The Capture of Simon Trinidad

My sympathies in Colombia's struggle for peace lie entirely with the victims of the violence. I'm convinced that the FARC on the left want to make the country completely ungovernable and chaotic. I also believe that the AUC on the right would be completely comfortable with a brutal, authoritarian regime that routinely abused human rights as long life appeared calm on the surface.

That being said, we come to the recent capture of a major FARC leader in Ecuador, Simon Trinidad, whose real name is Ricardo Palmera. What is interesting is Trinidad/Palmera's background:

Palmera, from a well-off family, was formerly a bank manager in Colombia's northern Caribbean city Valledupar. He taught economics at Bogota's Jorge Tadeo Lozano University for 10 years before joining the FARC 16 years ago.

Actually, according to this cached article that I googled for, Trinidad had a rather upper class, bourgeois upbringing:

They used to hang out with the same girls at parties and even watched films together.

Today, the former friends are on opposite sides of a war that has rumbled on for 38 years, with Colombian President Andres Pastrana dropping bombs on FARC rebels and guerrilla commander Simon Trinidad running for his life.

"I was friends with Andres," Trinidad reminisced in an interview with Reuters at a rebel enclave just before peace talks with the government collapsed in late February.

"We'd see each other in Cartagena at bullfights, at a boxing match. We bumped into each other several times, and there might have been girls who went out with him and might have gone out with me," he said. "I
don't know if you'd call them girlfriends ... they were friends."

The 51-year-old Trinidad is an oddity in the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, the overwhelmingly peasant rebel army known by the Spanish initials FARC. The son of a wealthy cattle ranching family and a former banker, he's more the sort of person who gets kidnapped by the guerrillas than the type who joins them.

Not that I condone anything he did, but my inquisitive nature would love to find out what convinced him to leave his wife and children and his comfortable life to spend sixteen years on the run in the jungle. There's got to be a compelling story there, like so many in Colombia's history since 1948 and the start of La Violencia.

Comments

[Miguel R.]

Why did Simon Trinidad join La FARC? When I read this question the first thing that came to mind was another communist named Fidel Castro. Castro, the same as Trinidad, had a very comfortable childhood. So now answer this question, why did Fidel Castro leave his wonder life to fight in the Sierra Maestra? Simon Trinidad was an informant for the FARC. He was giving them the balances on accounts, so they would know whom they could extort. I believe, meaning in my own opinion, that he ran when he got discovered. I grew up both in Colombia and here in the US. And when something like this is discovered you better hide. So, I believe that Trinidad did not join the FARC for the same social injustices that Castro fought for. I think it was for other reasons. And why was he helping the FARC when he had worked in the bank? Maybe he was kidnapped, threatened, and brainwashed. Who knows! My Brother-in-law was held by the FARC for 8 months. When he was released he told me that there was an American held with him who was freed after a couple of months. When the day came to take him back to civilization he didn't want to go. He wanted to stay and fight with them. So could Trinidad be a victim of Stockholm syndrome?

[Randy Paul]

Hi Miguel. Thanks for sharing your thoughts. You bring up an interesting possibility. My only reason for being skeptical about the Stockholm Syndrome in this instance is the fact that Trinidad had such a high position in the FARC. I wonder if they would have really trusted someone who they had kidnapped and flipped to their side with such an important role.

Regarding Castro, it's worth noting that Castro had led the attack on the Moncada Barracks which landed him in jail long before he went to the Sierra Maestra. I think his mind was made up for some time.

Thanks for your comments and please come back.