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Cablegate: Goc and Farc Frozen On Humanitarian Exchange;

This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 BOGOTA 008367

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PHUM PGOV PTER CO FARC ELN
SUBJECT: GOC AND FARC FROZEN ON HUMANITARIAN EXCHANGE;
CATHOLIC CHURCH FRUSTRATED BUT ENCOURAGED BY PARA PROCESS

Summary
-------

1. (U) FARC "spokesperson" Luis Edgar Devia AKA Raul Reyes
communicated on August 22 their demand that the GOC
demilitarize certain municipalities as a precondition for
talks on a humanitarian exchange. Reyes' statement
effectively ended the Catholic Church's offer to mediate a
"pre-dialogue" outside Colombia, an offer that President
Uribe accepted on August 22. Episcopal Conference President
Archbishop Luis Castro admitted he had run out of ideas on
how to establish an exchange. He noted that the Justice and
Peace Law will ensure accountability to victims in the
paramilitary peace process. End summary.

FARC Demand Demilitarized Zone/GOC Offers Anything Else
--------------------------------------------- ----------

2. (U) On August 22, the latest message from Reyes to a local
news station, made public on August 29, reiterated the FARC's
minimum requirement for any prisoner swap: a thirty-day
demilitarized zone in the municipalities of Florida and
Pradera, Valle de Cauca Department. The demilitarized zone
has been a constant FARC demand for an exchange for more than
a year, although the August 14 communique (below) did offer
to limit the demobilization to thirty days. The GOC
repeatedly has stressed its unwillingness to create such a
zone, but offered measures such as "strategic corridors" to
allow the FARC to enter/exit the trade area safely. On
August 16, President Uribe noted in a communique from Casa de
Narino that High Commissioner for Peace Luis Carlos Restrepo
remained authorized to meet with the FARC, to establish a
meeting point without demilitarization, and to grant whatever
other security guarantees the guerrillas choose. Based on
these communiques, neither side seems willing to budge on the
demobilization issue at this time.

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3. (U) Begin informal translation:

FARC Communique

We value the (victims') families' efforts to achieve an
encounter between the national government and the FARC, to
begin a humanitarian exchange process.

We suggest that the families propose to the government that
it clear the municipalities of Florida and Pradera of all
public forces for just 30 days to hold this meeting.

Military considerations prohibit our developing such an
encounter in Aures, municipality of Caicedonia, although the
nation recognizes and appreciates Aures residents' efforts.

Always, and without exception, including occasional
international talks, the encounters between the FARC and
different governments have been the focus of military
hostilities which, today more than ever, we should avoid
since it could indefinitely postpone any hope (of an
exchange).

We are the most interested party in fixing the terms and
realizing an exchange, but with clear guarantees. All other
suggestions proposed, such as the fantastical strategic
corridor, are false, vile speculations and allow childishness
to bar the way to a possible agreement.

Compatriots,

Secretariat of the Estado Mayor Central

SIPDIS
Mountains of Colombia, August 14, 2005

End text.

Church "Pre-dialogue" Refused
-----------------------------

4. (SBU) On August 22, the same day that Reyes issued his
message insisting on the demilitarized zone, President Uribe
approved the Catholic Church's offer to broker a negotiation
"pre-dialogue" (reftel). The FARC's refusal seems to have
been timed to quash the pre-dialogue before it became
established. Episcopal Council President Archbishop Castro
told the Ambassador on August 31, "the process is dead," and
confessed he was out of ideas on how to create an exchange
agreement with the FARC. Castro plans to urge High
Commissioner for Peace Restrepo to continue seeking options
for an exchange, but acknowledged the GOC had offered talks
with different interlocutors and locations, freed 23 FARC
prisoners, and proposed denying the U.S. extradition request
of "Simon Trinidad" without reciprocity from the FARC.
Castro commented that the FARC had become rigid and
speculated the guerrillas feared for their safety in an
negotiation. Castro raised the issue of the hostage
families' pressure on the GOC and the Catholic Church to find
a solution, but noted that the French Ambassador to Colombia
had reduced the "Ingridization" of French policy, referring
to French pressure to recover dual French-Colombian national
Ingrid Betancourt. Castro promised to continue looking for a
way forward.

5. (SBU) Castro was optimistic about the paramilitary peace
process. He dismissed critics of the Justice and Peace Law,
many of whom he said had not read the law. He added that the
Justice and Peace Law implemented a new concept to make
justice and victim restitution a part of Colombia's peace
process. He stressed that Colombians needed to make it work.
Castro agreed that a truth commission would be a welcome
addition to advance the national reconciliation process.
WOOD

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