Is nothing sacred in Colombia anymore? Over the past 10 months, as the government of President Andres Pastrana inched toward peace talks with rebel groups, Colombians watched their 35-year-old civil war become even more terrifyingly uncivil. And they are running out of patience. Tit-for-tat atrocities continue to be carried out by the biggest rebel group, the 13,000-strong Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), and brutal right-wing paramilitary forces. But now the 5,000-member ELN–seen by some as the country’s saner, more sensible guerrillas–is taking violence into places where the urban elites feel it most. Two months ago the group hijacked a commercial airplane and took 41 passengers hostage; 25 are still in captivity. But last week’s abduction during mass–the first such incident in history–has so shocked the overwhelmingly Catholic country that some Colombians no longer think peace is possible, much less Christian forgiveness.
From their mountain camp, ELN leaders defended their raid. “We wanted to affect an influential sector of society so they could feel the fury of war,” an ELN commander known as “El Viejo” (the Old Man) told Reuters. “We also wanted to show that there are no parts of the country that are off-limits to us militarily.” Maybe so, but military analysts say the rebel group is acting out of desperation. The ELN, which carried out 566 kidnappings last year to finance its war, has been driven out of many territories it once controlled, and several of its leaders have been captured. On the run from both the Army and the right-wing death squads, the rebels want to negotiate peace from the security of a “demilitarized” zone. So far the government has ignored the ELN’s request to pull back troops in parts of Bolivar state, even as it has given the FARC a demilitarized zone the size of Switzerland.
These days nobody is in the mood to reward terrorism with territory. The ELN’s decidedly un-Christian deeds are only part of the country’s kaleidoscope of terror. The FARC sparked international outrage in March when it kidnapped and brutally murdered three North American activists campaigning for the rights of a semiprimitive rain-forest tribe. Violence from the right-wing paramilitary forces has also been relentless. In January death squads went on a four-day rampage across the country, torturing and shooting 139 people. Last month death squads kidnapped a powerful opposition politician to help them secure a place at the peace talks and end government attacks against them. “The paramilitaries are heavily armed, dangerous and capable of horrific acts of terrorism,” said Francisco Santos, a columnist at the daily El Tiempo. “They also want to be heard.”
But the one time the government listened–when it established a demilitarized zone for the FARC last year–the result was anything but a rousing success. Ever since troops retreated from a 16,000-square-mile zone in southern Colombia last November, FARC rebels have forced civilians to join their ranks, trafficked in drugs and stockpiled weapons while taking only halting steps toward the negotiating table. Army officers are furious. When a government peace commissioner announced last month that the demilitarized zone might be extended indefinitely, Defense Minister Rodrigo Lloreda quit in protest and 17 generals threatened to quit (but never did). A May poll conducted for the daily El Espectador showed that 71 percent of Colombians oppose an indefinite extension of the arrangement. “Both the military and the public distrust the peace process, especially in light of recent events,” says Alfredo Rangel, a former national-security adviser. “They are going to demand that Pastrana be tough with the ELN and make no concessions.”
Still, the ELN’s savagery may force the government’s hand. When a Reuters camera crew was allowed into a mountain camp where 34 of the 59 hostages were being held last Wednesday, El Viejo–who is only about 40–seemed confident even as military aircraft roared overhead and more than 3,000 soldiers scoured the mountains nearby. He said he would release some of the captives as soon as the Army declared a ceasefire. On Saturday authorities took notice. The military called off operations and the guerrillas released the first five hostages to Red Cross and U.N. representatives. Analysts suggest that if all the hostages are released, it could be the first step toward giving the ELN a place at the negotiating table. That probably won’t appease Archbishop Duarte, who denounced the ELN again on Wednesday as “murderers of Colombia’s faith.” But it’s the country’s faith in peace that has been shaken. Hundreds of Colombians traveled to Cali over the weekend to join a march for national reconciliation.
