Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
06BOGOTA2554
2006-03-22 19:48:00
UNCLASSIFIED
Embassy Bogota
Cable title:
FARC DEMOBILIZATION OF 70: LANDMARK EVENT OR
how-toVZCZCXYZ0000 PP RUEHWEB DE RUEHBO #2554/01 0811948 ZNR UUUUU ZZH P 221948Z MAR 06 FM AMEMBASSY BOGOTA TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 3387 INFO RUEHBR/AMEMBASSY BRASILIA PRIORITY 6672 RUEHCV/AMEMBASSY CARACAS PRIORITY 7419 RUEHLP/AMEMBASSY LA PAZ MAR 7847 RUEHPE/AMEMBASSY LIMA PRIORITY 3446 RUEHQT/AMEMBASSY QUITO PRIORITY 4096 RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC PRIORITY
UNCLAS BOGOTA 002554
SIPDIS
SIPDIS
E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PTER PGOV MOPS MARR CO
SUBJECT: FARC DEMOBILIZATION OF 70: LANDMARK EVENT OR
TELENOVELA?
-------
Summary
-------
UNCLAS BOGOTA 002554
SIPDIS
SIPDIS
E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PTER PGOV MOPS MARR CO
SUBJECT: FARC DEMOBILIZATION OF 70: LANDMARK EVENT OR
TELENOVELA?
--------------
Summary
--------------
1. On March 7 the GOC announced the demobilization of 70 FARC
guerillas and an airplane. As the largest FARC defection in
Colombia,s 40-year conflict, symbolically occurring in the
insurgency's birthplace, the event was initially hailed as
historic. However, within days questions emerged which remain
unanswered about the veracity of the demobilization. End
Summary.
--------------
GOC Announces FARC Demobilization
--------------
2. On March 7, Peace Commissioner Restrepo and Army Commander
General Montoya presided over the demobilization of 70 FARC
guerillas said to be of the Cacica la Gaitana company of the
FARC,s Joint Central Command in Tolima. This was seen as a
core FARC unit located near where the insurgency was founded
and said to have regular contact with the ideological leader
and Secretariat member Alfonso Cano. Early reports stated
that, along with their weapons, the guerillas surrendered a
plane which had been acquired for use in their erstwhile
demilitarized zone (despeje). Later in the day, Polcouns
crossed paths with Restrepo at the Ministry of Defense.
Restrepo was warmly congratulated by senior military
officials passing by.
--------------
Repudiation and Regret
--------------
3. In a communique presented at the demobilization ceremony,
the unit's political commander, alias "Biofilo," repudiated
the conflict, which he said had exhausted his country and
converted it into a vast cemetery. His unit was laying down
its arms, he said, in regard for thousands of innocent
victims of "doubtful interests and wretched practices."
Biofilo stated that the unit renounced war but not its
Leninist and Bolivarian principles. The war, he said, had
degraded those founding goals and diminished the rebels as
human beings. Detailing cases of FARC atrocities against
civilians, including some ostensibly attributed to the army,
he rebuked the FARC for exercising only coercive power and no
constructive influence over the territories it has dominated,
alienating itself from the very population it had set out to
defend. Biofilo closed by expressing his support for the
peace negotiations recently entered into by the Marxist
guerilla organization the ELN.
--------------
Questions Surface....
--------------
4. Inaccurate statements made by the Army subsequently cast
doubt on the event. First, it emerged that the unit,s
leader, alias Saldana, had been a prisoner in state custody
for two years, and FARC sources pointed to another man, alias
Marlon (still at large),as the unit,s true commander. The
Army admitted these facts but stressed that Saldana was a
leader who convinced the others to surrender. Second, it was
revealed that the plane had been in government custody since
2003. Saldana claimed, however, that the plane did belong to
his company and had been intended for use on an assault on
Bogota. President Uribe, who had highlighted the original
plane story to the press, was obliged to issue a retraction.
--------------
.... and Doubt Grows
--------------
5. As journalists probed further into the story, further
contradictions emerged. It was revealed that Saldana was a
FARC deserter who was captured and imprisoned in 2004. To
shorten his sentence, he contacted Restrepo offering to turn
informer and bring in his comrades. His men claim to belong
to a unit which they say was created (conveniently) near the
time of Saldana's offer. The existence of the Gaitana unit
not only has been denied by the FARC, but also is not
recognized by the Colombian police, the Departmental
government, or even the Army's own records of the FARC. A
journalist visiting the demobilized in detention reported
that some seemed to be genuine guerillas, others hangers-on.
Conflicting versions of the unit's area of operation planted
the notion that this could be a hodgepodge of deserters
assembled into a unit for the purpose of demobilization. At
the event, the men wore clean new uniforms and appeared
fresh, while claiming to have hiked long distances to arrive
at the site.
--------------
Comment
--------------
6. Despite all of the holes in the official story, discontent
in FARC ranks could in truth be growing. Due to the confusion
over details, however, the significance of the event remains
unclear.
WOOD
SIPDIS
SIPDIS
E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PTER PGOV MOPS MARR CO
SUBJECT: FARC DEMOBILIZATION OF 70: LANDMARK EVENT OR
TELENOVELA?
--------------
Summary
--------------
1. On March 7 the GOC announced the demobilization of 70 FARC
guerillas and an airplane. As the largest FARC defection in
Colombia,s 40-year conflict, symbolically occurring in the
insurgency's birthplace, the event was initially hailed as
historic. However, within days questions emerged which remain
unanswered about the veracity of the demobilization. End
Summary.
--------------
GOC Announces FARC Demobilization
--------------
2. On March 7, Peace Commissioner Restrepo and Army Commander
General Montoya presided over the demobilization of 70 FARC
guerillas said to be of the Cacica la Gaitana company of the
FARC,s Joint Central Command in Tolima. This was seen as a
core FARC unit located near where the insurgency was founded
and said to have regular contact with the ideological leader
and Secretariat member Alfonso Cano. Early reports stated
that, along with their weapons, the guerillas surrendered a
plane which had been acquired for use in their erstwhile
demilitarized zone (despeje). Later in the day, Polcouns
crossed paths with Restrepo at the Ministry of Defense.
Restrepo was warmly congratulated by senior military
officials passing by.
--------------
Repudiation and Regret
--------------
3. In a communique presented at the demobilization ceremony,
the unit's political commander, alias "Biofilo," repudiated
the conflict, which he said had exhausted his country and
converted it into a vast cemetery. His unit was laying down
its arms, he said, in regard for thousands of innocent
victims of "doubtful interests and wretched practices."
Biofilo stated that the unit renounced war but not its
Leninist and Bolivarian principles. The war, he said, had
degraded those founding goals and diminished the rebels as
human beings. Detailing cases of FARC atrocities against
civilians, including some ostensibly attributed to the army,
he rebuked the FARC for exercising only coercive power and no
constructive influence over the territories it has dominated,
alienating itself from the very population it had set out to
defend. Biofilo closed by expressing his support for the
peace negotiations recently entered into by the Marxist
guerilla organization the ELN.
--------------
Questions Surface....
--------------
4. Inaccurate statements made by the Army subsequently cast
doubt on the event. First, it emerged that the unit,s
leader, alias Saldana, had been a prisoner in state custody
for two years, and FARC sources pointed to another man, alias
Marlon (still at large),as the unit,s true commander. The
Army admitted these facts but stressed that Saldana was a
leader who convinced the others to surrender. Second, it was
revealed that the plane had been in government custody since
2003. Saldana claimed, however, that the plane did belong to
his company and had been intended for use on an assault on
Bogota. President Uribe, who had highlighted the original
plane story to the press, was obliged to issue a retraction.
--------------
.... and Doubt Grows
--------------
5. As journalists probed further into the story, further
contradictions emerged. It was revealed that Saldana was a
FARC deserter who was captured and imprisoned in 2004. To
shorten his sentence, he contacted Restrepo offering to turn
informer and bring in his comrades. His men claim to belong
to a unit which they say was created (conveniently) near the
time of Saldana's offer. The existence of the Gaitana unit
not only has been denied by the FARC, but also is not
recognized by the Colombian police, the Departmental
government, or even the Army's own records of the FARC. A
journalist visiting the demobilized in detention reported
that some seemed to be genuine guerillas, others hangers-on.
Conflicting versions of the unit's area of operation planted
the notion that this could be a hodgepodge of deserters
assembled into a unit for the purpose of demobilization. At
the event, the men wore clean new uniforms and appeared
fresh, while claiming to have hiked long distances to arrive
at the site.
--------------
Comment
--------------
6. Despite all of the holes in the official story, discontent
in FARC ranks could in truth be growing. Due to the confusion
over details, however, the significance of the event remains
unclear.
WOOD