FARC replies to US accusations

Colin Powell and the US ambassador to Columbia, Anne Patterson, recently lent their high-profile names to the slanderous accusations campaign against FARC-EP, calling this a terrorist organisation involved in the traffic of cocaine.

FARC-EP (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Columbia-People’s Army) is a revolutionary organisation which fights for political, social and economic justice for the people of Columbia, through arms, only because all other efforts to achieve social change were impossible to achieve from a fascist, undemocratic and terrorist state. This state, backed by the USA, supports fascist paramilitary extermination squads, who assassinate civilians in areas controlled by FARC.

Although FARC is of the opinion that the 11th September attacks in no way justify the unmeasured response from the USA and UK, in their high-handed campaign against the impoverished people of Afghanistan, this movement does not condone terrorism, nor does it traffic drugs. The coca growers pay a revolutionary tax to FARC for protection against the fascist paramilitaries, like any other business, be it milk producers, flower farmers or manufacturers of electrical components.

The question defended by FARC is a Columbian one without any links to other conflicts around the world, contrary to what the US leadership now insinuates. The attempts to tarnish FARC with the brush of international terrorism is an excuse to pursue fascist and imperialist policies around the globe.

It should be remembered that FARC-EP is currently in a process of dialogue with the Columbian government of Andres Pestrana, negotiating at the table political solutions for the grave social problems faced by Columbia’s population.

FARC is in favour of a New World Order in which states establish relationships based on respect and mutual benefit, self-determination and mutual aid, not intervention in internal affairs and disrespect for sovereignty. FARC is in favour of social justice, which means unity against the bankrupting, unemployment and dramatic social tendencies of capitalism and imperialism.

The recent crusade against what is determined international terrorism is an excuse for the United States, on a new imperialistic wave, to establish itself around the globe, not only in Afghanistan, where it appears an oil pipeline is to be built to transport the Central Asian oil to the Indian Ocean, but also in Columbia and other areas in which the USA has, or is about to obtain, vested interests.

FARC considers that the government of the USA has no moral right whatsoever to accuse any other nation of terrorism, given its own abominable human rights track record, policies of political assassinations and support for fascist regimes from South America to Africa to Asia, not to mention the Middle East.

FARC considers that the way forward is not an alliance of the high and mighty against the poorest nations, nor a deeper exploitation of the proletariat in the name of combating terrorism, but instead, a greater distribution of wealth and knowledge, not bombs.

Juan BLANCO