The US press slanders FARC while ignoring the atrocities of the UAC/death squads. Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and, yes even our own State Department have all concluded that the right wing death squads are responsible for roughly 80% of atrocities in Colombia. And yet these death squads--through their close ties with the regular Colombian army--are the ones our tax dollars are supporting (nothing new here, of course, if you know your history; the CIA always supports fascism over democracy).

Perhaps the biggest misconception the oil-soaked press popularizes is the idea that FARC is the main force behind drug trafficking in Colombia. It is true that FARC taxes coca growers to raise funds, but if the US is truly interested in stopping the flow of cocaine they would do better to target the paramilitaries since these organizations have been built on a foundation of drug trade and raqueteering from their very inception. According to the Council on Hemispheric Affairs "the creation of the United Self-Defense Groups of Colombia (UAC), the official title of the loosely-connected paramilitary organizations formed in the 1980s, was made possible in large part through the private fortunes amassed through their leaders' earlier involvement in the drug trade. The UAC, in fact, was outlawed in 1989 after government investigations revealed that Pablo Escobar, the notorious boss of the Medellin drug cartel, was running one of UAC's largest military operations."

Most Colombian peasants who grow coca today used to grow traditional crops but have been pushed by increasing poverty to grow the only crop that can provide sufficient income. The brutality of unregulated capitalism and the invasion of TNCs has created a situation in Colombia today where 70% of the land is owned by three percent of the population.

One of the main goals on FARCs platform is to provide alternative crops to coca farmers (I'll bet CNN never told you that) and for the profits of Colombia's oil resources to benefit the people, instead of Occidental Petroleum. I should note here that G. W. Bush owns stock in Occidental. He also owns stock in Monsanto, which provides much of the defoliant chemicals used in Plan Colombia. In more senses than one we can say that Bush has a lot of STOCK in Scam Colombia.

The "war on drugs" is just as hypocritical overseas as we know it to be at home. The DEA even admits that "all branches of government" in Colombia are involved in "drug-related corruption"--not to mention our own CIA's notorious involvement in cocaine trafficking. And yet the State Department only added the UAC to its official list of terrorists last year, while FARC has been listed as a "narco-terrorist" group for years.

Next time we encourage solidarity with the Zapatistas we should remember FARC, too.

Recommended Links

http://www.zmag.org/
http://www.cislac.org.au/
http://www.usoutofcolombia.org/archives/00000031.shtml
http://www.icdc.com/~paulwolf/gaitan/gaitan.htm
http://www.icdc.com/~paulwolf/drugwar.htm
http://www.farc-ep.org/
http://www.colombiasupport.net/
http://www.narconews.com/
http://www.lawg.org/colombia.htm
http://www.icdc.com/~paulwolf/molano.htm
http://www.narconews.com/petras1.html
http://www.copvcia.com/

Further Reading:

International Commission. "FARC-EP: Historical Outline"

Chomsky. "World Orders Old and New"

Chomsky. "Rogue States: The Rule of Force in World Affairs"

Colombia Labor Monitor. "Colombia"

See Articles and columns in FARC Homepage

See Articles in Z-Magazine Homepage by various writers.

See Articles in Committee in Solidarity with Latin American and the Caribbean (CISLAC)[Various writers, featuring Professor James Petras well known Latin Americanist]

Use search engine in Indymedia.

where is there up to date news on the farc? i used to get it off the col-info (colombia information) email list, but that list is pretty dead now...

Dear friends,

I have done research on the FARC, they deserve the full support of activists and readers worldwide as they are the sole standers in between Fascist butchers and the peasantry (now workers, trade unions and a diverse base of resistance to the narco-state). Both the FARC and the peasantry have a long history together in Colombia, they are the same thing, long before the U.S. began their fraudulent "War on Drugs", a well known fact by criminologists and others who pay attention. We must look past the strength of western anti-communism and right wing sources who deliberately attempt to falsify Marxist insurgencies. If you take a look at what is happeining, they have done much more than the Zapatistas where the state do not take their demands seriously and there is not much that they can do. In Colombia, approximately 60% of Colombia is under Marxist rebel control, they have created 'Laboratories of Peace', fortresses of resistance, never seen before. We must understand that there is a war going on there and the FARC are the best equipped to deal with such a terrifying situation. If you read up on the history of the Patriotic Union (UP), leaders and activists were liquidated when the FARC gave up their arms, according to Latin Americanist James Petras, an important lesson was learnt by the guerillas. These are basic truths of revolution and war. To the rich and powerful, all revolutionaries are "terrorists", but to the most oppressed, they are liberators.

The Bolivarians the FARC and the Colombian peasantry need our support, the references listed above are to my knowledge correct and true. If the U.S. lose Colombia, they lose a strategic factor which could cost them control of the hemishere and eventually their own existance, considering the present global anti-capitalist movement. Please think about it.

Sincerely,

B. Adams.

"All the world's peoples who have fought for liberty have, in the end, eliminated their tyrants" - Simon Bolivar, San Mateo, March 1814.


Links:

http://www.icdc.com/~paulwolf/molano.htm
http://www.cislac.org.au/ (See 'Colombia' section)
http://sydney.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=4578&group=webcast
http://www.cislac.org.au/v62/v62clbia.htm
http://jinx.sistm.unsw.edu.au/~greenlft/1997/294/294p15.htm

Further Reading:

*Andres Cala. ‘The Enigmatic Guerilla: FARC’s Manuel Marulanda’ in Current History, February 2000,

*Ricardo Vargas Meza, Vargas, R. The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the Illicit Drug Trade. Transnational Institute (TNI), The Netherlands Acción Andina, Cochabamba, Bolivia Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA), Washington, DC, June 1999.

*Karen DeYoung. ‘Colombia’s Non-Drug Rebellion’ in Washington Post National Weekly, April 17, 2000

*DEA Congressional Testimony by Donnie Marshall, Chief of Operations, DEA before the Subcommittee on National Security, International Affairs and Criminal Justice regarding the "Cooperative Efforts of the Colombian National Police and Military in Anti-narcotics Efforts, and Current DEA Initiatives in Colombia" on July 9, 1997. Page 6. www.usdoj.gov/dea/pubs/cngrtest/ct970709.htm.
The Colombian Drug Situation is Ultimately a Law Enforcement Problem, William Ledwith, Drug Enforcement Administration, Statement before the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee, Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Drug Policy and Human Resources, August 6, 1999.

*Alma Guillermoprieto, New York Review, May 11, 2000. The following is recommended, Lemoine, op. cit; discussing the appeal of the FARC to many peasants and working people who see it as “the army of the poor,” and particularly to women, who now constitute one-third of its forces, because of its break from oppressive and degrading practices that are particularly harsh at the depths of poverty and desperation.

*Scott, D, P & Marshall, J. (1991). Cocaine Politics: Drugs, Armies, and the CIA in Central America. University of California Press. Berkeley.

How many people are willing to fight for the poor?

Marxist rebels do need to be supported.

But in order for people to understand that, as liberation theologian Frei Betto said: "You need the heart and compassion of a Christian combined with the class analysis and praxis of a Marxist. That is, you have to be like Che."

Oliver.

I don't believe what I'm reading.

If the FARC won, C. would be a leftist drug dictatorship in cahoots with drug lords. How is that better than a rightist drug dictatorship in cahoots with drug lords.

If the US government is interested in stopping the coke trade, they should take a look in the mirror. It's not going to stop. GW Bush was a f'n cokie for years. Some people say he was involved in the trade. America likes to snort coke, and is the world's coke customer. If we want to stop the drug related bloodshed perpetrated by the police forces and the "revolutionaries" like the FARC, we need to legalize coke in the US and start importing it legally.

Supporting FARC has to rank with support of the Sendero Luminoso as "generally bad ideas".

My prediction about plan colombia is that the military will go in, thinking it's to stop the farc and drugs. Once power is secured for the government, we'll apply nominal pressure to stop drugs, but, the next election will be won (or lost) and we'll pull out. Then it's back to business as usual.

We'll sell more weapons this way.

Dear Readers,

I am afraid some people do not know enough about the FARC; if you do not support the FARC then that is your choice. But I think you need to be wary of what the U.S. media says, if anything, and so should most people in Western society during wartime. When you talk of assassinations of "noncombatants", you are talking about literally Fascists in suits, very wealthy land owners who sponsor the paramilitaries and trained killers actively involved in the conflict. When you talk of "indiscriminate" use of projectile missiles, you are talking about weapons used against the FARC and used against the enemy. When you talk about kidnapping, you are talking about wealthy politicians, land owners, drug lords and paramilitaries involved as well. You need to read up on the history of the FARC and the peasants in Colombia.

There is a civil war happening where the FARC has significant support, otherwise it would not be a civil war. Technically speaking, Colombia has been at civil war since the assasination of Liberal Populist Leader Gaitan in 1948 by the CIA*, so you are talking about workers, peasants and people actually resisting the narco state.

Futhermore, the leading Colombian military analyst Alfredo Rangel sees the matter differently. He "makes a point of reminding interviewers that the FARC has significant support in the regions where it operates," Alma Guillermoprieto reports. Rangel cites "FARC’s ability to launch surprise attacks" in different parts of the country, a fact that is "politically significant" because "in each case, a single warning by the civilian population would be enough to alert the army, and it doesn’t happen."1

The FARC’s position has been confirmed, in standard US terminology as "narcoguerillias;" it is a useful concept for U.S. counterinsurgency. But has been disputed by knowledgeable observers. It is agreed – FARC rely for its funding on coca production, which they tax, as they tax other businesses. But " 'the guerillas are something different from the traffickers,' says Klaus Nyholm, who runs the UN Drug Control Program," which has agents throughout the drug-producing regions. He believes the local FARC fronts to be "quite autonomous."2 In some areas "they are not involved at all" in coca production, and in others "they actively tell the farmers not to grow [coca]." Andean drug specialist Ricardo Vargas describes the role of the guerillas as "primarily focused on taxation of illicit crops." They have called for "a development plan for the peasants" that would "allow eradication of coca on the basis of alternative crops." "That’s all we want," their leader Marulanda has publicly announced, as have other FARC representatives.3 So the interests of the peasantry are the interests of the FARC.

It is the peasantry and a growing wider scope of support who have chosen an armed party; that is not your choice; it is theirs. And it is a well known fact in the social sciences that non-violence cannot overthrow capitalism. Given the events of the past half century in Latin America, what is happening in Colombia has been largely the choice of workers and peasants throughout Latin America.

Colombia is not Marco's Mexico, Gandhi's India, nor is it Russia 1917, but it is a justified civil war; a historical phenomenon when people choose to do something about their problems. Marxist rebels must be supported.

Sincerely,

P.F.C.

1. Alma Guillermoprieto, New York Review, May 11, 2000. The following is recommended, Lemoine, op. cit; discussing the appeal of the FARC to many peasants and working people who see it as “the army of the poor,” and particularly to women, who now constitute one-third of its forces, because of its break from oppressive and degrading practices that are particularly harsh at the depths of poverty and desperation.

2. Karen DeYoung. ‘Colombia’s Non-Drug Rebellion’ in Washington Post National Weekly, April 17, 2000.

3. Andres Cala. ‘The Enigmatic Guerilla: FARC’s Manuel Marulanda’ in Current History, February 2000, Ricardo Vargas Meza, Vargas, R. The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the Illicit Drug Trade. Transnational Institute (TNI), The Netherlands Acción Andina, Cochabamba, Bolivia Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA), Washington, DC, June 1999.

*Paul Wolf Website.

ESSENTIAL READING:

Pierce, J. The Legacy of Che Guevara. Cited today, 2001. http://jinx.sistm.unsw.edu.au/~greenlft/1997/294/294p15.htm