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<a href="http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/news/20080304/index.htm" eudora="autourl">
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/news/20080304/index.htm<br><br>
</a></font>
<dd><font face="Verdana" size=3>For Immediate Release:<br>
<dd>March 4, 2008<br><br>
</b></font>
<dd>Slain Colombian Insurgents Held Secret Talks with U.S.
Diplomats<br><br>
<dd>Declassified State Department Memo Describes Clandestine 1998 Meeting
with Colombian Guerrillas Central to Current Saber-Rattling in Andean
Region<br><br>
<dd>For more information contact:<br>
<dd>Michael Evans - 202/994-7029<br>
<dd><a href="mailto:mevans@gwu.edu">mevans@gwu.edu</a><br><br>
</b>
<dd>Washington, D.C., March 4, 2008 - Two senior Colombian guerrilla
leaders killed in Ecuador last weekend in a cross-border raid by
Colombian forces held secret talks with U.S. diplomats ten years ago in
Costa Rica, according to a
<a href="http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/news/20080304/19990108_chicola-reyes.pdf">
declassified memorandum of conversation</a> published on the Web today by
the National Security Archive and
<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/04/world/americas/04venez.html?_r=1&oref=slogin">
cited in today's
</a>
<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/04/world/americas/04venez.html?_r=1&oref=slogin">
New York Times</a></i>.<br><br>
<dd>The slain insurgents, Raúl Reyes and Olga Marín, met secretly in
Costa Rica in December 1998 with a U.S. diplomatic mission led by Philip
T. Chicola, then director of the State Department's Office of Andean
Affairs. The meeting was particularly sensitive in that the guerrilla
group represented by Reyes and Marín, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of
Colombia (FARC), was listed on the State Department's list of Foreign
Terrorist Organizations. The FARC remains Colombia's oldest and largest
rebel army.<br><br>
<dd>Stressing "the absolute requirement for confidentiality,"
Chicola told Reyes and Marín that the U.S. wanted to "to develop a
channel of communication" with the FARC:<br><br>
<dl>
<dd>I told the FARC representatives that while the [United States
government] had no preconceived agenda or structure as to how the
discussions might proceed, we wanted to use the meeting to describe our
views on counternarcotics, the peace process, the [kidnapping of] New
Tribes Missionaries (NTM), and the practice of kidnapping and attacks on
U.S. interests in Colombia. Beyond that, we were open to discuss, or at
least listen to, any topics the FARC wished to raise.<br><br>
</i>
</dl>
<dd>Reyes replied by noting the "historic importance he attached to
the meeting," adding that "changing world and domestic
circumstances" had brought the parties to the table.<br><br>
<dl>
<dd>He praised President [Andrés] Pastrana and his apparent commitment to
a successful peace process. He also reflected on the "illegitimacy
of the [Ernesto] Samper regime and its rampant corruption by
narcotraffickers. Reyes expressed satisfaction at the opportunity to talk
directly to the [United States government] and claimed that information
that reached US about the FARC via the press and other sources was
invariably untrue and distorted by anti-FARC interests.<br><br>
</i>
</dl>
<dd>Especially important for the U.S. was the 1993 kidnapping of the
three New Tribes Missionaries in Panama by FARC guerrillas. Chicola told
the FARC emissaries that a "full accounting" of the missionary
kidnappings "would greatly facilitate" future exchanges with
the U.S. and that any future kidnappings or other attacks on U.S.
interests in Colombia "would definitely preclude" further
U.S.-FARC contact. The kidnapping and killing of three more Americans by
FARC forces later that year likely ended whatever channels had been
opened by the Costa Rica talks.<br><br>
<dd>At the time, the U.S. was in the process of dramatically augmenting
its counternarcotics programs in Colombia, a goal that at times seemed to
clash with then-Colombian President Andrés Pastrana's commitment to
reaching a comprehensive peace agreement with the FARC, which derived a
substantial amount of its income from the drug trade. Chicola told the
FARC representatives that "regardless of this meeting or any other
positive peace process developments" that the U.S. would
"continue its eradication and other counternarcotics programs"
in Colombia.<br><br>
<dd>Reyes has for many years been the public face of the FARC in meetings
with foreign governments and other officials. His killing and the
military incursion into Ecuadorean territory that led to it have touched
off an intense round of saber-rattling in the Andean region. Both Ecuador
and Venezuela have expelled Colombian diplomats and massed military
forces on the Colombian border, with Ecuador having severed diplomatic
relations entirely. Colombian officials also claim to have recovered
Reyes' laptop computer, which they say contains evidence that Venezuela
has funneled some $300 million to the FARC.<br>
<hr>
<dd>Read the Document<br><br>
<dd>January 8, 1999<br>
<dd>
<a href="http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/news/20080304/19990108_chicola-reyes.pdf">
Memorandum of Conversation Between USG Representatives and
Representatives of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC)<br>
</a></i>
<dd>U.S. State Department cable, Secret, 9pp.<br>
<dd>Source: State Department Appeals Review Panel declassification
release under the Freedom of Information Act<br><br>
<br><br>
<br>
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