prized hostages.

Latin America's oldest and largest insurgency, the FARC funds itself through drug trafficking and kidnapping. It holds about 700 hostages, most for ransom. While many analysts believe the guerrillas are on the run, the FARC has vowed to fight on -- and said it won't negotiate a peace pact with Colombian President �?lvaro Uribe. Mr. Uribe has denied the guerrillas' demand that he set aside a Manhattan-size haven for the group as a condition for their participation in hostage-release negotiations and, eventually, peace talks.

In a letter dated in June but made public July 15, FARC leaders asked Mr. Ortega for a meeting to discuss "issues of war and peace." Mr. Ortega agreed to mediate the conflict, much to the annoyance of the Colombian government, which resents the sympathy with which Mr. Ortega and some other Latin American leaders view the FARC, which is trying to overthrow Mr. Uribe's democratically elected government.

"President Ortega, help us bury the cadaver which is the FARC. Don't bury yourself along with them," Camilo Ospina, Colombia's ambassador to the Organization of American States, said at the Washington meeting.

Mr. Ospina said his government had sent Nicaraguan authorities a warning, through Interpol, that FARC members could be arriving in Managua from Venezuela by air, and asked for their detention. He said Colombia could bring charges against Nicaragua for harboring terrorists.

Denis Moncada, Nicaragua's Organization of American States ambassador, retorted by calling Colombia a "narco-government" and a threat to regional peace. Mr. Moncada added that his government considered the FARC to be a "national liberation movement."

Mr. Ortega, a former leader of the Sandinista guerrillas who came to power in Nicaragua after defeating the U.S.-backed Somoza regime, has longstanding ties to the FARC. In 1999, Mr. Ortega traveled to a FARC-held area in Colombia where the guerrillas were holding peace negotiations with the government to decorate the FARC leader Manuel Marulanda with the Order of Sandino, the Sandinista movement's most important medal.

The latest diplomatic clash has its roots in a March cross-border military strike by Colombian troops that killed the FARC's No. 2 leader, Raul Reyes, in his camp in Ecuador. In response, Mr. Chávez ordered troops to the border and briefly cut relations with Colombia. Ecuador also ordered troops to its border and has yet to renew its relations with Colombia.

Information found in Mr. Reyes's computers showed that the guerrillas had a close political and economic allegiance with Mr. Chávez, who had seemingly promised them millions of dollars in financial support and had thrown the full weight of Venezuela's oil-fueled clout into getting them diplomatic recognition.

Mr. Ortega has been slow to smooth over things with Bogotá. In the weeks following the raid on Mr. Reyes's camp, Mr. Ortega sent a Nicaraguan air force plane to Ecuador to pick up three female survivors, including two Colombian guerrillas and a Mexican FARC sympathizer. Since then, Mr. Ortega has granted the three women political asylum in Nicaragua even though they are wanted by Colombian and Ecuadorean authorities.