Brazzil
International Relations
March 2003
None of Brazil's neighbours has suffered as much as Colombia, which has experienced a savage guerrilla war for more than 30 years. This war has cost thousands of lives and has involved a variety of left-wing guerrillas groups, right-wing paramilitaries and the security forces of the Colombian state. Countless peace talks have been held, but the main guerrilla group, called the FARC, has never abided by agreements and continued with its campaigns, killing civilian and soldiers, Colombians and foreigners alike. The FARC is estimated to have around 30,000 armed men and occupies a huge part of the country ceded to it by the previous government. It routinely kidnaps people and has recently extended its operations into the cities with deadly effect.
Most of its operations are funded by the drugs trade, which inflicts misery on the lives of millions, including Brazilians. It should be recalled that Brazil's most infamous criminal, known as Beira Mar, was extradited from Colombia, where he spent much time, to Brazil. Drug gang lords in Brazil are becoming as daring as the Colombian guerrillas and their writ is law in their fiefs. Not only do they terrorize the favela shanty towns, where they are based, but they have also shown they can bring business in large parts of Rio de Janeiro to a halt.
The conflict in Colombia is relevant to Brazil but, so far, the government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (like that of his predecessor, Fernando Henrique Cardoso) has done little to try and end it. Lula's attitude has been that of a driver who stops at the scene of a terrible road accident, shakes his head ruefully and drives on.
This week, the recently elected president of Colombia, Alvaro Uribe, held a meeting in Brasília with Lula and some of his ministers. Afterwards they announced an agreement on combating drug trafficking and the arms trade in their border area. Talks will also be held on allowing Colombia access to information from the Brazilian government's SIVAM high-tech security system covering the Amazon region.
This sounds good on paper, but the Colombians left for home frustrated at the Brazilian government's refusal to take measure, which the Colombians believe would bring more concrete results. The Colombians want Brazil to classify the FARC as a terrorist group, freeze its bank accounts in Brazil and detain any of its members or supporters in Brazilian territory. In fact, according to the local press, this topic was not even raised at the meeting.
One assumes the Colombians knew they were fighting a lost cause and wished to be diplomatic. Of course, the fact that it was not on the official agenda did not mean that the Brazilian, as hosts, could not have raised it. There was little chance of this since the Brazilian foreign minister, Celso Amorim, in one of the most absurd explanations imaginable, had said a few days earlier that Brazil did not have a list of prescribed terrorist groups and, therefore, could not add the FARC to it. Using weasel words while people's lives are at risk has always been the diplomatic way and Amorim was following in the long tradition of the Brazilian diplomatic corps.
Another ludicrous statement from one of Lula's advisers was that if Brazil were to call the FARC a terrorist group this could compromise any future role for the country as an intermediary. Instead of stating such nonsense, why does Brazil not offer to host talks, if it believes in peace, or start cracking down on guerrilla activities in its territory to show that it will not just stand by and watch this threat to regional security and democracy continue? This lack of action when it comes to Colombia compares negatively with the flurry of activity at the start of the year, when Brazil announced its support for Venezuela’s besieged President Hugo Chavez. Brazil even sent a tanker with crude oil to counter the effects of a general strike that paralyzed the Venezuelan oil industry, a move Chavez opponents saw as an act of interference.
There is a faction within the PT which regards the FARC as a progressive force fighting for social justice. The fact that the Americans have been helping the Colombians with arms, equipment and advisers makes these PT radicals mistrust any Colombian government and allows them to turn a blind eye to guerrilla atrocities. The U.S. has a list of proscribed terrorist groups and, in the views of these leftists, this is another reason for Brazil not to have such a list. Paradoxically, it is this very ideological aspect which could bring about a solution. If the FARC is an organization fighting for social justice why, then, does it not ask Brazil, under the impeccably left-wing Lula, to try and broker a solution? And why, instead of complaining, do the PT radicals not also try and use their influence with the FARC to get peace talks started? The answer is simple: the FARC is not interested in peace talks or social justice but only in maintaining its own power. Trying to broker any deal would be a nightmare, just as cleaning up the mess after a car crash, but it would be to Brazil's credit if it tried.
John Fitzpatrick is a Scottish journalist who first visited Brazil in 1987 and has lived in São Paulo since 1995. He writes on politics and finance and runs his own company, Celtic Comunicações— www.celt.com.br, which specializes in editorial and translation services for Brazilian and foreign clients. You can reach him at jf@celt.com.br
© John Fitzpatrick 2003
You can also read John Fitzpatrick's articles in Infobrazil, at www.infobrazil.com