USA: Next stop, Columbia

The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Columbia, FARC, is a political movement forced to take up arms for its own survival. FARC has a political programme, as set forth in the documents which constitute the Table of Negotiation peace talks with the government of Andres Pestrana.

FARC intends to find a path towards lasting peace which addresses the serious social and political issues in Columbia, much neglected by the government as with many other countries in Latin America. he political programme of FARC is currently under study by the government in Bogota.

A spokesperson at the White House declared recently that “Before, they (FARC) had an ideology but today they sell drugs. I do not see the difference. They are definitely drugs traffickers”. Such declarations are ludicrous, scandalously wrong and are demonstrative of outrageous ignorance.

There are drugs traffickers inside areas controlled by FARC, as there are within areas controlled by the government and within areas controlled by the Fascist paramilitary AUN, in which US mercenaries fight. Like the other organisations, FARC levies a tax on their activity, as it does on makers of dolls, tables, cardboard or biscuits.

The White House is to make 98 million USD available to train Colombian government soldiers to protect the Cano Limon pipeline, 800 kilometres long, which pipes oil from the eastern oilfields to the Caribbean. US forces are to be used to train the Colombian Armed Forces to fight “counter-insurgency” operations against the opposition forces.

At a time when FARC and the Colombian government are in a process of peace talks, it would appear that such declarations are at least provocative, at most derisive and as usual, intrusive.

The Democrat Senator of Vermont, Patrick Leahy, President of the Sub-Committee of Foreign Operations, confirmed “It is no longer a question of finishing with drugs but with fighting against the guerrillas”.

Juan BLANCO