Andean Group - November 2008 (ISSN 1741-4466)

President Alvaro Uribe's hard line security policy scored another victory against the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (Farc) in October: the escape of the group's longest-held political hostage with the help of a Farc commander. Nevertheless, while Uribe continues to win in the war against the Farc, Colombia's dubious human rights record threatens to undermine the legitimacy of its military, and the government's access to future aid from the United States. Meanwhile, Uribe is facing both a wave of social unrest and emerging splits in his ruling coalition.
           
Farc  take another hit  
The government celebrated the escape last month of former congressman Óscar Tulio Lizcano from the custody of the Farc as yet another triumph for Uribe's “Democratic Security" policy. Lizcano, who was kidnapped by the guerrilla group in 2000, is the sixteenth of the guerrillas' key “exchangeable" hostages to have escaped since July. He was rescued by the army on 26 October, after trekking for three days through Colombia's western jungle with his former guard and Farc defector, Wilson Bueno Largo (“Isaza"), who has since been promised a reward of some US$500,000 and asylum in France. "The army were pressuring us _Our group was abandoned, there wasn't much choice," said Largo.

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