Category: Colombia War

Granda, Colombia, Venezuela

Two important pieces from Venezuelanalysis.com. One is on the state of the commercial deals between Colombia and Venezuela signed during the bizarre July 2004 meeting (discussed in this blog at the time). The other about Chavez’s attempts at diplomacy in the wake of the kidnapping.

Continue reading “Granda, Colombia, Venezuela”

What they’re saying about the Granda kidnapping

In an editorial in El Espectador, important Colombian writer Alfredo Molano pointed out that Colombia’s use of bounty hunters and kidnappings has unleashed forces beyond its control. I thought that myself about the extradition of Simon Trinidad. Even the most vicious wars are based on certain understandings – usually these understandings don’t provide protection to the most vulnerable civilians, but instead to the more powerful combatants – that contain a conflict. Each new line that is crossed invites reprisal. Of course the Bush administration is all about crossing lines and demonstrating impunity. They know they won’t pay the price. They know they can spread the price around so that everyone but themselves pay.

Other analysts, like Antonio Guillermo García Danglades, who I don’t know and whose name I don’t recognize, point out that this was more than a deliberate provocation and a violation of Venezuelan sovereignty: it was yet another attempt at destabilizing Venezuela and creating conditions for a conflict with Colombia or simply undermining Venezuela’s ‘Bolivarian Revolution’.

Participants of the ‘2nd Bolivarian Congress of Peoples’, the meeting in December in Caracas at which Granda was kidnapped, wrote a communique repudiating the kidnapping but also clarifying that Granda was not an accredited participant at the Congress and neither was FARC. They also stated their support for whatever Chavez chooses to do to defend “national dignity, truth, and justice, mocked by this grave violation of the national sovereignty of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, which effects the relations between the neighbouring countries and corresponds to the imperialist strategy of the US in Latin America and the Caribbean.”

The list of signers (the statement is below) suggests that this is the position of most of the ‘official’ left in Latin America.

This is a serious escalation against Venezuela, and a brilliant political move on behalf of the US and Uribe: very cleverly designed to split Chavez’s political base, internationally and, much more importantly, domestically. It is the more effective precisely because, unfortunately, kidnapping is so important a FARC tactic that to argue against Granda’s kidnapping is to invite the reply from Uribe people: “Well, then are you against all the FARC’s kidnappings?” If you are, then you can no longer be an unquestioning supporter of the FARC’s – hence the split. Worse, by committing these kinds of abuses, deliberately designed to provoke, the US/Uribe are inviting the FARC to commit reprisals that will reduce its popularity and force still others to distance themselves from them.

COMUNICADO DEL CONGRESO BOLIVARIANO DE LOS PUEBLOS

Ante los hechos registrados a partir del caso del secuestro de Rodrigo Granda en territorio venezolano.

Considerando la situación generada por la deplorable participación del gobierno de Colombia, al reconocer el pago de soborno para realizar el secuestro de Granda en territorio de Venezuela. Ante la irresponsable afirmación del gobierno del Presidente Uribe al sostener que “la política de recompensas es un instrumento legítimo de los Estados”, poniéndose al margen de todas las normas jurídicas del derecho internacional. Entendiendo que esta acción es un hecho que lesiona gravemente la soberanía de la República Bolivariana de Venezuela, y por lo tanto corresponde una disculpa pública y rectificación por parte del Gobierno de Colombia ante pueblo venezolano

y la opinión pública internacional.

Los asistentes internacionales al II Congreso Bolivariano de los Pueblos declaran:

1. Repudiamos el secuestro de Rodrigo Granda, realizado en Caracas el día 13 de diciembre.

2. Ante el comunicado emitido por el gobierno de Colombia en el que se afirma que “El señor Granda participó en un Congreso Bolivariano realizado en Caracas los días 8 y 9 de diciembre de 2004, en representación de la FARC”.

a) Ratificamos que no fueron invitados ni acreditados en el Segundo Congreso Bolivariano de los Pueblos, Rodrigo Granda, ni la organización que representa, las FARC.

b) Informamos que el Segundo Congreso Bolivariano de los Pueblos se llevó a cabo del día 6 al 9 de diciembre, contando con una gran cantidad de actividades de libre acceso al público en general.

3. En consonancia con las resoluciones emanadas de nuestro Segundo Congreso, hacemos votos por la solución política negociada al conflicto social y armado que desangra la hermana República de Colombia.

4. Respaldamos en todos sus términos la posición y medidas tomadas por el Presidente Hugo Chávez y el Gobierno de Venezuela en defensa de la dignidad nacional, la verdad y la justicia, mancilladas por este secuestro en territorio venezolano, hecho que constituye una grave violación a la soberanía de la República Bolivariana de Venezuela, que afecta las relaciones entre dos países hermanos y responde a la estrategia imperialista de los Estados Unidos en América

Latina y el Caribe.

Por los asistentes al Segundo Congreso Bolivariano de los Pueblos:

• Jorge Ceballos, Coordinador Nacional del Movimiento Barrios de Pie, Argentina.
• Marcia Campos, Presidenta de la Federación Democrática Internacional de Mujeres,

FDIM, Brasil.
• Alexis Ponce, Coordinador de la Asamblea Permanente de los Derechos Humanos del

Ecuador, APDH, Ecuador.
• Jacinto Suárez, miembro de la dirección nacional del Frente Sandinista de

Liberación Nacional, FSLN, Nicaragua.
• Osvaldo Peredo, miembro de la dirección del Movimiento al Socialismo, MAS,

Bolivia.
• Marlene da Rocha, Secretaria Nacional de Acompañamiento del Proyecto Hambre Cero

por la Ejecutiva del Partido de los Trabajadores PT, Brasil.
• Jorge Schafik Handal, jefe fracción legislativa del FMLN, El Salvador.
• Rodrigo Ruiz, Secretario General de La Surda, Chile.
• Edgar Sánchez Aguirre, miembro de la dirección de la Federación Campesina de

Oruro, Bolivia.
• Isaac Rudnik, miembro dirección nacional de la Corriente Patria Libre, CPL,

Argentina.
• Leónidas Iza, ex presidente de la Confederación de Nacionalidades Indígenas del

Ecuador, CONAIE, Ecuador.
• Héctor Pio Fleitas Flecha, miembro de la mesa ejecutiva, Sindicato de

Trabajadores de Petroleros Paraguayos, Paraguay.
• José Adán Rivera, Secretario General de la Asociación de Trabajadores del Campo,

ATC, Nicaragua.
• Rubén García, miembro de la dirección nacional del Movimiento de Liberación

Nacional Tupamaros, MLN, Frente Amplio, Uruguay.
• Nidia Díaz, miembro de la Secretaría de Relaciones Internacionales del Frente

Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional, FMLN, El Salvador.
• Edgar Ponce, Secretario General de la Red de Trabajadores de la Energía

Eléctrica, Enlace, Ecuador.
• Doris Gutiérrez, miembro de la Dirección Nacional de la Coordinadora de

Organizaciones Campesinas de Honduras, COCOH, Honduras.
• Carolina Toranza, delegada de la Federación de Estudiantes Universitarios del

Uruguay, FEUU, Uruguay.
• Raul Marín, Coordinador del Movimiento Sin Techo, MST, Paraguay.
• Héctor Santarén, miembro de la Mesa Ejecutiva del Partido Comunista Congreso

Extraordinario, PCCE, Argentina.
• Gilberto Talahua, Secretario General del Movimiento Plurinacional Pachakutik

Nuevo País, Ecuador.
• Darío López Desvars, Coordinador de la Casa de la Juventud, Paraguay.
• Arnaldo Assis Mourthe, Secretario de Relaciones Internacionales del Partido

Democrático Laborista, PDT, Brasil.
• Federico Tomás Gomensoro, Secretario de Relaciones Internacionales del Partido

Socialista del Uruguay, PSU, Frente Amplio, Uruguay.
• Padre Rogelio Cruz, Presidente del Grupo Sacerdotal Helder Cámara, República

Dominicana.
• Humberto Cholango, Presidente de la Confederación Kichua Ecuarrunari, Ecuador.
• Mercedes Fleitas, miembro de la dirección nacional del Mesa Coordinadora

Nacional de Organizaciones Campesinas, Paraguay.
• José Espinal Marcelo, miembro de la dirección nacional del Partido Nueva

Alternativa y de la Unidad del Pueblo, República Dominicana.
• Reverendo Ricardo Cornejo, Presidente de la Comunidad Fe y Vida, El Salvador.
• Ramatis Jacino, vicepresidente de la municipalidad de San Pablo del Partido de

los Trabajadores, Brasil.
• Ignacio López, Secretario General de la Central Unitaria de Trabajadores

Auténtica, CUT-A, Paraguay.
• Carlos Aznárez, Coordinador de las Cátedras Bolivarianas de la Universidad de

Madres de Plaza de Mayo y director de Resumen Latinoamericano.
• Marcelo Koening, miembro de la Dirección Nacional del Movimiento Patriótico 20

de Diciembre, Argentina.
• Manuel Zárate, miembro de la dirección nacional del Partido del Pueblo, Panamá.
• Juan Barahona, miembro de la dirección del Bloque Popular, Honduras.
• Nelson Chaves, Secretario de Relaciones Internacionales del Movimiento

Revolucionario 8 de Octubre, MR8, Brasil.
• Angel Adolfo Borello, miembro de la Dirección Nacional de la Federación de

Tierra y Vivienda, FTV, Coordinador del Comedor Los Pibes, Argentina.
• Gloria Ribas, miembro de la Asociación de Comunidades Afectadas por el Anillo

Perisférico, El Salvador.
• Silvia Ferreira, miembro de la dirección nacional de la Agrupación Juvenil

Venceremos, Argentina.
• Cuauhtemoc Amecua Dromundo, Secretario General del Partido Popular Socialista,

PPS, México.
• Rodrigo Acosta, Comisión Directiva del Sindicato de Trabajadores de Teléfonos,

SINTRATELEFONOS, Colombia.
• Rafael González, miembro de la dirección nacional del Comité de Unidad

Campesina, CUC, Guatemala.
• Jorge Coronado, miembro de la dirección de Encuentro Popular, EP, Costa Rica.
• Maria do Socorro Gomes, miembro de la dirección de Centro Brasileño por la Paz y

la Solidaridad de los Pueblos, CEBRAPAZ, y del Partido Comunista do Brasil, PC do

B, Brasil.
• Marcelo Fondizi, miembro de la dirección de la Asociación de Trabajadores del

Estado, ATE, Argentina.
• Ricardo Robleto, Secretario General de la Central de Trabajadores de Nicaragua,

CTN, Nicaragua.
• Mónica Saiz. Proyecto Emancipación, Argentina.
• Eva Carazo, representante de la Red de Coordinación en Biodiversidad, Costa

Rica.
• María del Rosario Cañada, delegada de Jóvenes por el Socialismo, México.
• Rubén Varone, delegado del Partido Comunista, Argentina.
• Carlos Wong, Presidente de la Fundación Casa Azul, Panamá.
• Sergio Herrera, miembro de la dirección nacional de la Unión Nacional de

Estudiantes de Nicaragua, Nicaragua.
• Neburuby Chamarra, representante de los Cabildos Mayores del Movimiento

Indígena, Colombia.
• Yuliana Valencia, delegada de Disidencia Estudiantil, Perú.
• Elizabeth Rivera Cruz, miembro del Bloque Popular Social, El Salvador.
• Daniel Rico Serpa, miembro de la dirección del Unión Sindical de Obreros de la

Industria Petrolera, USO, Colombia.
• Fernando Ramón Bossi, Secretario General del Proyecto Emancipación, PE,

Argentina.
• Mauricio Rubiano Bello, miembro de la dirección nacional de la Asociación

Iniciativa Juvenil, Colombia.
• Leonardo Severo Wexell, representante del Canal Comunitario de San pablo,

Brasil.
• Eberto Díaz Montes, miembro de la dirección nacional de la Federación Nacional

Sindical Unitaria Agropecuaria, FENSUAGRO, Colombia.
• Pablo Ceto, miembro del Ejecutivo Nacional de la Unidad Nacional revolucionaria

Guatemalteca, URNG, Guatemala.
• Agustín Contreras, Presidente de la Casa Bolívar de Anfictionía, Colombia.
• Silvia Ayala Figueroa, miembro de la dirección del Partido Unificación

Democrática, PUD, Honduras.
• Alex Munguía Salazar, delegado del Movimiento Mexicano Juarista Bolivariano,

México.
• Demetrio Hernández, Secretario General del Movimiento de Izquierda

Revolucionario, MIR, Chile.
• Antonio García, Presidente CUT, subseccional Atlántico, Colombia.
• Israel Barreiro, Secretario General CUT, Subseccional Atlántico, Colombia.
• Guillermo Rivera, Directivo Nacional de la UNEB Unión Nacional de Empleados

Bancarios, Colombia.
• Luis Jiménez, Directivo Nacional de Empleados Bancarios UNEB. , Colombia.
• Astrid Coronado, Coordinadora Polo Democrático, Colombia.
• Edith González Caballero, miembro de dirección del Comité de Solidaridad con

Cuba, Panamá.
• Ivonett Tapia Gómez, coordinadora de las Cátedras Bolivarianas de Colombia,

Colombia.
• Camilo Soares, Coordinador General del Centro de Estudios y Educación Popular

Germinal, Paraguay.
• Marinda Reyes Vázquez, delegada de Proyecto Revolución Cultural, República

Dominicana.
• Norberto Aristides Cintrón Fiallo, Coordinadora para la Confraternidad Caribeña

y Latinoamericana de Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico.
• Reinaldo Federico Ortiz, delegado de Estudiantes Universitarios Kunas, Panamá.
• Milagros Rivera, dirigente del Comité de Solidaridad con Cuba, Puerto Rico.
Siguen firmas.

Some Colombia stuff

Readers of this blog are probably following the Colombia-Venezuela situation with interest. A development late last week: apparently Colombian authorities arrested an apparent FARC member, Rodrigo Granda, in Venezuela on January 13. If that’s true, it was an abduction – Chavez called it a violation of Venezuela’s sovereignty. Colombia claims it arrested Granda on the border, in Colombian territory. But now Venezuela has been distancing itself publicly from FARC.

Maybe Colombia and Venezuela need some American help to resolve their problems, huh?

Continue reading “Some Colombia stuff”

The First Indigenous and Popular Congress, Colombia

For readers who follow my work because they seek good Colombia information in English, I apologize for not reporting on the situation as much as I should have been. I will try to catch up. There were major and very successful events and mobilizations in Colombia on the part of the indigenous of Northern Cauca. I have translated the final declaration of their massive mobilization that happened last month. Some 60,000 marched for peace, against neoliberalism, and for autonomy. They succeeded in beginning to break the isolation that the government is trying to impose on them. They succeeded against extraordinary challenges and odds. I will write a full article about the mobilization soon. Meanwhile, here are their own words.

The First Popular Indigenous Congress

The Indigenous and Popular Mandate of the Minga for Life, Justice, Joy, Freedom, and Autonomy

Cali, September 18, 2004

The Challenge Before Us

We bring with us the memories and experiences of a long history of struggle and resistance. We rely on our identities and cultures to confront the many threats that face us time and time again. This path has not been easy. Since the Conquest and without cease, arrogance, egoism, ignorance and disrespect have fallen on us with lies, false promises, the power of ever more lethal weapons, and with institutions, laws, and norms that bring us misery, exploitation, pain, and dependence. Each time they attack us, they assure us it is for our own good. Each time we have had to learn the deception, unite and organize to defend ourselves. It has always served us to return to our roots, take advantage of the wisdom of our own collective memory, listen to our elders and pay attention to nature to make ourselves a part of life and defend ourselves by defending it. Time and again we have had to learn to resist and do so differently in accordance with the challenge before us. We have come from far, over a long period. The latest steps have brought us to this Congress of Peoples, the latest stage in this long history. More than the latest stage, it is the beginning of a new path we have decided to take. With the 60,000 that marched to Cali and in other parts of the country, our memories have marched; our elders have marched; those who opened the way by struggling before us, many men and women in many places within and outside of Colombia who have recognized the danger, suffered the pain and got up to march for the other world we know is possible and necessary.

The challenge of this new age is immense. It may be the most serious of our entire history. We suffer a damaging, evil ‘order’. We know this and say it loud. It is not only our cultures, communities, peoples and families who are at risk. It is life itself that can be destroyed by the blindness of those who are using the greatest power in history to make everything that exists part of a market with their project of death.

We know that what must occur does not yet exist except in our own commitment, the memory of everything we live and what we must invent, grow, and protect to open the way.

The project that threatens life does not respect borders – that’s why it is called ‘globalization’. It comes to our communities and into our homes throughout Colombia and the world. It brings war, lies of propaganda, the power of law, and the power of money. It comes for the wealth of nature and the work of people to exploit and sell. Those who control and make decisions to serve their interests are far away. They are in the directorships of large multinational corporations and in the financial centres of the world that end up with everything. They use governments and armies and institutions to do their bidding. They convince us that all this is inevitable.

This is hard to see, understand, resist and change. It requires unity, creativity, solidarity, commitment, sacrifice and work, but also a desire to live. Because we face a large and difficult challenge, this mobilization is also different. We have not come out only to demand something of the government or to denounce, though we are doing that also. This time we come to bring people together, to bring organizations and processes together. We march to express our commitment to unite to work and weave reciprocal solidarity that is necessary to defend life. This time we know that we cannot do it alone and we need one another to understand, resist, and create the possible and necessary world. We have surprised the government, power, the country, and the world because we have not come out to demand what is ours by right. Instead we call this Minga with a proposal so that all peoples can define an indigenous and popular mandate to orient the process and advance from this reality of confusion and death towards a project of life for and from the people.

Our actions show the value of our words. That is why our power to convoke and the force of our arguments grows. For us, our acts of dignity and resistance speak. The first indigenous and popular congress has won its objectives. The country and the world have heard us. The government could not ignore us and knows it will have to respect our legitimacy. The word we bring in peace has become fact that speaks for itself. Even some of the commercial media were forced to listen and transmit our proposals, though many others continued to distort the truth. The solidarity of the world was present and accompanied us. We recognize the responsibility that all this implies. It is a collective responsibility to continue our work and take up the challenge. This mandate collects what has happened in the past and signals our plans for the present.

We register the irresponsible and disrespectful posture of the President of the Republic towards the first indigenous and popular congress, and reject his lies about the motives and content of this congress to public opinion when he describes this peaceful, civil, democratic gathering as a political act of terrorists. On September 2, days before the congress, the prosecutor general’s office detained elder Alcibiades Escue on false charges in an act this congress calls a political kidnapping. The President declared today, during the final public audience, that he has taken over the case of Alcibiades Escue and that the Congress is headed by parliamentarians and political opposition who have had no influence whatsoever on our process. This shows the weakness of a government that relies on lies and force to silence the truth of the people when they assume their dignity.

Agenda and Position of the First Congress

The commissions ratified the following position for this Minga.

-What is happening in this country and in our territories is serious, urgent, and we must mobilize immediately.
-The situation of emergency is due to a deep problem related to neoliberal globalization and for that reason the first action is a part of a struggle in the medium and long term. The results that follow FTAA and other free trade agreements are some of the most dangerous and destructive forms of aggression that will impel constitutional changes which will in turn impel more war and terror.
-Urgent mobilizations are neither the beginning nor the end of the struggle, but a stage of the process that we propose to create in minga, a process of indigenous and popular alternatives to make possible a country that is just, democratic, respectful of all its people, and peaceful.

Based on the above analysis, the themes debated in commissions and plenary sessions at the indigenous and popular congress were the following:

1. Defense of life and human rights facing the armed conflict and the politics of “democratic security”
2. The Constitutional “Reforms”
3. FTAA and other free trade agreements
4. Mechanisms for the construction of popular resistance and sovereignty

The indigenous and popular mandate for life, justice, joy, freedom and autonomy:

The authorities, organizations, processes and people participating in the First Indigenous and Popular Congress decide:

1. To declare ourselves under INDEFINITE PERMANENT ASSEMBLY until we have definitively overcome the threats against our life and integrity.
2. To establish the Indigenous Popular Congress to assume and deepen the themes of this Minga, to constitute and consolidate the process and Plan of Resistance and Life of Peoples. The congress will initiate sessions in the Peace and Coexistence Territory of La Maria, Piendamo, but it will have an itinerant character and will have sessions throughout the national territory, facilitated and led by all popular processes.
3. To create a PERMANENT TRIBUNAL OF THE PEOPLES with participation by people of the highest capacity at the national and international level, to examine, pronounce, recommend and act against the attacks and violations of human rights and the right to life of popular and indigenous organizations and processes.
4. To implement an AUTONOMOUS SYSTEM OF COMMUNICATION AND EXCHANGE OF THE PEOPLE FOR TRUTH AND LIFE
5. To establish a PERMANENT AND AUTONOMOUS DIPLOMATIC MISSION OF THE PEOPLES that will represent organizations and processes in diplomatic questions internationally, with representation from the international commissions of the movements and processes within the country.
6. Develop a SOLIDARITY ECONOMY and establish markets and mechanisms of production and exchange that will be reciprocal and oriented to defending and promoting life and the good of the communities.
7. Collect, analyze, deepen and adopt the recommendations and conclusions of the thematic commissions of the congress, as well as the declarations, agreements, pronouncements and resolutions of the organizations, movements, and events where positions and proposals were brought.

The Congress declares the following:

With regard to the armed conflict, the violation of human rights and the politics of “democratic security”

-To design and put in place popular mechanisms for a negotiated solution to the armed conflict.
-To demand truth, justice, and reparations for the victims of armed conflict.
-Promote popular and autonomous mechanisms of civil resistance, peace and security that include the recognition of the Guardia Indigena as a popular force for peace.
-Demand and design mechanisms of civil resistance with national and international pressure, support, and observation to win the exit of armed groups from our territories and respect for the civil population, respect for indigenous autonomy and indigenous organizations.
-Design mechanisms of resistance and civil disobedience against the politics of “democratic security” of the Colombian government.

With regard to FTAA and free trade

-Convoke organizations and the people of Colombia to develop the actions needed to stop negotiations of these agreements and promote a Popular Referendum against the Free Trade Agreement and FTAA.

With regard to the Constitutional Reforms:

-Demand the suspension of any attempt at constitutional reform and demand that in future, any proposed reform must be submitted to popular consultation and approval.

Follow-Up

Indigenous authorities and leaders present at this first congress will design an Indigenous and Popular Commission responsible for the design of mechanisms and agenda to fulfill this mandate as rapidly as possible. The criteria for selecting members of the commission must include: participation from diverse sectors; legitimacy of representation in the name of organizations and processes; and recognized capacity to do the assigned work. We will continue to act to confront the political kidnapping of elder Alcibiades Escue (*TRANSLATOR’S NOTE: ALCIBIADES WAS RELEASED AFTER MUCH POPULAR MOBILIZATION AND IS BACK IN INDIGENOUS TERRITORY – OCTOBER 6, 2004).

Words without action are empty.
Action without words is blind.
Words and action without the spirit of community are death.

For life, justice, freedom and autonomy, we continue to move forward.

Consolidating the Paramilitaries

Friends in Colombia will be helping me blog from time to time. This friend is Enzo, and he is reporting on something happening in the Colombian press. The following are his interpretations of what is going on. Here goes:

Something orchestrated and intentional is happening as of sunday (Sept 26). It is a mediatic action regarding the paramilitaries. The three largest written media were totally dedicated to this issue on sunday. El Tiempo, El Espectador and Semana. The issue was the paramilitarization of the country. It was presented in a well planned way. Showing evidence of a phenomenon that everyone knows to be a fact as a sudden concern that was just unveiled. The paramilitary strategy is visibilized beyond the paramilitaries.

At the same time, during recent weeks, the different factions are being cleansed and unified. The groups that have oposed Castanio and Mancuso are being massacred or beheaded. Of course, all this began with the “disappearance” of Carlos Castanio (who was said to be sent to Istrael through Panama with the assistance of US intelligence -his brother Fidel, a Drug lord and founder of paramilitarism in Colombia, was seen in Tel-Aviv not that long ago-). Just last week, Arroyave, the commander of the Bloque Centauros, in direct oposition to the AUC, controlled by the President himself and by Mancuso, was killed by his own men. In other words, The paramilitaries are being unified by Uribe and his supporters (always US forces and the CIA) to be placed under his control.

These death squads are a component of a comprehensive National Strategy for Transnational Capital, which uses terror as its main weapon, articulated to political infiltration of the country, control of public budgets and programs, propaganda and drug production and trade (arms trade included).

The paramilitary strategy is a weapon of the globalized right to take over the resources of a country (and its neighbours) and transfer these to the government, which is already under US military and corporate control. This explains the weekend propaganda blitz. Uribe is known to be a paramilitary and wants to rid himself of this image. A perfect action: attack the other paramilitaries and unify the troops of assasins and present these actions as a government’s battle against paramilitarism. Expose the corruption that allows government funds to flow into paramilitarism as a threat that the government is fighting, but which is difficult to defeat and include here the para-narco connection. Present yourself as a victim of this machinery and call for foreign (US) help to fight this huge enemy, while in fact, you (Uribe and his allies) have created these enterprises with the paras to take public funds and invest them into funding paramilitarism, while becoming involved in drug trade.

Uribe himself has been shown to be a drug lord and a paramilitary (see Joseph Contrera’s book, La Biografia No Autorizada de Alvaro Uribe Velez). In fact, paramilitary factions have funded themselves through extorsion, government funds and drug trade for years. What changes now is that someone, somewhere has ordered a unification of these groups within the government, in it and under the President himself. They will keep funding themselves in the same way, but become the government and a single group.

Present this unification as a war between the Government and the paras and in the end the public will be convinced that when the Government becomes the paras, the paras will have been defeated. Colombia is being delivered to death squads, drug lords, corrupt thieves, linked to US and corporate interests. In the meantime a ‘peace process’ advances in San Jose de Ralito, Cordoba between government and paras. This site for negotiations gathers wealthy Colombians, members of Congress and other personalities. The site borders by two haciendas. One is owned by one of the largest landlords in Colombia: Alvaro Uribe Velez. The other one by his longstanding neighbour: Mancuso, the commander of the paramilitaries.

Two final notes:

1. None of this is limited to Colombia. It is being extended into Venezuela and Ecuador, and arguably the globe, wherever multinational interests are at stake.

2. The Government has become a criminal machinery on behalf of private national and multinational interests and its job is to persecute and punish those who opose the para-narco-corporate-US interests. This explains why, for example many health institutions for the poor that exist in the country are under the control of paramilitaries and do not fund health programs, but transfer these funds for the death squads to buy weapons and recruit new troops. This also explains why the Government under paramilitary rule, uses public services, such as the entire judicial system, to criminalize those who opoese its interests. There are many examples, but the most recent one involves Alcibiades Escue, probably the most important and respected indigenous leader in Colombia. Alcibiades is CEO of an Indigenous Health Institution owned by the communities in Cauca, South West Colombia. The paras attempted extorsion on him and the leaders refused to pay. As a result, Alcibiades was jailed and the media quickly condemned him and his communities as a paramilitary terrorist supporter who transferred funds for the health of the poor into the hands of death squads. In other words, the only one who refused to join the paras, was punished for this. Alcibiades is now out of jail, but the President announced that he would personally deal with this case.

Imagine this: the President of your country is a commander of a unified Death Squad that rules the nation through fear. The Government serves this machinery of fear for profit for the sake of transnational interests under US guidance. Most of the funding comes from drug trade. The rest is taken away through taxes from the people to be used against them. All this, leads to a regime that delivers wealth to corporate interests. The victims who refuse to tolerate this, are then either murdered or disappeared by death squads (indistinguishable) or accused of crimes committed by the regime. The Victims are chased after by the Criminals on behalf of Justice.

In the midst of the consolidation of this death squad corporate nation, indigenous people stand up peacefully and march to establish a new popular government, weaving popular autonomies for Life, Justice, Happiness and Freedom. Now, back to where we began. Why this media strategy? Who is behind it? Official terror uses propaganda, but official today in Colombia means global, multinational and US. If the Colombian State is being consolidated as a corporate-narco-terrorist machine, it is only emulating the largest corporate-terrorist-narco government in the world. And resistance comes from indigenous-popular coalitions now weaving a new project that calls for the concioussness and action of the world.

This unbelievable reality is truth. It is so unbeleivably true that most choose to ignore it, while the assasins take over the wealth and the life of the planet.

The RESCUED MAYOR!

A truly heartfelt thank you to everyone who wrote letters and otherwise helped with the kidnapping of the indigenous commission in Cauca, including my friend Arquimedes Vitonas, the mayor of Toribio. The indigenous community mobilized massively to send 400 people to the area to search for the commission. And they succeeded in Arquimedes and all five of the others!!! Spanish communique below.

http://www.nasaacin.net/noticias.htm?x=90&conds[1][category……..]=’Noticias ACIN’

LAS COMUNIDADES,LOS CABILDOS Y LA GUARDIA INDIGENA RESCATAN AL ALCALDE DE TORIBIO
San Vicente del Caguan, Caqueta-Colombia, 09/08/2004, ONIC-CRIC- ACIN Autor: ONIC-CRIC-ACIN
La Organizadón Nacional Indígena de Colombia(ONIC), el Consejo Regional Indígena del Cauta (CRIC) Y la Asociadón de Cabildos indígenas de Norte del Cauca (ACN) comunican a la opinión Pública:

1. Que en el día de ayer 7 de septiembre de 2004 fueron rescatados Sanos y salvos los Señores, Arquimedes Vitonás Noscué, Alcalde de Toribio, Gilberto Muñoz Coronado, exalcalde del mismo municipio, quienes han sido secuestrados por Míembros de la columna Teófilo Forero de las FARC, desde el 23 de agosto de 2004, mientras cumplían una labor de intercambio de experiencia con la comunidad indígena del resguardo de Altamira.

2. Igualmente informamos que en la acción de rescate fueron encontrados en el resguardo de Altamira los señores Plinio Trochez gobernador del Resguardo indígena de Toribío, Ruben Darío Escué, gobernador suplente del resguardo de san Francisco, Ermilson Velásco Yatacué, quienes pese a no ser secuestrados, no salieron de del resguardo por temor al peligró que corrían sus vidas y la de el alcalde y Ex alcalde.

3. Esta labor de rescate fue desarrollada por las comunidades, Los cabildos y la guardia indígena del Cauca quienes se desplazaron hasta la selvas del municipio de San Vicente del Caguán, en cumplimiento del mandato emanado por sus autoridades.

4. El movimiento indígena de Colombia agradece las manifestaciones de apoyo y solidaridad recibidas.

5. Invitamos a todos los pueblos y organizaciones del país a fortalecer nuestros procesos de resistencia, autonomía, unidad y a movilizamos por nuestra dignidad, la defensa de la vida y nuestros derechos frente a todos los actores.

Por el respeto a la vida, la dignidad y la libertad, resistencia siempre.

San Vicente del Caguán, 8 de septiembre de 2004