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Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Dec. 14, 2000
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------Victory to Colombia guerrillas
Excerpts from a talk by Teresa Gutierrez
The exploitation, domination and intervention of U.S. imperialism against the people of Latin America and the Caribbean are becoming more critical every day. Is it any wonder therefore that Latin America is a hotbed of resistance today? There are many countries in the region that are heroically carrying out important and significant struggles against imperialist policies.
Puerto Rico--Vieques--is one of those. The Cuban Revolution, after 40 years of a cruel economic blockade, continues to remain a steadfast beacon of resistance. It continues to be an inspiration to all of us who yearn to remove the shackles of imperialism.
One of the most important and decisive struggles raging in Latin America today is in Colombia. I just had the privilege of visiting there this past week as part of an International Action Center delegation.
I got to see first hand how the FARC--the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia--is battling for liberation.
The guerrilla movement in Colombia today is strong. It is dedicated. It is firm. It is committed.
And it is ready. It is very ready to turn Colombia into a nation free of imperialist domination.
We had the honor of spending the night at a guerrilla encampment of the FARC.
There, Ramsey Clark, a founder of the IAC who headed our delegation, had a very important meeting with Commander Raul Reyes, one of the top FARC leaders.
Commander Reyes was thoughtful and sober as he discussed the current situation in Colo m bia. He explained how Plan Colombia is a plan of war. The plan was hatched and written not by the Colombian bour geoisie but by the Pentagon. In fact the Colombians had a hard time getting a copy in Spanish.
Plan Colombia is a plan to exterminate the guerrilla movement. Plan Colombia aims to make sure that Wall Street can continue its super-exploitation of labor and the natural resources of the country.
Plan Colombia has absolutely nothing to do with fighting drugs. We have to say this over and over because the "drug war" is the main propaganda tool imperialism is using to dupe the people in this country into supporting the plan. There is not a single news account that does not describe the FARC as narco guerrillas or narcoterrorists.
But the real narcoterrorists are the cops in every single police precinct in this country. The real narcoterrorists are in the White House and in the Pentagon.
It is the U.S. Army and the Im mig ration and Naturalization Service that deal in drug trafficking. And it is the banks and the corporations that gain billions of dollars from this lucrative industry.
Plan Colombia is also a plan for all of Latin America. First stop: Colombia. Next stop: Venezuela. Or so they think.
We have so much work to do here to stop Plan Colombia. We want all of you who are going back home to other cities to arrange for members of the IAC delegation to come to talk about the trip--on campuses, at unions, churches and in every community. And we will have a video--a very moving and exciting video.
We all need to be in Washington for the counter-inaugural protest on Jan. 20. Tell whoever is president, whether it is President Death or President Death: Down with Plan Colombia! Victory to the guerrilla movement in Colombia!
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