opinion

When it looked like the dangerousness of the area near Colombia had diminished, the kidnapping of José Vicente and Servio Colastra in Jaque, Darien revives the drama of the Colombian war’s impact on Panamanian soil.

A subject of concern is the non-identification of the kidnappers, as the Colombian violence has many heads and expresses the deep crisis through which our brother country lives. “A war of everyone against everyone has been unleashed: parapolice, drug traffickers, guerrillas and troops of the regular army. In step with these fatal feuds, more than a million Colombians now live in perpetual exodus, fleeing from one band or another and its cortege of the mutilated, orphans and widows.” (As Tomás Eloy Martínez puts it.) Panama shares its eastern border with this reality and appears to be not exempt from the conflict’s repercussions.

The border between Panama and Colombia is, thus, next to an active theater of war. Diverse forces dispute positions that are key to their respective strategies and projects. I don’t believe that the plans of any of them include “the conquest of Panama,” although they see our national territory as a place of refuge for some --- but that becomes a magnet to attract the retaliation or punitive actions of others, and we pay the price that this exacts in human rights violations against the population that lives or passes through there. Panama is Colombia’s fifth border, its smallest, porous and vulnerable on its outlying areas.

The United States has proclaimed as part of its list of worldwide anti-terrorist targets three groups that exist very near Panama, in our neighboring Colombia: FARC, the ELN and the AUC. Within Colombia, the conflict tends to sharpen and escalate even more, given the break off of peace negotiations, and the military is given priority in light of the international situation and the application of Plan Colombia.

Moreover, in Colombia three American counter-insurgency strategies have resumed in recent years: anti-communism, anti-drug and anti-terrorism, which is to say that this part of the world has high priority in the ongoing war. It gives rise to the fear of an increase in refugees, kidnappings, crimes, drug and arms trafficking, armed actions in the region, etc. Thus, Panama should deepen a strategy of democratic security for the border region.

Panama should establish strategies and articulations to counteract the repercussions of Colombia’s conflict and crisis, which should be based on a holistic, democratic, equitable and inclusive vision. But without changes in Colombia this won’t be possible. Thus the most desirable scenario for Panama --- Colombia’s smallest and weakest neighbor --- is that the Colombian crisis turn into the consolidation of a thorough peace process in our brother country, which includes the different actors and expressions now on the scene and promotes broadened participation of society, a process that advances by way of negotiations about the building of alternatives to the principal social, political and economic problems that beset Colombia.

This scenario does not appear feasible in the short term, but neither does it appear that any of the forces that are fighting can triumph and defeat their adversaries. Nor do any of these sectors appear to be convinced of all the advantages of peace in comparison with their current positions. In other words, it appears that the escalation of the war, combined with negotiations, will continue, with the understanding that both are parts of a single process.

All of this is a challenge to Colombian civil society and the international community, which must consider and implement alternative strategies to help bring peace and resist the continuing deterioration of human rights that the situation is causing in Colombia and its neighboring countries. The sharpening of the belligerent escalation that Plan Colombia has provoked can result in even greater human costs, and due to this it’s urgent to increase the availability and capacity to provide humanitarian assistance to the victims of war; to apply various pressures to get the parties to address the building of a peace process and the social foundations of development, equity and democracy; and to support the country’s reconstruction, including of its relations with its neighbors.

Therefore Panama must position its strategy on the base of three principles:

1) Neutrality in the face of the conflict out of respect for Colombia’s right to self-determination and non-intervention in its internal affairs;

2) Non-acceptance of international aid that’s conditioned on support for or participation in Plan Colombia; and

3) Guarding and defending our sovereignty against any external aggression, but affirming the principles of democratic civility, human rights and sovereignty as a way of impeding repetitions of militarism or militarization under the argument of confronting the Colombian conflict.

Some of the elements of this strategy should be:

• Active participation in the support of peace processes in Colombia, by way of mediation or other useful forms to accomplish this objective.

• Promotion of the human rights of the victims of war, through humanitarian assistance.

• Putting a priority on the eastern border region as a fundamental area for national development, strengthening local power and citizen participation.

• The development of democratic foreign and security policies, which are transparent and based on permanent consultation with all sectors of the nation.

I hope that soon we can achieve the liberation --- safe and sound --- of the two Spanish citizens and that events like this one will not be repeated.