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U.S. Greens, Demanding Congressional Action, Mark the One-Year Anniversary of the Kidnapping of Greens in Colombia. |
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Thursday, February 27, 2003 Contacts: Green Party U.S. Senate candidate in Pennsylvania leads the effort to secure the release of Colombian Green politician Ingrid Betancourt and her campaign manager Clara Rojas as FARC's one-year deadline passes.
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Sunday, February 23 marked the one-year anniversary of the kidnapping by rebels in the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) of Ingrid Betancourt, former presidential candidate for the Colombian Green Party and her campaign manager Clara Rojas. The kidnapping took place while they were campaigning in the village of San Vincente del Caguan on February 23, 2002. Action is especially urgent now, say Greens, because FARC set a one-year deadline for the Colombian government to exchange guerrilla prisoners for hostages. FARC officials said that after a year they would no longer take responsibility for Betancourt's life. "In solidarity with Greens worldwide, we've sent a letter requesting help from Brazilian President [Luiz Inacio da Silva] Lula, who is known to have some influence with FARC," said Annie Goeke, co-chair of the International Committee of the Green Party of the United States. "Since President Lula now represents the southern hemisphere's most powerful leftist-labor party, from one of its most powerful nations, his assistance might help in securing the release of Betancourt and Rojas." In Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, Green Party activist Carl Romanelli is pushing for the U.S. to pass a resolution calling for a hostage exchange. Romanelli has announced his intention to run for the U.S. Senate in 2004, and has listed Betancourt's and Roja's release, resumption of the Colombian peace process, and a halt to the U.S.'s secret war in Colombia in the name of the war on drugs among the major themes of his campaign. "In his recent budget, Bush allocates $500 million in military assistance for Colombia, in addition to all the American dollars that go to Colombia to continue the war on drugs," said Romanelli. "In turn, this becomes a recruiting process for FARC, when Colombian victims of U.S. herbicides see their land rendered useless for agriculture. These citizens have no place to turn except FARC." Romanelli has attempted to see Rep. Paul Kanjorski, his local Congressmember, in order to discuss the kidnapping. Romanelli visited his office 16 times in July and August 2002 and made dozens of phone calls, but Kanjorski has refused to grant Romanelli an appointment. "I fear that increased U.S. military activity in Colombia will raise the likelihood that hostages will be killed," continued Romanelli. "There are now three Americans, operatives on a drug-related mission whose plane crashed, being held by FARC, so the issue has added relevance now. We've seen international support and action on behalf of Ingrid and Clara from many of the world's parliaments and senates, but nothing yet from the U.S."
FARC was founded after Colombia's protracted civil war during the 1940s and 1950s, after liberals fled into the jungles. FARC guerrillas have fought the Colombian government, as well as murderous rightwing paramilitary groups working in open and covert cooperation with Colombian officials, for nearly 40 years. FARC hardliners have responded with strategies such as bombing, assassination, and kidnapping, resulting in numerous civilian casualties. Many Greens have objected to the shipment of weapons and military aid to Colombia and have urged investigation of U.S. businesses suspected of laundering money for the Colombian drug industry. U.S. Greens have supported land reform and the development of a sustainable economy for farmers in Colombia and other Latin American nations. "'Plan Colombia', passed by Congress and signed by President Clinton, and Bush's redefinition of the war on drugs in Colombia as a 'war on terrorism' have resulted in $3.5 billion in U.S. aid to Colombia from July 2000 to the end of fiscal year 2002," said Karl Breyman, a member of the Rensselaer County (New York) Greens. Breyman visited Colombia in March 2001 with a Witness for Peace delegation. "But U.S. military and financial assistance often supports corrupt military and political officials and the drug-dealing paramilitaries and is used against Colombian farmers and other innocent civilians." MORE INFORMATION The Green Party of the United States Search: amrc, fpol, lwcj
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