After U.S. Senate vote
Colombian revolutionaries vow to confront aggression
By Andy McInerney
The U.S. Senate took a giant step toward all-out war in
Colombia on June 21.
The Senate voted 94 to five for a billion-dollar package
of military aid for the Colombian government. The package is
part of a much bigger $7.5 billion "Plan Colombia" that is
being orchestrated by the U.S. government.
The reaction from Colombia was swift and defiant. "If the
people of Colombia are threatened, we will confront the
aggression," warned Simon Trinidad, spokesperson for the
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People's Army
(FARC-EP).
"The Plan Colombia will raise more Manuel Marulandas,"
Trinidad said. Manuel Marulanda, popularly known as
"Tirofijo"--Sureshot--is the legendary leader of the
FARC-EP.
The Colombian Communist Party issued a June 23 statement
opposing the aid. "The approval of the Plan Colombia by the
United States Congress shows that a new chapter of military
intervention in Colombia is unfolding," the CCP's Executive
Committee wrote. The party called for a national mobilization
against the Plan Colombia.
Before the Senate vote, 60 Colombian labor, human-rights
and community groups signed a declaration to the
international community opposing the Plan Colombia. "We
reject the Plan Colombia because it uses an authoritarian
concept of national security exclusively based on a strategy
against narcotics," the statement explained.
"It will lead to the escalation of the social and armed
conflict. It fails to provide real solutions to drug
trafficking. It attacks the Indigenous populations by
destroying their culture and way of life."
U.S. war package
The $932 million approved by the Senate is primarily
designed to bolster the Colombian armed forces. The package
now needs to be reconciled with the $1.7 billion package
approved by the House of Representatives.
The final package--attached to a bigger appropriations
package whose passage is all but assured--is expected to
total at least $1.3 billion.
The centerpiece is an armada of 60 combat helicopters. The
House package includes 30 Huey II attack helicopters and 30
advanced Blackhawk helicopters; the Senate package provides
60 Hueys.
The package also provides funds for training three elite
counter-insurgency battalions, expanding the number of
Special Forces "advisers" beyond the 200-300 that the
Pentagon admits are already there. These battalions are
supposed to lead a "push into the south," referring to the
FARC-EP's stronghold.
The Plan Colombia is marketed in the United States as part
of the "war on drugs." But any analysis of the aid package
and the current situation in Colombia reveals that this is
for public consumption only.
The package is actually aimed at Colombia's powerful
insurgencies, the FARC-EP and the National Liberation Army
(ELN).
Military aid has skyrocketed from around $50 million in
1998 to over $1 billion--a 20-fold increase in just two
years. Colombia is now the third biggest recipient of U.S.
military aid in the world.
Study after study shows that drug traffickers in Colombia
maintain close connections to both the Colombian Armed Forces
and the political elite there. They have no independent armed
forces.
Ruling-class crisis deepens
The massive aid package is designed to prop up Colombia's
weak and notoriously corrupt ruling class. This regime is
currently facing depression-level economic conditions as well
as an unprecedented political and military challenge from
both the armed insurgencies and the mass movement.
Unemployment in Colombia is officially over 20 percent; in
many areas it is over 50 percent. The Colombian peso has lost
over half its value against the dollar in the last year
alone.
After a string of military defeats at the hands of the
insurgencies, the government of President Andres Pastrana has
been forced to the table for talks with the FARC-EP. For the
last 18 months, Pastrana has ceded a five-municipality
"demilitarized zone" to the FARC-EP so that talks can be
carried out.
The talks have featured a series of "Public Audiences," in
which Colombians from around the country can travel to the
zone and make proposals for how they would address the
problems facing Colombia. These meetings have often become
popular speak-outs against the government's economic policies
that capitulate to the demands of the International Monetary
Fund.
In the past two years, unions have led a series of general
strikes against Pastrana's economic policies. Peasants have
staged blockades of highways. In June, residents of the
Chocó province staged a general strike to protest the
government's neglect of the region.
Few believe that the Plan Colombia can resolve this deep
crisis. "The U.S. aid is going to trigger a total crisis and
stimulate the war," political analyst Alejo Vargas told USA
Today on June 23.
The package does signal a new level of struggle--a sign
that U.S. imperialism will not stand by quietly while its
representatives in Bogota are in trouble. Now U.S. diplomats
are twisting arms in Europe to approve more aid at a
high-level ministerial meeting in Spain in July.
As opposition to the aid mounts in Colombia, Colombians
will surely be looking to the progressive movement in the
United States for allies and for solidarity.
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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