In an immediate response to the military strike, President Rafael Correa of Ecuador and his political ally, President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, severed diplomatic relations with Colombia. Chavez also ordered about 9,000 soldiers to the border with Colombia in what was regarded as a protective measure aimed at defending Venezuela's sovereign territory.
Soon after, President Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua, a close ally of Correa and Chavez, broke diplomatic relations with Colombia on the grounds that his country felt threatened by Colombian naval vessels near its maritime borders. The two countries are currently involved in a maritime border dispute that is engaging the attention of the International Court of Justice in The Hague.
In a continent which has promoted cordial relations and strong political and economic integration since the start of the century, this military tension was an obvious setback. In recent months, though, the Venezuelan and Colombian presidents exchanged sharp differences ever since President Chavez began to broker the release of hostages held by FARC in remote Colombian locations.
While other leaders of Latin America and the Caribbean urged restraint, hemispheric organizations moved to defuse the situation.
At the request of Ecuador, the OAS called a special meeting of its Permanent Council on March 4-5 in Washington, and after intense deliberations, adopted a compromise resolution stating that Colombia had violated Ecuador's "territorial integrity" by attacking the FARC camp in Ecuador. But the resolution fell short of censuring Colombia which, along with its chief political ally, the United States, had opposed any condemnation while claiming the right to self-defense, and alleged that the FARC was plotting attacks from bases in neighboring countries.
The OAS also established a fact-finding mission headed by its Secretary General José Miguel Insulza, to visit both countries and make proposals to settle the grievances. Other members of the mission included the Permanent Representatives of Argentina, The Bahamas, Brazil and Panama.
The OAS meeting was followed by the annual Rio Group summit in the Dominican Republic on March 7. That summit's theme on energy, development and natural disasters was overshadowed by the Ecuador-Colombia crisis which, understandably, took centre-stage in the discussions. After a long session of frank exchanges by the presidents of Ecuador and Colombia, along with other forceful encouragement by other leaders, the Andean neighbors eventually agreed to an amicable resolution to the crisis.
They then signed a joint declaration with the other leaders noting that Colombian President Alvaro Uribe had earlier apologized for the attack on Ecuadorian territory and had pledged not to violate any other nation's sovereignty again.
Significantly, the declaration committed all the member states to combat threats to national stability posed by "irregular or criminal groups."
Correa, Chavez and Ortega, all leftists opposed to US foreign policies, were the most forceful in confronting Uribe during the discussions. But despite his criticisms, Chavez asked Uribe to set aside their personal differences and work together for peace and development, and urged both Colombia and Ecuador to reconcile their differences.
Other leaders also demanded the respect for territorial sovereignty and the rule of law. Guyana's President Bharrat Jagdeo called for the development of peace and good neighborliness in the region and reminded the summit that it was mainly for this reason that the Rio Group was established in 1986.
And taking an ideological stance, Bolivia's leftist president, Evo Morales, accused the United States of dividing a peaceful Latin America. He said that over the decades, false labels such as "communist" and "drug trafficker," and since the September 11 attack, "terrorist", have ruined lives and justified wars across the region. Mexican President Felipe Calderon, without criticizing the US, agreed that such labels were proving to be counterproductive.
While Venezuela and Nicaragua immediately after restored diplomatic relations with Colombia, Correa warned that his government "will take a little time" since trust would have to be restored between Ecuador and Colombia. That distrust can still provoke more tension, especially since Ecuador has expressed concerns that at least one Ecuadorian was killed in the Colombian attack.
As a follow-up to the OAS meeting on March 4-5, the hemisphere's Foreign Ministers convened at OAS headquarters in Washington on March 17 to examine the report of the fact-finding mission. They subsequently instructed Secretary General Insulza to implement a mechanism for observation in order to restore a climate of confidence between Ecuador and Colombia. Insulza will report to the Ministers on his efforts during the upcoming regular OAS General Assembly, scheduled for early June in Medellin, Colombia.
Now that a situation of calm has been restored, the people of Ecuador, Colombia and Venezuela are very much relieved. In general most of the people of these three nations see themselves as one big family historically and culturally. In Venezuela itself, people generally were confident that despite the military maneuvers on the border, no hostilities would ever have occurred; and cross-border trade continued with little interruption, despite the diplomatic break in relations. A long-term closure of the Venezuela-Colombia border would have caused major economic damage to both countries since trade would have been immensely affected.
Last year Colombian exports to Venezuela And to celebrate the normalization of relations, a huge rock music concert attended by more than 100,000 Venezuelans and Colombians was held at the Simon Bolivar International Bridge linking the border cities of Cucuta in Colombia and San Antonio in Venezuela.
But this crisis once again brings into focus a most crucial problem affecting Colombia and the hemisphere in general. Clearly, the agreements of the OAS and the Rio Group did not eliminate the causes of the crisis: a Colombian insurgency that has crossed its borders and a stalemate over international efforts to facilitate the release of hostages held by the FARC.
In Bogotá, the speaker of Congress, Nancy Patricia Gutiérrez, said the incident in Ecuador along with the OAS and Rio Group agreements should encourage Colombia "to forge closer ties with its neighbors to explain to them the internal situation in the country and the day-to-day escalation of violence to which it is subjected." Venezuela's OAS Permanent Representative Jorge Valero on March 4 went further, stating that the solution to regional tension would be for the Colombian government to negotiate with the FARC, a position also aired by the administration in Caracas.
To remedy this situation, the Union of South America Nations (UNASUR), in particular, will sooner than later have to place this issue of guerrilla and insurgent movements on its active agenda.
It is now obvious that insurgency actions spill across national borders and greater cooperation and coordination will be essential in dealing with the attendant consequences. As South American integration advances, the nations together must confront this crucial issue.
If it is allowed to fester, they will be forced to expend considerable human and financial resources over an extended period in efforts to contain it.
Odeen Ishmael
embguy@cantv.net
(The writer is Guyana's Ambassador to Venezuela. The views expressed are solely those of the writer.)
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