“Let him
who desires peace prepare for war.” Vegetius
Vegetius’ maxim is
the Colombian government’s favourite for generations as well as other
armed
groups seeking to impose their ideals. However, after four decades of
this
tragicomedy, the government ought to deemphasise war policies and
instead formulate a solid peace road map that addresses the social
structural problems. Peace achieved
through more war would not be long-lasting.
The recent
announcement of a USD
4 billion spending on military equipment for the Colombian army illustrates
the government’s war policies. The profitable Colombian military industry obtained,
in 2006, the exclusive rights to manufacture the current generation of Israeli
Galil assault rifles, producing 45,000 annually. Currently, the government is
negotiating with Israel
to manufacture the next generation of rifles. Moreover, just after the latest
hostage release the government has insisted on military rescue for the
remaining hostages, when is well-known the FARC would kill all hostages in case
of rescue attempts. This was the case with a former governor and later eleven regional legislators, the latter were killed when the FARC mistook an
approaching guerrilla group for the army.
The
recently released former governor, Alan Jara, echoed the increasing public
sentiment that the two main protagonist of Colombia’s conflict benefit
from a perpetual state of war. On the one hand, The FARC, as one commander
explicated to Jara, long a continuation of the current government war policies
because greater war would lead to a “revolutionary situation”, as Lenin
envisaged. For instance, the government’s the-means-justify-the-ends actions
such as the ‘false
positives’ are revitalizing the guerrillas struggle. This marginal support
together with the FARC’s economic resources would suffice to lure young and poor
peasants to their ranks.
In contrast, the
war dynamic enables the government to cling to power with a mandate to remove
the guerrillas, while advancing economic policies that strengthen the elite.
Despite some questionable government’s actions, there is a sizeable number of
Colombians assessing Uribe’s government by the success against the FARC. It is
true that the government has succeeded in decreasing the FARC manoeuvrability
but this has reached an impasse, this is after all guerrilla warfare, a 40-year
long guerrilla war. However, policies other than an all-out war are not in the
political and economic interest of those elites supporting the current
government.
Every time the
FARC commences a hostage release the government becomes concern that the all-out
war discourse would lose support and a peaceful approach would take hold. This
is evident during the recent hostages release when Uribe dismissed
left-wing senator Piedad Cordoba, who had helped broker the release, from
taking part in Jara’s liberation – Cordoba
was reinstated hours later. Uribe implied that the senator had been using this
opportunity for gaining political limelight. This is not the first time Uribe has obstructed FARC’s release of
hostages. Uribe actions are understandable since a left-wing presidential
candidate received 22 per cent of the votes in the 2006 elections. There is no
one using the current situation for political gains more than Uribe himself.
The government,
instead of following Vegetius’ maxim that only aggravates the conflict, should
turn to Sun Tzu’s “The Art of War”. This Chinese ancient text formulates: “when
you surround an army, let an outlet free”. This outlet, in terms of the
Colombian realities, should start with a humanitarian agreement and continue
with a realistic peace process where the social problems afflicting the country
are addressed. Therefore, the FARC, at perceiving their futile war are likely
to take advantage of this fair outlet, instead of keeping an unproductive
stalemate. However, given the government’s intransigency and war interest,
Colombians would be wise to support a radically different leader in 2010.
Author Sebastian Castaneda is Colombian studies psychology and political economy at the University of Hong Kong