Yesterday (Friday, March, 7), something really weird happened. In Colombia, people spent hours upon hours glued to their TV sets; at home, in the streets, in shops and bus stations, there were big and small groups of people watching, commenting, aahhing and oohhing, and sometimes even cheering... what was going on? Was a qualifying match for the World Cup going on?... nope. Had the Olympic games in Beijing brought a few months forward?... no chance... believe it or not, everybody was following closely a summit of Latin American presidents (the so called Grupo de Rio, but which was meeting in the Dominican Republic... don´t ask!). Something normally as exciting as watching a dripping faucet, managed to capture the attention of millions and blew all ratings records. Why? Simply because we all felt that our collective futures were being played around that table. The probabilities of an open war were slim, to be honest, but even the perspective of a long, protracted economic war of attrition was worrying enough.
Roundabout midday, it all looked grim. Accusations and even insults, came and went. Positions were so far apart from each other, that whoever thought an agreement could be brokered would have been advised to stop smoking dancing-shoe-leather. However, by late afternoon, those same Presidents were shaking hands and promising to be good boys from now on. The Nicaraguan President even announced there and then that he was establishing diplomatic relations with Bogotá again (after a never-ending full 24-hour rupture!). Ecuador´s President took Uribe´s extended hand, although his face was anything but friendly... but he shook hands nonetheless and when he was coming out of the meeting expressed satisfaction that the beating of drums had not gone anywhere beyond that point.
What is the final result?
That´s difficult to measure, and the best proof that the agreement brokered was brilliant in diplomatic terms, is that everyone is saying they won the standoff, and is more or less right in saying so.
Ecuador played its cards right up to a point and got that the final statement reaffirmed in no ambiguous terms that no country has the right --for whatever reason they may think they have-- to invade another one (that is to take armed actions across the border). If Ecuador wants to harbour FARC or anyone else and Colombia does not like it, Uribe can complain, cry and dance, but not shoot. However, in order to get this far, Ecuador had to pay the price to see its last chance to see Colombia condemned for what she did (something very serious in diplomatic terms), vanish in thin air. It had not happened in previous days in the meeting of the Organization of American States (OAS), and it did not happen in Santo Domingo either.
Venezuela saw President Chavez sweating because Uribe was accusing him formally before the International Penal Court for genocide, as accomplice of the internationally and officially acknowledged FARC terrorists. Whether he would have been found guilty or not nobody knows, but it would have been nasty enough for Chavez to be dragged to that court, specially as he has been so successful in making himself seen as a public enemy by the US government.
Colombia got reprimanded and also got a slap in the hand, but nothing else... and that was a low price to pay for the risk she took and the trophy Uribe took home: Reyes´ head. Furthermore, just as he was speaking, Ivan Rios --another member of the FARC secretariat and a supposed heir to their top leader-- was announced dead (one of his own bodyguards killed him tired of being chased by the army... and I guess that the 5 million USD offered as a reward worked as a nice incentive too). On top of that, the whole world had heard that the Colombian government has proof that Venezuela´s and Ecuador´s Presidents are helping and supporting terrorist groups within their territories (and will have to go back to their countries to face incensed and belligerent opposition groups who are horrified by this)... I don´t know if anybody cares about this in the rest of the world, but it must feel good to let everyone know your foe is a felon and you can prove it.
One thing that felt historically unusual and really made me proud to be an American (and by the way, America is a continent, not a country, and American are we all from Canada to Chile...this can be theme for another posting now that I´ve run out of news, but let´s leave it there just now. It´s only that I wanted to mention it before my audience goes down to single figures)... as I was saying, it was good to watch the news everyday and see people being interviewed in the streets of Colombian, Venezuelan and Ecuadorian cities, and everybody was opposed to war. No patriotic speeches from their leaders convinced Ecuadorians or Venezuelans that they should go to war with Colombia... even accepting that Colombia had done wrong by crossing Ecuador´s borders. Apart from a handful of inane clowns hired to cheer everything Chavez says, I saw mature peoples, thinking peoples, pacific peoples, just wanting to be left alone carrying on with their lives and facing their own internal problems without resorting to fabricating external enemies... and that is good and reassuring. Now Venezuelans do not have to starve, Colombian workers won´t have to be laid off, Ecuadorians don´t have to see its most important commercial partner close its borders, and won´t have to expel the hundreds of Colombian entrepreneurs and professionals that are such an important part of their economy... so everybody is happy, or should be.
But before we forget, once we have sighed our relief and celebrated that Venezuelan and Ecuadorian soldiers have gone back to their barracks to their normal do-nothing routine, let´s say a prayer for the Colombian soldiers and the Colombian people, who have not seen one day of peace in 50 years. Let´s have a word of prayer for the over 4 thousand people who remained kidnapped (some of them for over 10 years!) just because someone thinks they are economically or politically valuable as merchandise. Let´s mention in our intercession before God the 3 million people who have been displaced, violently uprooted, terrorised into leaving their home because someone just fancied it, people who one day were poor but fairly comfortable peasants, and the next day are begging for a coin in one corner of a city they had never been to before, while their kids sleep off their hunger under the rain on the sidewalk.
Yes, the threat of international war is over, and now Colombia can go back to its everyday war against greed, against corruption, against evil in all its ugly manifestations... a battle that is ultimately against sin...care to join us?
1 comment:
My hearted friend. First of all, I don't know if is better to write in spanish or english. The only thing I pretty much sure is that our Lord has the control even in our banana countries and over our patriarchal presidents, as well. What it also means, on the other hand is, the opposite of Seneca's axiom, people in our countries are entirely prepared for new presidents, mostly in Colombia and Venezuela. In spite of news - managed news - for whom Uribe played a brilliant diplomatic role, the whole world could see his arrogance, ,intransigence and inflexibility. Still worst, the weakness in international politics from our government talks also about the importance of respecting limits no matters if those limits are borders
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