Juan Manuel Santos by Center for American Progress, on Flickr

Juan Manuel Santos, Colombia’s president, is optimistic about the peace dialogue that has been going since November between the government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). He manifested his confidence in reaching an agreement before the end of the year while holding a meeting with his ministers.

“This is a peace process that concerns the whole world (…) it’s not just about Colombia (…) we have been receiving support for this peace process (…) from Europe, Asia, China, and Russia” said Santos.

“We are thus optimistic and we will reach a peace agreement in this country,” he added after his ministers’ meeting in Bogota on 19th March.

The negotiations between the Colombian government and the FARC started on the 19th November 2012.

According to the president, the government is receiving support from many political parties, which demonstrates that the peace process is on the right path.

Iván Márquez, the head of the delegation of the guerrillas, suggested earlier the possibility of reaching agreements with the government on the agricultural issue – which was the first subject discussed in the meeting.

Santos also commented on the health reforms, the infrastructure, and the statutory law for military courts, which will be the priorities of the new legislative mandate that was initiated on Tuesday 19th March.

Colombia’s Colourful Flag by n.karim, on Flick

The National Liberation Army (ELN) announced yesterday via internet that they have freed five prisoners. The detainees were workers from a Canadian company that had been captured on 18th January and kept in the state of Bolívar in the north of Colombia. The Colombian government has not yet confirmed their release and is continuing to search for the prisoners.

The guerrilla group did not include information regarding the identity of the prisoners nor details about how the prisoners were released in its announcement. However, it did cite that, “Three Colombians and two Peruvians were released after informing them of the charges made against them, in the progressing trial against the mining locomotive in its crossing of the south of Bolívar. ” State officials have confirmed the prisoners were two Peruvians and three Colombian citizens.

Although the ELN has confirmed the release of these workers, it continues to keep one Canadian and two Germans detained since their capture in November of last year.

The ELN is one of the largest active insurgent groups in Colombia, second in size only to the FARC. The group has voiced its interest in participating in the current peace talks between the Colombian government and the FARC aimed at ending the domestic armed conflicts.

The Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC) announced on Sunday the end of the two-month unilateral ceasefire they had held since peace talks with the government began. The end of the ceasefire came with attacks on infrastructure targets in the southern district of Putumayo.

This photograph of Iván Márquez (on right) was part of the proof that the Colombian government turned over the Organisation of the American States. (Photo courtesy of Globovisión, on Flickr)

“With pain in my heart, I have to admit that we’re going into a phase of war no one in this country wants,” said FARC chief negotiator Iván Márquez before entering the last session of the peace negotiations in Havana.

FARC announced a temporary ceasefire between 20th November 2012 and 20th January 2013, to facilitate the negotiations between the guerrilla group and the government that started in Havana last November. Since the beginning of the ceasefire, FARC has demanded a bilateral truce to guarantee a period of peace while the negotiations are held, but the government has refused. Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos stated that “we are on an offensive positon” and added that “all precautions are being taken, all the measures to ensure these actions [by the FARC] are neutralised.”

Santos indicated that the ceasefire had been “relative” as some violent actions were carried out over the last two months. According to the Ombudsman, FARC carried out 57 armed actions during the ceasefire, against civilian and military targets. However, Santos admitted that during the last two months the number of military personnel dead or wounded had diminished.

The latest attacks, the first after the end of the ceasefire, took place in the district of Putumayo, where an oil pipeline was bombed in three different spots. The explosions caused a fire and an oil spill. An electric tower was also attacked in the district.

The peace talks will continue in Havana, where five main issues are being discussed: agricultural policy, guarantees for the exercise of political opposition, an end to the conflict, drug trafficking, and compensation for victims.

The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) are undergoing a financial restructuring with plans to lay down their guns to become a political party, according to investigations from the Colombian army’s intelligence unit.

According to a report released by the Colombian newspaper “The Spectator”, the Office of the Attorney General of Colombia has documents showing how each block of FARC is required to allocate a quota for the founding a political party.

The information was found in e-mails in the computer of former guerrilla leader Victor Julio Suarez Rojas (alias “Mono Jojoy”) who was killed in 2010, Venezuelan newspaper Correo del Orinoco reports.

The intelligence unit believes that FARC’s intention to found a political party was originally proposed by Luciano Marín Arango (aka Ivan Marquez), a member of the group’s Secretariat Higher Command.

Authorities also reckon FARC will consolidate the project by 2014, before the launching of the Bolivarian Patriotic Council, in which legitimate organizations will serve as fronts for the guerrilla group to enter politics.

The guerrilla group began to restructure in 2010, when late FARC high commander Alfonso Cano was open to having peace talks with the Colombian government.

Timoleón Jimenez, who succeeded Cano, is said to share his predecessor’s position. President Santos, however, often accuses the guerrilla group of “hypocrisy” for talking about peace with one hand and pursuing the violent strategy with the other.

FARC is the oldest insurgent group in Latin America, dating back to 1964, when Manuel Marulanda and a group of peasants created it. The group, financed by drug trafficking, has been cut down in size recently, but still remains a strong force of conflict, stripping as much of 1% of Colombia’s economy annually.

The Maoist guerrilla group Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path) is making headlines once again, after claiming responsibility for the murder of two policemen who went missing last Thursday.

A member of the ultra-leftist armed group, identified as “Comrade Gabriel”, said the two policemen were machine-gunned while trying to jump off a helicopter that was shot down in the jungle.

Comrade Gabiel was interviewed yesterday night by Panamericana TV in Peru. The body of one of the men was found, while at least two more officers are still missing. The Peruvian government has offered a reward for information on their whereabouts but has not yet officially confirmed the deaths.

Last week, the Peruvian government deployed 1,500 troops in the southeastern Cuzco region following the capture of 30 gas workers by suspected by Shining Path members.  The rebels demanded a ransom of US$10 million and dynamite.

The rescue strategy and the pursuit of the rebels has been called “Operation Freedom” by the government. To date, four people have died, 10 have been wounded and there are an undetermined number of missing people.

The Argentine newsper La Voz del Interior stated today that the guerrillero who claimed responsibility for murdering the two policemen is in fact the brother of Victor Quispe Palomino, current leader of Shining Path and better knwown as “José”.

According to police investigations, “Comrade Gabriel” headed the kidnapping of the gas workers, who were subsequently released last Saturday in the province of La Convención.

La Voz del Interior also stated that Peruvian Minister of the Interior Daniel Lozada will speak before the Congress this evening along with Minister of Defense Alberto Otalora, to give details about the operation that culminated in the release of the hostages.

The recent surge in violence attributed to Shining Path – a group that has been active for 52 years – goes beyond the simple attack on corporate power within the Peruvian territory.

Commentators say their actions are perhaps vengeance for the arrest of Florindo Eleuterio Flores Hala, also known as “Comrade Artemio”, which took place in February after a spectacular blitz of the police forces in Lima and has been described as the coup de grace to the guerrilla group.

Shining Path is nowadays far from the questionable glories of the past, when it was able to throw the whole country in fear to the point of becoming notorious worldwide for its indiscriminate violence, even against the most humble classes.

It is funded mostly by the cocaine trafficking and is blamed for the majority of the 70,000 people who have died in the internal conflict in Peru between 1980 and 2000.

The 10 military and police officers released on Monday by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) were examined by doctors Tuesday, awaiting return to their families after being held hostage for more than a decade.

Medical reports say the former hostages are in “good condition,” although most of them will remain hospitalised the next day to observe their mental and physical health, according to Caracas’ El Universal.

President Juan Manuel Santos visited the group in hospital Tuesday morning. He reported that all hostages had said “they felt good, in body and soul,” adding that some were “ready to continue fighting.”

The officers were kidnapped between 1998 and 1999. During that era, FARC kidnapped nearly 500 military and police personnel. In recent years, however, there has been a weakening in the organisation, brought about by the death of one of their top leaders.

FARC is Colombia’s main guerrilla group with a force estimated at of 9,000. The handover marks a crucial step towards the ending a civil war that has ravished the country for half a century.

El Universal also reported that the Colombian government is demanding more gestures from the guerrilla group regarding the dialogue that could put an end to almost half a century of armed conflict.

According to Univision Noticias, the president reiterated today that the release “is a step we value in a certain respect,” but insufficient.

“We want authentic examples of their true desire to end this conflict,” Santos said.

Released police officers include Forero, Carlos Duarte, César Lasso, Jorge Trujillo, Jorge Romero and Wilson Rojas. Military personnel who were released are Luis Beltrán, Luis Arcia, Robinson Salcedo and Luis Moreno.

Government forces dropped ten tonnes of explosives on a jungle base belonging to the left-wing guerrilla group FARC early Monday morning.

The attack, considered the largest offensive against FARC in ten years, occurred in the central Meta province near the town of El Silencio.

“[During a raid last week] 33 members of the FARC were discharged. Never before have so many FARC members been killed in an operation, 33 in the last operation, and 35 this week. So in one week the record was broken again,” said Defence Minister Juan Carlos Pinzon.

According to Pinzon, three commanders died during ‘Operation Armageddon’, while five soldiers have been captured, including former commander of the 10^th front, Jaime Cotrino Díaz, alias ‘Arcesio Child’.

This is the second major operation on FARC camps in the last week, as troops raided another camp in Arauca, near the Venezuelan border.

So far in 2012, the military has killed 141 rebel fighters, of which 69 have died in the last week. These two recent operations are part of the government’s ‘Espada de Honor’ – or ‘Sword of Honour’ – strategy, aimed at dismantling the FARC’s structure.

President Juan Manuel Santos, described the operations as “[showing] that we will not stop fighting against these groups (…). I congratulate the Army, Air Force, Police and Navy because it was an operation fully coordinated. We will analyse the security situation in the province to improve conditions.”

The attack comes not long after the guerrilla group agreed to release ten hostages – an operation planned for April 2^nd and 4^th. The government insists the raid will not affect this scheduled release.

Earlier this month, FARC declared they are “banning the practice of kidnapping for ransom from our revolutionary practices,” in a move to start talks with Government officials. The group has notoriously funded their ‘struggle’ through kidnapping and participating in the drug trade. The government, although called this move “an important step,” refused to start peace talks until all arms have been laid down and all hostages rele

Shining Path Leader Comrade Artemio was charged for terrorism and drug trafficking in Lima yesterday.

Authorities captured the leader of the Maoist rebel group two weeks ago during a clash with the army. If he is found guilty he could face a lifetime in prison.

Artemio, whose real name is Florindo Eleuterio Flores Hala, was captured on 12^th January during a fight between troops and rebel fighters. He was injured during the fight, which took place in Alto Huallaga, a remote jungle region of Peru where the Shining Path is based.

Today, an armed convoy transferred the detainee to the maximum-security prison, La Base Naval, to await trial which is due to take place in four months.

According to Peruvian Daily, El Comercio, he admitted responsibility for killing 56 soldiers, 43 policemen and 32 civilians between 1989 and 2011.

“I admit everything.” Artemio reportedly replied, when the list of charges was read out, “What you have read are the facts of war.” He has also been accused of drug trafficking, but denies these charges despite testimonies from 13 Shining Path members.

Artemio announced in December that Shining Path was ready to discuss ending the armed insurgency and engaging in dialogue with the government.

The rebel leader has been at the head of The Shining Path since 1992 when the founder and previous leader, Abimael Guzman, was captured.  From that point on, drug trafficking and kidnapping has overshadowed their ideology.

The Maoist guerrilla group was born as a communist opposition to what they considered a ‘bourgeoisie government’ in 1980. During the 1980s and early 90s they posed a genuine threat to the government.

It is estimated that the conflict between the Shining Path and the government has claimed over 70,000 lives.

Many Latin American insurgency groups with similar foundations either disbanded or turned to more democratic methods in the 1980s. A few, such as The Shining Path, and Colombia’s FARC, became heavily involved in drug trafficking, kidnapping and other criminal activities to fund their causes.

Gustavo Petro, a former left-wing rebel has been elected mayor of Bogota. He won with 32% of the vote after running a “zero corruption” campaign. His opposition, Enrique Penalosa, the favoured candidate of former President Alvaro Uribe, received approximately 25% of the vote.

Petro said his win shows that reconciliation is possible in Colombia.  The country has been plagued, historically and currently, by violence from left-wing guerrillas and right-wing death squads. During this campaign alone, 41 candidates were killed nationwide.

A former guerrilla with the no longer existing M-19 movement, Petro received amnesty after serving two years in jail for his involvement in the group. After M-19 signed a peace pact with the government in 1990, Petro was elected to Congress.

In 2006, he was elected as a senator and began revealing details of  the close collaboration between lawmakers and far-right militias known as “paramilitaries”. His denunciations resulted in sending more than 60 politicians to prison for crimes ranging from criminal conspiracy to murder.

It is the first time an ex-guerrilla has won Colombia’s second most important elected office.

The Colombian government has finally acknowledged its part in the murder of 43 men by a right-wing paramilitary force 19 years ago. Defence Minister, Juan Manuel Santos, admitted the state’s responsibility during a ceremony in Bogotá. He begged the forgiveness of the 200 relatives present, declaring “We reject these acts and are ashamed that this has happened to an innocent population, it is for this that we ask your forgiveness.”

The massacre took place on 14^th January 1990 in Pueblo Bello in the rural north-west of the country. Sixty armed men belonging to the United Self-Defence forces of Colombia (AUC) tied up the victims in the main square and forced them into lorries. They drove the vehicles through two Colombian military checkpoints but were not stopped or questioned.

The armed men murdered six people immediately. They tortured and subsequently killed 37 others because they wanted information about left-wing guerrilla forces in the area. Three of the victims were minors.

According to a witness, “their veins were pierced, their eyes perforated, their ears sawed, their genital organs mutilated. Finally they were executed one by one.”

Mercedes Orozco, mother of three of the victims, said “what hurts me the most is that they took my youngest boy because he was defenceless and didn’t know how to talk.”

The government was forced to accept some of the blame after the Inter American Court of Human Rights ruled in 2006 that the state did not adopt “reasonable provisions to control the available routes in the area”. This resulted in “the violation of the right to life, personal integrity and personal freedom.”

Herbert Veloza, a former right-wing paramilitary chief, has admitted that Colombian military and police leaders supported the AUC, which became increasingly involved with drug trafficking.

Colombia has witnessed over 40 years of conflict between the government and left-wing guerrillas. At the ceremony in Bogotá, however, Santos promised that the government would do everything within its power to ensure that events such as this do not repeat themselves.