December
29, 2006: Nearly 600 members of the security forces were killed this year,
nearly ten percent less than last year, and continuing a trend that began five
years ago. Rebel losses are up, and areas they control have shrunk considerably
in that same period.
December
28, 2006: The ELN released, as a good will gesture, two police officers they
had captured. The ELN is trying to work out a peace deal with the government.
The FARC, meanwhile, is split on the usefulness of such negotiations.
Currently, FARC is demanding the restoration of a "liberated zone"
(thousands of square kilometers of rural territory, free of security forces,
and under FARC control) before there can be more peace talks. The government
refuses, because the last time there was a liberated zone, the civilians inside
it were persecuted by FARC, the area became a rest camp for terrorists, and it
did nothing to move negotiations forward.
December
25, 2006: Parts of Colombia are still very much at war. Towns and cities on the
coast and the southern borders are particularly nasty. It's no unusual for some
towns to have murder rates (deaths per 100,000 population), 20-30 times what
they are in the United States. The deadliest cities in the U.S. have only a
fraction (20 percent or less) of the murders in some of these Colombian
towns.
December
23, 2006: In the south, fifteen soldiers were killed in a FARC ambush. The FARC
did not gain much from this, as the army continued their operation, to clear
FARC camps out of another area.
December
22, 2006: The government has asked Spain, France and Switzerland to use their
contacts with FARC to try and revive peace talks. FARC is still seen, by many
European leftist politicians, as a legitimate rebel organization, trying to
bring social justice (as defined by European leftists) to Colombia. Thus FARC
can raise money, recruit people and buy equipment in many parts of Europe.
