A war averted?
Andes leaders talk before they fight

by Jeremy Martin

War in the Andes has been averted. Over the weekend, the leaders of Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela apologized, hugged and made up at a hemispheric summit in the Dominican Republic. And so the crisis that began a week earlier with Colombia's cross-border raid in Ecuador that killed the second in command of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, guerrilla movement was over and officially logged into South American history. But what are the lessons learned after a tension-filled week in the Andes?

First, some background on what incited the crisis. On March 1, the Colombian military acted upon intelligence as to the location of senior ranking members of the FARC guerrilla movement. In a precise strike, they took out RaÚl Reyes, the FARC's second in command and 23 others. The raid occurred about one mile across Colombia's border with Ecuador, though Colombian President Alvaro Uribe did not contact his Ecuadorian counterpart, Rafael Correa, until after the strike had been executed. The nature of the raid into Ecuador without their consultation led to invocation of one of the most sacrosanct notions in Latin America - a nation's sovereignty. President Correa - soon joined by President Hugo ChÁvez of Venezuela - reproached Colombia, broke diplomatic relations and, worst of all, sent troops to their border with Colombia. The day after the raid, on his weekly TV program, President ChÁvez began the broadcast by asking for a moment of silence for those killed in the raid; he also ordered Venezuelan troops to the border.

As the imbroglio winds down, there are three key lessons among the dozens of issues that have been percolating since the raid took place. For one, the role of globalization was key in defusing the situation. Or, more succinctly: These days, trade and commerce trump all. Trade between Colombia and Venezuela has boomed recently and now reaches $6 billion a year, while trade between Ecuador and Colombia is roughly $2 billion. Most important, the primary sources of Colombian exports to Venezuela are products in scarce supply on that country's shelves: milk, chicken, beef and other basic foodstuffs. So as soon as the saber-rattling abated, it was not a surprise to see Colombia's stock market have its largest day of trading in the last two years.

Second, the much maligned Organization of American States played a crucial role in eventually brokering a resolution to the crisis. For an entity that has for years been too often relegated to the sidelines of regional crises and viewed as irrelevant or weak at best, it appropriately - and successfully - inserted itself into this crisis. Wasting no time, the OAS summoned the foreign ministers of Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela to Washington, D.C., for a series of meetings and discussions aimed at calming the situation. After two days of deliberations, the OAS issued a compromise resolution - accepted by all three nations - that rebuked Colombia and termed the raid a clear cut violation of Ecuador's sovereignty.

Moreover, the OAS instructed its secretary-general, José Miguel Insulza, to lead a follow-up fact-finding mission to the region to ward off future crises and, in their words, "bring the two nations closer together." The OAS has also made plans for a summit for the region's foreign ministers in Washington, D.C., on March 17 to address any pending issues related to the case.

Regrettably, the clearest lesson is that the most significant issue - and the origin of the crisis - has not been adequately addressed: The FARC's use of territory in Ecuador (and Venezuela) for evasion of the Colombian military. The sidebar story that emerged, that of documents and messages recovered from FARC computers detailing meetings with Ecuadorian authorities and communications with both Ecuadorian and Venezuelan officials, point to serious future challenges. While it was important for the OAS to broker a compromise between the nations, and its reprimanding of Colombia for the cross-border raid was useful, it does little to directly address the continued presence of the FARC and its operations across all three countries' borders. Without future dialogue and action on this issue, it does not seem far-fetched for a similar crisis to erupt again. Therefore, when Secretary-General Insulza leads his team to the Andes, he should bring a clear mandate to speak frankly with Ecuadorian and Venezuelan officials about their role in securing their borders and dealing with what has been the FARC's impunity to move across those borders.

As we return from the brink, with sovereignty no less important than before, we can be thankful for the many reasons why the leaders of Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador chose not to go to war. And we can hope that this past week's lessons will lead to efforts to address the core challenge of eliminating the need for one country to contemplate crossing its neighbor's borders for security purposes.

Source: San Diego Union Tribune

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