Colombians protest at FARC executions, call for peace
Helen Murphy
Reuters
BOGOTA (Reuters) - Outraged by the execution of four captives by FARC
rebels, tens of thousands of Colombians protested across the nation on
Tuesday to demand an end to half a century of guerrilla violence and
kidnapping.
As helicopters hovered over Bogota and car horns sounded, Colombians
dressed in white marched toward the capital's main square, holding
images of the murdered men and chanting "No more war! Yes to life, yes
to peace.
The victims - members of the armed forces held in jungle camps for more
than a decade - were shot at point blank range by the Revolutionary
Armed Forces of Colombia as troops attacked the rebels' hideout. Their
bodies were found alongside the metal chains used to tie their necks to
trees.
"We have tolerated the FARC enough," said Ruben Castano, an engineer,
who took the day off work to participate. "Santos, it's time to end
this."
President Juan Manuel Santos, who backed the march, is facing
increased pressure from Colombians to seek an end to the conflict that
has killed tens of thousands over the decades.
Responsible for some of the harshest blows against the FARC, including
killing the group's leader Alfonso Cano last month, Santos has expressed
willing to hold peace talks if the Marxist rebels stop kidnapping, lay
down their weapons and cease attacks on civilians and the military.
While the FARC has refused, Cano had hinted before his death that
dialogue was the only way forward.
"It's not just the government calling for peace, it's all of Colombia,"
Santos said at the start of the demonstration. "The people are sick of
violence."
More than a decade of U.S.-backed strikes against the FARC has severely
weakened the rebels and limited their ability to launch attacks on the
nation's economic infrastructure, attracting billions of dollars in
foreign investment.
But the group remains a formidable part of the conflict, which strips as
much as 1 percent from the economy each year.
Once considered almost invincible - none of its seven-member secretariat
was killed or captured in more than four decades - five have died since
2008.
FARC WANT TO STAY IN JUNGLE
The FARC, considered a terrorist group by the United States and Europe,
still holds 11 members of the armed forces in its prison camps and as
many as 300 civilians.
"I am calling on the FARC to give us back our loved ones," said
Esperanza Rojas, whose husband, a military sergeant went missing 19
years ago. "We want a peace process."
Armed with modern weapons and financed by drug funds and extortion, the
8,000-strong group has battled a dozen administrations since its
formation in 1964.
It was created by Manuel Marulanda, a highway inspector, who fled into
the mountains with a handful of peasant supporters to fight a bloody
civil war known as La Violencia.
At its strongest, the FARC's 20,000 fighters controlled much of rural
Colombia, promising social justice while it attacked towns, controlled
the production of coca - used to make cocaine - and threatened local
government officials.
Many believe the FARC leadership would rather die in the jungles than
relinquish the power they wield over an increasingly adolescent fighting
force to serve jail time.
Santos is seeking a constitutional reform that may smooth the way for
the FARC's secretariat to face shorter sentences if peace is reached and
they confess their crimes and compensate their victims. The last peace
effort ended in shambles.
Former President Andres Pastrana ceded the FARC a safe haven in 1998 the
size of Switzerland to promote talks. But the rebels took advantage of
the military absence to train fighters, build more than 25 airstrips to
fly drug shipments and established prison camps to hold its hostages.
Efforts to disarm right-wing paramilitary groups in 2006 were arguably
as unsuccessful. Many of the 30,000 who left the ranks have formed new
drug trafficking gangs.
(Additional reporting by Julia Symmes Cobb, Editing by Daniel Wallis)
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