The guerillero and the hostage

Wilson Bueno Largo was a veteran commander with the FARC in Colombia until he decided to desert, carrying Oscar Tulio Lizcano, a high-profile Colombian politician, on his back. Largo has just been offered asylum in France (as well as a $400,000 reward), as part of a programme set up by the French state to encourage defections and the liberation of hostages.

The episode is interesting for two reasons. First, because it suggests that resistance to oppression can occasionally mean resistance to a non-state group. Although political resistance is often thought of as resistance to the state, there is a case that walking out on group such as the FARC is not entirely dissimilar conceptually. Of course, the FARC is peculiar in that it controls a piece of Colombian territory within which it acts somewhat like a sovereign, but defection from non-territorial groups (e.g.: the Mafia) is certainly something that the law has an interest in.

Second, the case is interesting because of the means that were used to entice defections. The asylum granted was automatic, immediate and unconnected for example to the normal determination of refugee status. Not only are FARC deserters granted asylum, but they are also rewarded for defying the bonds of allegiance that tie them to the movement. This seems to be the case regardless of the offences they may have committed.