Report from rebel zone
Forum warns of growing war in Colombia
By Andy
McInerney
New York
Over 200 people came out for a Dec. 12 International Action
Center forum, "Eyewitness Colombia: Is the U.S. launching a new
Vietnam War?" The resounding message of the event was the need
to step up the campaign to stop the U.S. government's increased
intervention in Colombia, which is being carried out under the
misnamed Plan Colombia.
Featured speakers included former U.S. Attorney General and
IAC founder Ramsey Clark and the IAC's U.S. Out of Colombia
Committee Chair Teresa Gutierrez. Clark and Gutierrez led a
delegation to Colombia in late November and early December.
They met with doctors, labor unionists and political
leaders.
The delegation also traveled to the demilitarized zone, the
region where Colombian government troops have withdrawn as a
condition for negotiations with the Revolutionary Armed Forces
of Colombia-People's Army (FARC-EP).
The U.S. government is sending $1.3 billion to Colombia,
making the South American country the third-largest recipient
of U.S. military aid in the world. The aid is part of the
broader, U.S.-inspired $7.5 billion Plan Colombia. The U.S. is
pushing Europe and Japan to provide funds to help prop up the
weakened Colombian government.
The New York forum was held in Local 1199/service Employees
Martin Luther King Jr. Auditorium. Local 1199's U.S. Health
Care Trade Union Committee, a co-sponsor of the event, opened
the evening with a greeting and a message of solidarity to
opponents of U.S. intervention in Latin America.
International solidarity
Representatives of several international struggles expressed
solidarity with the Colombian people, including Ramon Mejia, a
leader of the New York-based Movement for Peace and Ray
LaForest of the Haiti Support Network and Haiti Progress
newspaper.
Ismael Guadalupe, a distinguished leader of the struggle to
oust the U.S. Navy from the Puerto Rican island of Vieques,
traveled to New York for the event. He pointed to the new ROTHR
radar installations on Vieques, which enhances U.S.
intelligence in Colombia, Bolivia and Peru, as evidence of how
the Pentagon uses Puerto Rican territory for its war plans in
Latin America.
Teresa Gutierrez emphasized that the propaganda about the
U.S. fighting drugs is just that--propaganda. She noted that
the lies are being intensified to the point where even
Hollywood films like the racist "Proof of Life" are being used
to justify U.S. intervention.
"If U.S. soldiers, disproportionately Black and Latino, die
in Colombia, it will not be fighting drugs," she explained. "It
will be to defend the International Monetary Fund and the
Pentagon."
Report from liberated territory
Gutierrez described the IAC delegation's experiences in the
demilitarized zone. "People spoke with us openly and freely.
The only complaint people had about the FARC-EP was that motor
scooters were not allowed on the roads after 10 p.m.
"It felt like Cuba," she said.
She emphasized that the liberation movement has tried many
avenues over the years to achieve its goals. "No one is for
war," Gutierrez explained. "But there are irreconcilable
differences in Colombia. We want the side of the poor and
oppressed to win."
During their trip, the IAC delegation had the opportunity to
spend a night in a FARC-EP encampment outside of Los Pozos in
the zone. There Ramsey Clark met with FARC-EP Secretariat
member Raul Reyes. Reyes heads the insurgent group's
International Commission.
Clark said that activists in the U.S. have a rare
opportunity: To build an opposition movement before a U.S.
military victory.
"Plan Colombia marks the beginning of the greatest U.S.
military intervention in the Western Hemisphere for decades,
with by far the biggest, most dangerous and most far-reaching
and long-lasting consequences," Clark warned. "It is the
preeminent effort to establish the New World Order of U.S.
domination and exploitation of the Western Hemisphere."
The meeting closed with a video featuring an interview with
Reyes. It was one of the first times that a U.S. audience had
the opportunity to hear a message directly from the FARC-EP
leadership.
Call for action
Over and over, speakers at the forum emphasized the need to
mobilize against the escalating U.S. intervention in Colombia.
IAC speakers urged everyone to build for the demonstrations
against the inauguration of George W. Bush in Washington on
Jan. 20.
"Bush should know that he will not be able to escalate the
war in Colombia without mass opposition," Gutierrez said.
Gutierrez also warned that the end of January would mark a
dangerous time for the struggle in Colombia. In December, the
Colombian government agreed to keep its troops out of the
demilitarized zone only until Jan. 31, instead of the six-month
pledges it has made in the past.
A decision to send in the Colombian military and its
death-squad allies--a decision impossible to make without
Pentagon approval--would mark a new phase of military conflict.
The civilian population of the zone worries that if the
military returns, they will be victims of death-squad
murders.
"We need to be alert to the potential for some Gulf of
Tonkin-like incident around the Jan. 31 deadline," Gutierrez
warned, referring to the Pentagon's manufactured excuse for
widening the Vietnam War.
Members of the IAC delegation plan to speak at campuses,
union halls and cities around the country. The New York forum
promoted a video of the delegation's trip to Colombia, which
will be available to activists in January.
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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