When did the peace process begin?
A year ago, with a visit by President-elect Andres Pastrana to FARC (Armed Revolutionary Forces of Colombia) jungle camp. The FARC, with a rapidly growing force of 15,000 guerrillas, increasingly involved in drug trafficking, controls 30 per cent of Colombian territory.
What happened next?
FARC talks with Pastrana, inaugurated January 7th, broke down January 19th.
Why?
Paramilitaries (right-wing death squads with army connections) went on the rampage against FARC supporters. FARC refused to talk again until Pastrana purged army officers suspected of complicity.
What is Pastrana's role?
He is the first Colombian president in 50 years who has made a committed effort to stop the bloodshed. He's 42. Conservative. Harvard-educated son of a former president, bit of a maverick. A peace fanatic. He agreed to restart the talks last week, the FARC stalled again, but they are due to meet next Monday.
Where does that leave the war?
Which one? A second guerrilla group, the ELN, has 5,000 people under arms, controls 10 per cent of the country, and is not as yet involved in the peace process. Then there are 7,000 paramilitaries. From their northern fiefdom they too control land, people, drug laboratories, and shipping routes for drugs and arms to and from the Caribbean and Central America.
They also provide the muscle and death squads for the extreme right. Finally, there's the US-sponsored drug war against mafias and "narco-guerrillas".
Narco-what?
Guerrillas. FARC shooters who fire at US spray planes to protect the peasants, who grow the drugs, on which FARC levies taxes.
Who is talking peace?
For now, only the FARC and Pastrana, but the FARC rejects a ceasefire. They're s Marxist-Leninist peasant insurgents founded by legendary guerrilla leader Tiro Fijo (Sure-Shot) in 1964. From southern bases, the 15,000-strong peasant army operates nationally and controls thousands of acres of drug fields. Has fancy trucks and light planes.