4 October 2007: Washington, DC -- Desperation leads to some of the biggest mistakes. It usually follows after all of the bridges have been burned.

When people are desperate they rely on others. But often, these “saviors” are not the best solution; if they were the ones that can resolve the problem, people would have relied on them on earlier stages. 

This is what is happening in Colombia with the Humanitarian exchange (for the FARC) and the release of the kidnapped (for the Colombian government). The families of the kidnapped decided to move forward and look for help elsewhere after years of inaction.

This help was Hugo Chavez, who was called upon to head these humanitarian exchange negotiations with the FARC. The left-leaning Venezuelan President has been famous in the last years for his anti-Americanism, and who one year ago called George Bush: the devil, in a speech of the UN General Assembly. To add to this “resume” Chavez also meddles with many of the electoral processes in Latin America.

Chavez is well known for his long (6-7 hours) rhetorical-speeches, the use of verbal attacks to disqualify his opponents or anyone who does not approve his ideas or government policies. Discretion, prudence, caution: these are not Chavez’s virtues.

But they are virtues essential for negotiators; especially ones that deal with extremist groups such as the Colombian-based FARC.

In one of his first speeches during this negotiation process, Chavez yelled out to the FARC counterpart during his radio show:  “Manuel, Manuel, chief of the FARC, I already sent you a message, now respond! I am waiting for your answer Manuel, not only to talk about the humanitarian exchange, but about geopolitics.” Later he added, “If I had to go to hell and back to achieve peace in Colombia, I would go,” in an interview with journalists.

The deal to be negotiated is not about the more than 3,000 people currently kidnapped in Colombia; but just 45 of them, including politicians, police and military officers, three Americans and a former Colombian presidential candidate, Ingrid Betancourt, who holds dual French-Colombia citizenship.

In this process the Presidents of Nicaragua, Ecuador, Bolivia, and Brazil wanted to join Chavez and they have already offered their services but the Colombian government probably will not accept the offer, as all the presidents happen to be exactly on the opposite ideological side of the Colombian President Uribe.

This process is also supported by the French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who last June put pressure on the Colombian government to release almost 200 hundred low-ranking guerrillas and one high ranked: Rodrigo Granda, expecting that the guerrillas, in exchange, would release his French citizens. Apparently the negotiation did not work because the FARC did not move one inch.

Then, throwing hot oil to the fire, Chávez and Piedad Cordoba, a Colombian Senator also working in the negotiations, invited a Democrat Congressman from the U.S. to the talks that will be held in Caracas in October 8th, between the Venezuelan President and a delegation from the guerillas.

Seeing that the left-leaning coalition of the negotiators had increased in an uncomfortable proportion, the Colombian President sought help from the Bush administration—his closest ally since he came into power. So the U.S. sent some Republicans to attend the meeting.

From now, the U.S. government will say what Uribe cannot. In discussing Iraq, George Bush recently said that “I do not care playing the bad cop.” There are a lot of chances he will play his role very well.

The parties are ready. The FARC and the Colombian government have stated their initial positions: the government will not demilitarize the area required by the FARC to hold the negotiations, and the FARC will not negotiate if the government does not demilitarize the area.

Meanwhile, the families of the kidnapped anxiously wait for the happy end to these negotiations and to welcome their relatives back home; some of them after 10 years of captivity.

It is clear that both the government of Colombia and the FARC want to demonstrate who the “bad guy” is in the process instead of working for the resolution of the issue. It is believed that the enrollment of the French and American governments could force the Colombian government to concede to the FARC so that the French-Colombian citizen and the three Americans are released, along with the Colombian ones. But to date, the U.S. has done nothing in almost four years for the release of its own citizens.

When a peace process or a sensitive negotiation of this kind is regarded as entertainment for a radio show—as Chávez has been doing by distract audiences for about five hours weekly—it is difficult to expect a serious or desirable outcome. Negotiations imply absolute discretion and a study of the parties: their demands, the issues, and alternatives for possible deadlocks. But Chávez is too good for that.

So what remains is for Colombians to go through another unsuccessful process and left feeling that the conflict and its issues are intractable and endless.

But the main issue is not the intractability of the Colombian conflict but the manner in which the parties address it. Meanwhile, Colombians will continue suffering the consequences of a painful conflict. And the more than 3,000 currently kidnapped—that are not the subject of the trade-off—along with their families will continue hopelessly waiting for someone to remember them.