If it seeks legitimacy on the ground, the Colombian government must reach out to the country's landless peasants, writes Veronica Balderas Iglesias Last week, Colombian police foiled an attack by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) on Cali, the country's most populous city. The guerrilla group was seeking to bring about a total power cut in the city, just one hour prior to President Alvaro Uribe's arrival in the area. So far, three suspects have been detained. After months of speculation regarding the appointment of a new leader, FARC announced recently that Alfonso Cano, chief ideologue of the guerrilla army, would replace Manuel Marulanda, who is reportedly suffering from terminal prostate cancer. Some analysts suggested that with Cano in power there would be a shift in the group's orientation from militarism to diplomacy. The group admitted, however, to having killed 34 coca farmers who supported right-wing paramilitaries. The massacre, labelled by the United Nations as a war crime, was carried out at dawn on 15 June in the village of Rio Chiquita in the Norte de Santander province. The latest attack once more shed light on the difficulties of striking a peace deal between rival groups. "Leaders may change, but it is difficult for a militant group's ideology to change. It depends on what the new perspectives are, but it is altogether a conflictive issue," Victor Carazo, Venezuelan ambassador to Egypt, told Al-Ahram Weekly. His country said recently it is ready to receive up to 9,000 Colombian refugees if fighting continues to force civilians into exile. An estimated 3,500 people die each year as a result of the ongoing Colombian civil war. The fighting has displaced more than two million from their homes and forced around 300,000 more to flee the country altogether. Trying to make ends meet, peasants often pick coca leaves, the prime ingredient in cocaine, and sell them either to FARC or to the paramilitary groups which for 40 years have been battling the Marxist rebels. This often makes civilians target of reprisals and human rights abuses by both left wing and far-right forces. Recently, FARC accused the farmers of working for the paramilitaries of the United Self-Defence of Colombia (AUC), an organisation that unites the largest paramilitary groups in the country. AUC has just agreed on a date to start formal peace talks with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe's government. However, even if AUC agrees to disarm and evacuate its strongholds, analysts believe that FARC and other smaller guerrilla groups -- including the National Liberation Army (ELN) -- could conduct more attacks to recover the territory lost to paramilitary groups in recent years. For now, the future seems bleak, especially since FARC has ruled out negotiations with the government and insists on armed struggle "to install a socialist regime in Colombia", as Commander Ricardo, a member of the Higher State of FARC once said. FARC, founded in May 1964, has its roots in small groups of militant peasants and followers of the Communist Party who rebelled against harsh working conditions imposed on day-workers by coffee plantation owners and conflicts over land tenure. During a period called La Violencia -- the violence -- peasant organisations influenced by leftist ideas fought to defend themselves and their communities from heavy repression ordered by the then President Mariano Ospina Perez after the assassination of the democrat candidate Jorge Eliecer Gaitan. After a short-lived cease-fire in 1953, in order to effectively challenge the aggression that the government had launched against the peasants the Communist Party decided to continue the armed struggle in an organised manner. Manuel Marulanda, also known as "sureshot", co-founded and baptised the guerrilla group as FARC. The insurgents soon gained control over strategic areas and proclaimed their so- called "Agrarian Programme" that has been, ever since, the banner of their revolutionary movement. The group replaced the peasant struggle with a broader vision of a national political struggle with clearly defined objectives. Essentially, FARC aims at modifying the social structure of agricultural tenure in Colombia. It also wants to grant free land to any peasants willing to cultivate, to cancel all peasants' debts and to provide them with free access to medical services and education. Nevertheless, kidnappings and extortion, which have been their major source of funding, have cast a shadow on their cause. The group has targeted politicians and executives from the petroleum, commercial, agricultural and cattle industries. It kidnapped, for instance, presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt and three American contractors in a bid to exchange them for jailed militants. The United States -- the Colombian government's chief military backer -- has ruled out any such deals and considers FARC a "terrorist organisation". US Ambassador to Colombia William Wood declared: "If the militants were released... tragically the first answer of FARC would be to search for new hostages for the next time they need them." While the Marxist rebels have also been accused of being connected with the international illegal drugs trade, investigations show that they mainly benefit from drug taxation. They have developed their financial strength by controlling coca-growing regions. Meanwhile, the US counter- narcotics policy towards Colombia has been focussed on the aerial eradication of coca crops. Many thousands of dollars have been allocated to the so-called war on drugs; when some reports indicated a misdirection of funds in combating guerrillas, the Colombian government justified its expenditure by claiming the guerrillas were linked to the drugs trade. The fact that the country's security forces were accused of tolerating the creation of paramilitaries funded by drug trafficking partly neutralised the "narcoguerrilla" theory. Nonetheless counter-narcotics operations continue, disregarding the difference between landless peasant farmers who have been forced to grow illicit crops and international drug traffickers. The lack of employment opportunities and basic services, along with the harsh treatment they receive from the government and paramilitary forces, have encouraged many peasants to join the rebel fronts, thereby strengthening them. Growing from a group of just 48 fighters when it was founded, FARC has now come to constitute a 17,000-strong army. ELN, the second rebel force in the country, has some 5,000 members, although it seems to be in decline. The group's jailed leader, Francisco Galan, is even considering Uribe's offer of a cease-fire in exchange for political participation and the release of prisoners. Mexico's Ambassador to Israel Andres Valencia Benavides was asked to monitor the proposed peace talks in Colombia, where he once served as ambassador. But to pacify the country and achieve his re-election aims Uribe must not only bolster negotiations with the rebels and work more closely with neighbouring countries to combat smugglers, drug traffickers and kidnappers. He must also address the hardships of the country's poor, provide economic alternatives to coca and poppy production, open up political channels and prevent new human rights abuses. Otherwise, the peasants will continue to support the guerrillas' war since they perceive it as the only chance their communities have of survival.
