Colombia

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Re: Colombia

Post by blindpig » Thu Aug 29, 2019 3:13 pm

Sector of the FARC-EP takes up arms before the betrayal of the Colombian State of Peace Agreements

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The group denounced the continued murder of social leaders and forced displacement, major issues affecting Colombia. | Photo: Capture
Posted August 29 2019 (9 hours 9 minutes ago)

by Angel War
Through a statement, the leader of the insurgent group Iván Márquez, invoked the "universal right of peoples to rise in arms against oppression."

A sector of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia - Army of the People ( FARC-EP ) group announced this Thursday the beginning of a new stage of struggle in response to the " betrayal of the Colombian State to the Peace Accords " signed in Havana in 2016 .

Through a statement the leader of the insurgent group, Iván Márquez, invoked the "universal right of peoples to rise in arms against oppression."

"Our strategic objective is the peace of Colombia with social justice ... that is our flag, the flag of peace," Márquez confirmed.


Among those who accompany him, you can see the leaders Jesús Santrich and Hernán Darío Velásquez, El Paisa , who find themselves open to the JEP.

The group denounced the continued murder of social leaders and demobilized ex-combatants , major problems affecting the South American country, as some of the causes for the return to the armed struggle.

The leader called for unity and peace in Colombia, and urged fighting corruption and impunity.

"We will not continue killing each other among class brothers so that a shameless oligarchy continues to manage our destiny and get richer and richer, at the cost of public poverty and war dividends," said Marquez.

https://www.telesurtv.net/news/farc-ep- ... -0002.html

Google Translator

I see no alternative to being slaughtered like sheep.

*********************************

FARC urges compliance with justice and peace in Colombia


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FARC called on the international community, the Government and the Attorney General's Office to investigate attacks against social leaders in Colombia. | Photo: Getty Images

Posted August 27, 2019

The Colombian political organization made a public appeal to the society of that nation not to detach itself from the precepts of peace and democracy.

The Common Revolutionary Alternative Force Party (FARC), reiterated its commitment to peace , social justice and respect for human rights in Colombia and its people, while urging the community to join forces to strengthen the process of peace on Colombian soil.
READ ALSO:

They kill another indigenous leader in the Colombian department of Cauca
"We reiterate that our social and political aspiration seeks to expand and qualify democracy as a pillar in the construction of Peace, an issue that requires the participation of the whole society and advance in the path of Peace with Social Justice and in the construction of Reconciliation and thus attend to the clamor of the common people for Peace, "said FARC.

In this sense, FARC urged society to lay democratic foundations for the construction of peace, a process that defined as a fundamental pillar for the reconciliation of citizenship.

From @PartidoFARC , we denounce and reject the events against Emiro Ropero. The mechanisms contemplated in the Peace Agreement must be activated, in order to guarantee protection, enjoyment of human rights and the right to make policy for the signatories of the agreement. pic.twitter.com/6XAOKf4SD9

- Luis Alberto Albán Urbano (@AlbanFarc) August 26, 2019
These statements were offered in an official statement of the Colombian political party after a series of attacks against important members of this awning, events that shocked their leaders and resulted in this public appeal.

Likewise, FARC asked the Government of Colombia for guarantees to the lives of those who make up this political group, in addition to demanding the cessation of persecution and what they called stigmatization of its members.

"We demand from the National Government guarantees for life, cessation of persecution and stigmatization against the militants of our party; as well as, of the communities of the regions, of human rights defenders, leaders and social, environmental and popular leaders "says the statement.

Colombia is one of the countries in Latin America with the highest rate of kidnappings and murders against social leaders , indigenous people, peasants and human rights defenders, a fact that has set off the alarms of those who fight on Colombian soil for the peace process.

https://www.telesurtv.net/news/colombia ... -0013.html

Google Translator
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Re: Colombia

Post by blindpig » Tue Sep 03, 2019 6:16 pm

Here a twitter thread concerning FARC's return to armed conflict:
Iván Márquez, Jesús Santrich and "El Paisa" have announced that part of the FARC return to arms.

We consult with the analyst @brunosgarzini on this subject:

What pushed these fighters to resume the armed conflict?

Follow Sgarzini's answers in this #MVthread

Bruno Sgarzini: The murder of 114 demobilized Farc members, the resurgence of the conflict by paramilitaries and the ELN in areas formerly occupied by the Farc, and the breach of many agreements such as the Agrarian, the peace jurisdiction and those of political participation.

BS: The reintegration of guerrillas has not been possible, they are constantly harassed by armed groups to enter their ranks or end up killed. The UN Security Council itself has long seen the murder of those who are demobilized as a danger to the peace process.

#MV: The rise of Duque deactivated the dialogues with the ELN. Is Duque's government inducing the extension of the conflict?

BS: Duque is part of a coalition between drug traffickers, landowners benefiting from displacement, businessmen and bankers who launder that same money.

BS: That coalition profits from war and in the scenario in conflict with the traditional oligarchy, it is expected for Duque to sponsor armed actors towards worsening the situation. This justifies its existence, using force to maintain political stability.

#MV: The failure from previous peace processes keep repeating. Is Colombia stuck in a continuos conflict loop?

BS: Yes, the conditions which started the conflict have worsen.
One of the most unequal nations in America with more displaced people than Syria, Iraq or Somalia.

BS: In addition, drug trafficking and smuggling which contribute to the conflict, have noticeably grown. If there’s no additional entity other than the State or those armed groups who use the population as human shields, the reasons to continue the armed conflict will never end.

#MV: Who wins and who loses in Colombian politics with this scenario?

BS: According to those groups who favor the Peace process, the pro-Uribe groups are those who benefit because they can justify political persecution against those who oppose the current Colombian regime.

BS: However, the reality is much more complex in my opinion, because the resurgence of the Farc can generate an armed pressure against the Colombian State, while articulating also with an institutional pressure.

#MV: What implications does this have for Venezuela in the short term?

BS: It definitely increases the possibilities that in the context of a war against the country, Colombian armed groups will come towards the Venezuelan territory with greater force.

BS: On the other hand, the Colombian Armed Forces will surely receive juicy financing from the US, which can increase its operational capacity and serve the 'Uribismo' to finance itself. But the greater the Colombian conflict becomes, the less capacity it will have to...

... participate in a multinational operation against Venezuela, as requested by US elements. Above all, this weighs on human related consequences: displacements and political exile of social and political leaders, persecuted by the Colombian State and paramilitary groups.

Thanks Bruno, any final thoughts?

Bruno Sgarzini: In the last one hundred years, Colombia has been ruled by the same families who never used the State to integrate the whole society. What happens today is a product of that, and the consequences are in sight.

https://twitter.com/MV_Eng/status/1168630954941923329
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Re: Colombia

Post by blindpig » Sun Sep 08, 2019 7:13 pm

FARC-EP appeal to the Colombian people of Caribe


Commanders of the reconstituted Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia - People's Army (FARC-EP) have issued open letters to the peoples of various regions of Colombia to explain the decision to return to the armed struggle against the oligarch state and U.S. imperialism and appeal for support and united activity for a New Colombia. Below is one example, from Chalo and Jesús Santrich, directed to the peoples of the northern states bordering the Caribbean.
As long as there is a will to fight there will be hope of winning
Companeras y companeros, inhabitants of the Colombian Caribe, of sea breeze and mountain range, of plains and mountains, of ciengas and deserts, but above all with the spirit of optimism in the fight for the demands of the people for social justice, we send you our warm, fraternal embrace of hope in a New Colombia, which we will forge together sooner rather than later in an atmosphere of harmony and progress that benefits the majority who are today subjugated and impoverished.

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Commander Jesús Santrich (center, wearing keffiyeh) with other FARC-EP
militants following the announcement of the resumption of armed struggle.

Almost 34 years have passed since the first commission of the FARC-EP made its arrival in the Colombian Caribe in the territories of the majestic Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. From then until today our movement has worked side by side with peasants, Indigenous people, Afro-Colombians, workers, and women, among other sectors organized to change the social, political and economic conditions of the region and the country. Our commitment to the Caribe and its struggles has always been of homeland or death.

In this arduous task great cadres sacrificed their lives. Today we honor the unforgettable pioneer builder of the Blouque Caribe Adan Izquierdo, Martin Caballero and the martyrs of the Montes de Maria, Comrade Efrain Guzman, genius of the Colombian insurrection, to Ciro and Canaguaro, to Susana, to Deysi and Dayana, to Estela and to all the guerrillas who sacrificed everything for a true peace with social justice.

Part of this effort materialized in the founding of the Patriotic Union in Pueblo Bello, which was followed by the fiercest attack, where the FARC-EP, as in Havana, did not spare human or material resources to honor the agreements. Our will for peace was always genuine and transparent.

Today the agreements signed in Havana have been betrayed, and the bloodbath that became known worldwide as the genocide of the Patriotic Union is being reproduced.

The struggle for the noble purposes of a New Colombia has never been easy; to all attempts to democratize the Colombian State through peace agreements, the counter-insurgent power bloc has responded with violence against the people. This logic has kept Colombia in continuous cycles of violence and dispossession, where the biggest victim has been the fabric of the people.

In Caribe, violence and dispossession have been carried out mainly by the large transnationals of mining-energy exploitation, agro-industry and cattle ranching, which have relied on the ruling class and its state and paramilitary armed apparatus to slaughter, disappear and displace thousands of Caribe workers, Indigenous people and peasants.

Today in La Guajira, perhaps the richest region in energy mining resources, the people continue to suffer from hunger and thirst and rise against corruption and against coal exploitation projects that threaten extensive territories of Canaverales, Fonesca and Dibulla, among others.

This corrupt leadership, allied with transnational capital that has fed on war, dispossession and super-exploitation of the people, has betrayed the dreams of peace of Colombians; they, who sowed winds of perfidy and mockery, will have to answer to the country for the betrayed peace, for the war they have fed and unleashed. They are the ones who have forced us by their failure to resume the armed struggle, with the sword of Bolivar, Manuel and all our martyrs, stating that the rebellion is not a defeated or vanquished flag.

This brief message carries the central purpose of ratifying, with our modest contribution from the coastal latitudes, the decision taken by veteran insurgent FARC-EP commanders to continue the armed resistance struggle, the political-military battle, in pursuit of the structural social transformations that will make our country a land for all the humble and hardworking people who, for decades, suffering the scourge of the exploiters, have called out to achieve reconciliation and march on a path of solidarity, respect and decorum.

That is the road forward, and to it we add to the militancy that continues to believe that, despite the pettiness and indolence of the oligarchy of this region struck by misery, gathering consciences and wills, knowing that there is no better way to achieve freedom than to fight for it, we can achieve the victory of the dispossessed.

To fight for this altruistic purpose we summon the courageous and bold people of every corner of this northern region, returning to the heritage and memory of our brave people martyred by the terrorism of the state that continues its criminal fury favoring the most powerful. To the communities of La Guajira, Sucre, Cesar, Magdalena, Bolivar and Cordoba; to our comrades of the ETCRs of La Pondores and Tierra Grata, we send our words of encouragement to continue the struggle for a good life and respect for community rights from the trench in which they are or decide to go; but we also summon them to give support to the demands of the guerrilla cause.

The undeniable betrayal to which the Havana Agreements were subjected is no secret to anyone, and that consequently the decision of the armed uprising is justified, whose fundamental purpose is none other than to persist in the search for a better future for our nation. So the decision made by the guerrilla collective that upholds the Bolivarian and Marulandist revolutionary flags and principles, is nothing other than the categorical imperative which sets before us the historical reality of a craven oligarchy that while aiming its rifles against its own people, kneels before its imperial masters.

We continue with our voices lifted, raising the slogans of true peace without more treachery, without more lies, without more hypocrisy ...; a peace that we will conquer, not alone, but side by side with the people, with their political and social organizations; in the course of the united movement of those who weave their utopias with faith in the homeland and in a better world.

Long live the memory of Martin Caballero!

With Bolivar, with Manuel, with the Power of the People!

Fraternally,
Chalo and Jesús Santrich

https://redstaroverdonbass.blogspot.com ... le-of.html
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Re: Colombia

Post by blindpig » Mon Sep 09, 2019 7:55 pm

Three more murdered FARC members takes total figure to 142 since peace deal signed
9 Sep 2019

Three FARC former guerrillas were murdered and another badly injured in two separate attacks on Friday 6 September. All of the victims were active in the reincorporation process, having willingly disarmed under the terms of the 2016 peace agreement. However, the authorities had not granted them security measures despite the soaring levels of violence against the FARC.

At least 142 FARC members have now been assassinated since the agreement was signed in November 2016.

In Cúcuta, eastern Colombia, Milton Urrutia Mora and José Milton Peña Pineda were killed and Arsenio Maldonado badly injured in an attack at a hotel. Witnesses said a gunman opened fire before fleeing on a motorbike. All three victims were based at the Caño Indio reincorporation zone, one of 24 special camps based around the country where former guerrillas receive training and develop productive projects as they transition to civil society.

On the same day, 33-year-old Jackson Mena was murdered in Quibdó, the capital of western Colombia’s Chocó region. Jackson was a FARC former guerrilla who was socially and politically active in Quibdó’s poorer communities. The FARC said he had previously requested security measures due to threats against FARC members but these had not been granted.

Despite the violence being inflicted upon FARC members in the recincorporation process, the government has reduced security measures. Last week, it was revealed that the National Protection Unit, the state body charged with providing security to FARC members, trade unionists and social activists, had ordered FARC security details to return weapons. FARC party leader Rodrigo Londoño questioned the decision, asking why authorities had increased risks for former guerrillas.

The United Nations has expressed alarm over the violence against the FARC. In June, the UN’s Special Rapporteur for Extrajudicial Executions, Agnes Callamard, called on the Colombian government to ‘stop inciting violence’ against the FARC. It followed the army killing of unarmed FARC member Dimar Torres in April.

In August 2018, a delegation of the Justice for Colombia Peace Monitor visited Cúcuta, where Milton Urrutia Mora and José Milton Peña Pineda were killed, and the nearby Catatumbo region which has seen high levels of human rights violations, including several killings, committed by state security forces and armed groups. The delegation highlighted the lack of security for communities and former guerrillas in the region. Since then, however, the situation has deteriorated with more than 200 social activists killed nationwide in the past year.

https://justiceforcolombia.org/news/thr ... iGKzmUOuT4
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Re: Colombia

Post by blindpig » Thu Sep 19, 2019 5:34 pm

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AGC impose rules on Bijao residents
On Friday, September 13, from 7:00 am, five AGC paramilitaries gathered the community of Bijao, Pedeguita and Mancilla Collective Territory , Chocó, called a meeting of the Afro-population at 10.00 am in the place where a collection cable ridge.

The AGC in civilian clothes with short arms and radios of communication after an hour and a half affirmed that they had control in the territory and that they had to assume the decisions and the established norms.

Among the orders issued are the obligation to attend the meetings cited by them, the payment of $ 240,000 (90 US) per month to fix the arrangement of the ridge. They indicated that the fee must be paid directly to them and they will make for this purpose round in each dwelling.

They added that they also did not want to see people outside the territory walking through the plots, and menacingly warned that: "if they do not comply," they would take drastic measures and punish who does not comply.

The persistence of dispossession continues amid the silencing and intimidation of the population by the AGC, before those who claim their ownership and definition of land use according to their uses and customs, and environmental protection.

Bogotá DC, September 15, 2019

Inter-Church Justice and Peace Commission

https://www.justiciaypazcolombia.com/ag ... -de-bijao/

Google Translator

The Peace Plan is working so well....
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Re: Colombia

Post by blindpig » Tue Oct 29, 2019 1:52 pm

Colombia: Three Indigenous Leaders Killed by Hitmen

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Exteriors of the place where Oneida Epiayu was killed in Riohacha, Colombia, Oct. 17. 2019. | Photo: Twitter / @prensanorte

Published 18 October 2019

At least 234 social activists have been killed since President Ivan Duque took office on Aug. 7, 2018....


Colombian human rights defender Alirio Uribe Muñoz on Thursday announced that three indigenous leaders were killed, which means that 234 social activists have been killed since President Ivan Duque took office on August 7, 2018.

The people killed were Oneida Epiayu, who died in Riohacha in La Guajira; Lilia Patricia Garcia, who died in the Watsalpi territory in Nariño; and Constantino Ramirez, a leader of the Embera people.

These cases were confirmed by the National Indigenous Organization of Colombia (ONIC), which recalled that Ramirez was a founder of the Regional Indigenous Organization of Quindio (Oriquin).

Before being killed, Epiayu, a female lawyer, had reported alleged acts of corruption at the food programs which are being carried out by the Colombian Family Welfare Institute (ICBF).

"President Ivan Duque: Does the extermination of indigenous leaders across the country not deserve a statement from the government? They killed Constantino Ramirez (Embera) in Quindio, Oneida Epiayu (Wayuu) in Guajira, Lilia Garcia in Nariño and Toribio Canas in Nariño. Until when?"

The Indigenous lawyer was killed while she was having lunch with her family in a restaurant where two gunmen shot her at close range.

"Someone who was there said that a police patrol had passed by very slowly and, soon after, two subjects aboard a black motorcycle arrived," local media El Heraldo reported.

According to the Ombudsman's Office statistics, 196 social leaders and human rights defenders have been killed in Colombia from March 2018 to May 2019.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Col ... ialnetwork
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Re: Colombia

Post by blindpig » Fri Nov 01, 2019 8:09 pm

"How much longer should we have waited?"
Parts of Colombia's former FARC guerilla have returned to armed struggle. They blame the oligarchy for the failure of the peace process. A conversation with Iván Márquez and Jesús Santrich
Interview: María Simón, Santiago Baez

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Back to the armed struggle - units of the FARC-EP in a guerrilla camp in southern Colombia (22.6.2001)

Iván Márquez and Jesús Santrich are Comandantes of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia - Army of the People (FARC-EP). At the end of August, they announced that they would go back underground after the failure of the peace process in the South American country. The interview with the guerrillas was conducted in writing.

On August 29, you announced in a statement the return to armed struggle. Why did this step happen at this time, and what is the goal?

The Havana Peace Agreement was a document aimed at achieving a political solution to the Colombian conflict. As a contract, it reflected the social balance of power and the political-military and historical-concrete balance of the war. So we have it in the Political Theses of the tenth National Guerrilla Conference in September 2016 in advance of the FARC-EP (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Columbia - Ejército del Pueblo, Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia - People's Army, jW) in legality. As an instrument of a political solution, it was the recognition of both sides that none of them could defeat the enemy with their weapons and their firepower. In the country every order was weakened as a result of the war. In order to prevent an extension of this situation, there had to be efforts to continue the struggle with political means alone. The agreement did not reflect the achievement of our strategic goals as a revolutionary force, but still less could it be understood as the capitulation of our guerrilla organization. We did not want to enforce the revolution by decree, but much less did we want to declare our surrender in negotiations in which the government often only offered mendacious and meaningless words.

We were aware that this would not be the end of the conflict inherent in the capitalist order. But the continuation of the class struggle should be made possible at the end of the armed conflict and the passage of the FARC-EP into a legal political organization that reaches out to the masses. It needed certain guarantees of open political work in order to be able to continue the work of structural change towards a new social order, real democracy and social justice.

This agreement was torn apart by the establishment at the moment its implementation started. Even before, obstacles had been set up for its realization. Gradually, the government, which replaced Juan Manuel Santos in August 2018, has aggravated the pace: the reintegration of former combatants has been hampered and the changes promised to the poorest communities, such as a comprehensive land reform, have been shelved. After the agreement was destroyed despite our efforts to keep it alive, we had no choice but to take up arms again.

When the betrayal of the establishment was completely visible and the legal way was once more blocked, we could not just settle for the defeat. Our dignity was attacked, we were stigmatized and slandered, there was legal persecution, attempts of extradition and murders. All this shows that reconciliation was a farce and peace a lie. How long should we have waited for our reaction to be legitimate? That would never happen because they wanted to sacrifice us and make us disappear as a revolutionary organization.

Therefore, our decision is an adequate response to the need to defend ourselves in a legitimate manner and stems from the duty not to extinguish the flame of a possible uprising, even under so many difficulties. It is a decision appropriate to the very specific development of the class struggle in Colombia, regardless of the balance of power currently prevailing in the international context. This does not mean, however, that we are not aware of the deep structural crisis that capitalism is going through. This is not only global, but systemic and hopeless. We need to consider this aspect in order to develop a Combat Combat Strategy. This is essentially the continuation of the FARC-EP's historic strategic plan. There are notable changes in the manifesto of August, certain new assessments of state forces. We said that our survey is a response to the state's betrayal of the Havana Peace Agreement and that the rebellion is neither beaten nor defeated. We have clearly stated that it is not the soldier or the police officer who is the target, neither the officer nor the corporal who respects the interests of the people, but the oligarchy, this exclusive, corrupt, mafia and violent oligarchy that believes that To block further gates to the future of the country. that our survey is an answer to the state's betrayal of the Havana Peace Agreement and that the rebellion is neither beaten nor defeated. We have clearly stated that it is not the soldier or the police officer who is the target, neither the officer nor the corporal who respects the interests of the people, but the oligarchy, this exclusive, corrupt, mafia and violent oligarchy that believes that To block further gates to the future of the country. that our survey is an answer to the state's betrayal of the Havana Peace Agreement and that the rebellion is neither beaten nor defeated. We have clearly stated that it is not the soldier or the police officer who is the target, neither the officer nor the corporal who respects the interests of the people, but the oligarchy, this exclusive, corrupt, mafia and violent oligarchy that believes that To block further gates to the future of the country.

We say that you will get to know a new mode of operation that will primarily respond to offensives because our decision implies that we no longer want to kill ourselves among classmates. Therefore, our call is also directed to the members of the state forces who feel the pain of the people, so that together we stand up for their demands and their happiness.

We have also moved away from certain methods such as capturing people for economic purposes. In any case, we act as a politico-military force with the structure of an army and a party, a Marxist-Leninist and Bolivarian party, following the legacy of Comandante Manuel Marulanda Vélez (who died in 2008 as leader of the FARC-EP, jW ).

After signing the 2016 peace agreement, the FARC-EP have handed in their weapons. Are you still prepared for new fights? Where did you get your weapons and how many fighters do you have?

Our struggle is primarily political. The weapons are only an instrument, a means. The grip on them is a necessity forced upon us by the regime we face. This regime, with its latest betrayal, has done nothing but reaffirm its character as an oligarchic reign of terror, accustomed to breaking a given word and commitment. If there was no need to use the weapons, we would not do it. We reaffirm that we want to find a way out of the existing and expanding Colombian conflict through dialogue with all armed actors.

The signing of the Havana Agreement was an element to defuse this confrontation, but it was not peace in any way. With the ELN (Ejército de Liberación Nacional, National Liberation Army, jW ), an important revolutionary force in Colombia, and other forces, there was no agreement, and the decision of the government of Iván Duque followed, the opening possibility of an agreement with this To knock out guerrillas. In addition, there are hundreds of armed and unarmed conflicts across the country. So, however important the Havana Agreement was, it was only one step on the road to reconciliation and not the full peace we need.

Worst of all, we were close to ending the longest conflict in the Western Hemisphere through dialogue. That this failed is because the establishment did not want to accept the principles that governed the negotiations: Pacta sunt servanda (treaties to be respected) and honesty. That's why the establishment, after it had achieved what it wanted - the surrender of arms - deliberately shredded the peace agreement, this "stupid paper," as the Uribistas (Álvaro Uribe Vélez, from 2002 to 2010, President Colombia, jW ) call, torn. The way we left was broken off. The result is that there is now a bad precedent for dialogue as a means of communication.

To arms: We have the ones we have. Depending on the situation, it will certainly be few or many. If the confrontation is imposed on us because the regime insists on militarism, repression, the dirty war and is unwilling to deal with an honest solution to the problems of the country, we will always have to seek means for resistance. What we can get then will always seem like little compared to a state backed by a powerful and belligerent empire like the United States of North America. But if the step is taken to an open, constituent process in which the word of the sovereign, the people, reaches ears that hear, and the hands that realize their goals, without the dialogue, the honesty,

The most important weapons of the peoples are in all circumstances their own words and their determination to achieve change. There are many examples of this on our continent and in the world. Let's just look at the events in Latin America, Haiti, Ecuador, Peru, Chile. Or what the students say on the streets of the cities of our country.

The implosion we experience in many Latin American and Caribbean countries is the result of a failed neo-liberalism, the wretched social situation to which the majorities are subjected while the coffers of the great capitalists fill up. At the same time, they are trying to create crises in those countries that have chosen social justice. One can not deny the peoples the right to rebel against terror by all means. One can not condemn the people to face the repression of naked breasts and the dedication of martyrs.

Our comrades are the malcontents. Our idea is not to wage war to fight the regime's military machinery head-on. No, in this conflict the solution will always be in the hands of the people. The outcome is determined by the majorities on the streets, at the negotiating table, at the polls or in armed uprising.

Who is armed? Peace-loving people who have chosen to rifle because they are unwilling to resign and allow a small group of oligarchs to deny the majorities their dreams of social justice. We believe that a spark can cause a conflagration. But our resources are limited and they must be used in the most rational way, as the prices of weapons on the black market are high. In a capitalist world like ours, there will always be open sources of weapons. The majority of the rifles we have are of US and Israeli origin, but they were not sent to us by Trump. But at the core it is not a question of weapons, but one of the ideas. That's why our main goal

In your statement you have not ruled out to be ready for a new peace dialogue, but only with a new government in Colombia. Why do you think that with another government would be possible what has failed so far? How should a new dialogue process look like?

A negotiated solution to the Colombian conflict is a strategic issue, not just an economic issue. It is a historical constant in the development of the FARC-EP, and we have not abandoned it. We insist on this goal, which should not be ridiculed. If you read carefully the documents published in August, which form the basis of the restart of the FARC Guerrilla project, you will see that they represent an affirmation of the goals. The reason for this is that the changes necessary for our society exposed to misery, inequality and political exclusion have not been implemented. The peace agreement was betrayed not only to the FARC, but above all to the communities in whose interest land reform, democratic opening, compensation for victims or the policy of substituting the cultivation of banned plants. In addition, there are countless reforms on the agenda that the Colombian regime in Havana did not want to negotiate.


Image
Jesús Santrich (16.11.2017)

These issues can be resolved through a constituent process. This was a commitment for which the Santos government gave its word, implicit in the Havana Agreement when speaking of a National Political Agreement, because the country is undergoing a fundamental judicial reform, a radical electoral reform, a reform dealing with the media, working relationships, education and so on and so forth. The country must finally overcome the scourge of corruption and impunity. That's not something the Havana-based sides could have done. But a participatory process should be opened that would pave the way for these reforms. Therefore, the idea of ​​an open constitutional process, step by step.

The government, which currently sits in the Casa de Nariño, puts a special emphasis on warmongering and the destruction of the peace agreement. But the basic obstructive attitude is anchored in the bloc of ruling power. Certainly this attitude goes beyond the boasting of an Iván Duque. He is a pupil of Álvaro Uribe Vélez, who really pulls the strings in the Casa de Nariño. But behind it are the interests of transnational corporations and powerful entrepreneurs like Luis Carlos Sarmiento Angulo. From them came the idea of ​​ripping the "stupid paper" from Havana.

Under these conditions, it is difficult to make forecasts. It is a very complicated matter in which the United States has great weight. But we hope for a national political change that can bring about circumstances in which peace is a common goal, because we want a country that makes progress possible for all. This dialogue would not take place at a table where the guerrilla and government are alone, but the various actors of national life.

Since the days of the Dialogue in Havana and later in the context of the Tenth Conference and the founding congress of the "Party with the Rose" in August 2017 (the Fuerza Alternativa Revolucionaria des Común, which has a red rose as its emblem, is the one from the FARC EP emerged political party, jW), we talk about the need to create a broad movement, a major political, social and popular convention that promotes the collective development of a program of general interest through progressive, democratic and revolutionary initiatives at the national level. This implies the formation of a transitional government. We have talked about this and are continuing to build a party that is part of an overarching movement and not of acting alone with messianic zeal. To this end, the conference has appointed a team that should take care of this roadmap and establish political relationships to lay the groundwork for such an initiative. The aim was to work simultaneously at national and regional level to develop the program, to promote the construction of the new party and the great convergence. What is needed are new forms of politics that go beyond the usual clientelistic practices to design strategies for internal development and an effective alliance policy.

The core of this vision was to achieve a politics and conception of the unity of the popular movement that goes beyond the necessary unity of the communists. The first step should be to work on the unit of action in order to make progress in the programmatic approach. The main role in the political-organizational work should be taken over by the youth and the women. All organizations of the popular movement should be part, including the National Liberation Army ELN.

There are some principles that have been developed by the FARC-EP even before entering the legal sphere of political action. First, the policy of unity with the various left-wing democratic forces of social and mass movements and the struggle to complement the various forms of struggle. It was also very clear that developing and maintaining the best relations with the ELN. Secondly, the struggle for the unity and understanding of the Communists in a process of coming together in national and regional popular struggles. This unity should be based on the principles of Bolivarian Marxism-Leninism. Third, the proposal of unity of social and popular movement should involve the left organizations, the democratic movements and the political forces, who accompanied us in the long struggle for democratic peace with social justice. He should also include the social movement in all its old and new expressions. And fourthly, unity implies on our side the commitment to breadth, flexibility, the spirit of respect for the inner democracy and the emphasis on the ethics of the revolutionaries, and the high morality that must always exist as a constant. It has been clarified that the political goals of a broad movement can not only proceed from us, but must be developed in discussions between all forces. Unity implies, on our part, the commitment to breadth, flexibility, the spirit of respect for the inner democracy and the emphasis on the ethics of the revolutionaries, and the high morality that must always exist as a constant. It has been clarified that the political goals of a broad movement can not only proceed from us, but must be developed in discussions between all forces. Unity implies, on our part, the commitment to breadth, flexibility, the spirit of respect for the inner democracy and the emphasis on the ethics of the revolutionaries, and the high morality that must always exist as a constant. It has been clarified that the political goals of a broad movement can not only proceed from us, but must be developed in discussions between all forces.

A first-order aspect of any alliance must be the defense and struggle for the implementation of the agreements reached, as well as the totality of demands made by the various social and mass organizations of the country. If we say that this should be defended under all circumstances, that essentially means that our fight for peace, with or without ratification of the agreements, is the prime strategic objective. It stayed that way.

To summarize, to explain the basic reasons for our decisions, we have found that the ruling regime, neoliberal policies, corruption and war have brought us a divorce: either the possibility of transformation and institutionalization is opening up as a result of political dialogue the changes through an open constitutional process, or these changes will be enforced sooner or later by the outbreak of dissatisfaction in a rebellion.

Since our strategic plan is essentially the Bolivarian Campaign for New Colombia, whose fundamental goals Manuel Marulanda has designed, this means, on a political level, that we are relying on the Bolivarian dogma of insurrection. This is in the words of the liberator Simón Bolívar: »The uprising announces itself with the spirit of peace. He resists despotism because it destroys peace, and he only takes up arms to force his enemies to peace. "

From this perspective, we say that we are opening a new stage of struggle aimed at uniting the popular movement. Our strategy is to create awareness in order to achieve peace with social justice, democracy and sovereignty through motivation and participation in the actions of the masses.

But peace with social justice would be guaranteed by a new power, which would have to take care of the people's happiness by implementing a cultural, political, social and economic program that makes the life of the Colombians dignified. To this end, we summarize the politico-military action in some guidelines, which we call in their entirety as an expansive political strategy and which contains the following components:

First, political and military restructuring that promotes the creation of a power bloc that unites all revolutionaries with those strategically close to them. We see the ELN as a fundamental protagonist and therefore we are taking steps to reactivate the guerrilla coordination Simón Bolívar (alliance of underground organizations founded in the late 1980s, with the participation of FARC-EP and ELN, jW). Secondly, we want to make an effort to build the Movement Movement and breathe life into it as a powerful social and political force demanding the rights of citizens on the street. Third, we will call for the formation of a grand political and social coalition that is a transitional government under collective leadership. All this has to be done at the same time. We also need an effective media strategy that is developed through alternative media of all kinds, with a focus on social networks.

All this involves a political and military transformation, the recovery of territories and the masses through our structures of the clandestine party, the Bolivarian movement and the militias. This means expanding the common forces within the real movement of the rebellious social strata that are rebelling against the injustices of the dominant social order, dynamizing political sectoral and regional alternatives, respecting and taking up projects of social and political movements, rebellion, demands and Embody the potential of the malcontents. This is the new way of doing politics: bottom-up, broad, solidarity, common interest, the struggle full of dignity and against corruption, social justice and peace.

We do not exclude the possibility of an armed uprising or so much pressure that people who are tired of abuse of power force a new and final peace agreement. Undoubtedly, under such circumstances, it may make sense to keep the rifles silent, but even then we will not simply hand over the weapons. These are kept without using them, under the direct control of the guerrillas, as a guarantee of compliance with the new peace agreement, which is possible once the National Constituent Assembly has created a new legal system that responds to the challenge of peace.

In any case, our organization will also act as an environmental guerrilla, linked to the struggle of humankind to stop climate change, preserve the environment and create clean energy, and defend all its riches.

We must emphasize that in the event of an electoral victory of a grand democratic coalition, the new government, which will be an interim government, must logically decide, as one of its first decisions, the immediate opening of peace talks with the insurgents. In our opinion, these would have to be negotiated on the basis of the original text of the Havana Peace Agreement, to which the indispensable adjustments in connection with the inclusion of the programmatic objectives of the ELN and its dialogue agenda are added.

The peace process includes the search for tools to resolve the various forms of the existing armed conflict.

Once the government has signed the peace agreement, it will fuel the open constitutional process that will lead to a democratic National Constituent Assembly that sets the legal framework in the interest of the entire nation and paves the way for public scrutiny by honest and capable men and women Women are occupied.

The Transitional Government, with the support of the people's transformational power, will implement a social action plan for the good life and develop an economic program that will give Colombia the impetus for a future of stable and lasting peace.

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Iván Márquez (18.10.2012)

That is what it means when it says that the sovereign has the floor, as we wrote down in the foreword to the final agreement of Havana. It sets out the failure to call together all the parties, political and social movements and all the living forces of the country to formulate a National Political Agreement in order to determine the reforms and institutional adjustments necessary to meet the challenges of peace and to secure peace create a new framework for political and social coexistence.

So we see that there are the tools to continue trying to find a way out through agreements and to initiate a process that overcomes exclusion, misery and huge inequality, leading to a profound democratization of the state and social life as well to restore the sovereignty and the guarantee of prosperity and the good life of our people. It is also about taking our goals to a new level, where a representative constituent assembly with full guarantee can give a definitive boost to the structural changes that Colombia needs.

They strive to coordinate their activities with the ELN. How far have you progressed?

I believe that we have already answered this question. There is progress in the desired direction, taking into account that the ELN is an autonomous force, with its own clearly defined positions to consider and on which we should build together.

What are your relations with the party that emerged from the FARC - the "Party with the Rose," as you say? And what do you think about the reactions and comments of their leading members about your decision? It was stated that it does not drive political motivation but individual and economic reasons.

We do not want to comment too early on premature and untenable statements by some members of the party. We think that those who observe the evolution of events, time, and facts will provide reasons for reflection. One sees clearly that there are differences, old differences, which could be dealt with internally, but which reach the light of the public in an unfavorable way and in a rather distorted way for both sides. So far, we have decided not to engage in insults or anxious allegations that distract us from the course we have taken, without questioning those who, for one reason or another, remain in legality. In the party with the Rose there is a great potential of cadres and members, which are hugely important as people and leaders, and that's what we focus on above all else. We know that they must count on any political force that wants to achieve the changes that Colombia needs for real peace with social justice.

A few days ago, the preparatory theses of the Second Party Congress of the Party reached us with the Rose. It is true that in the social field there are goals with which we identify with ourselves, because we ourselves have contributed to their formulation. Moreover, they can also be found in our most recent documents. But there is also an extensive argument that disseminates disinformation about the background of our break. If these arguments come to light, we have the moral and political duty to comment. But what we want more than anything else is to work for the unity of the entire revolutionary movement. That is why, after every possible difference after our extraordinary meeting of the Comandantes, we have addressed a salute to social organizations and political movements. Literally, we saluted the party with the Rose and, as Comandante Marulanda would have done, told her steadfast membership that sooner or later we would run into each other again if we were revolutionaries. That's really our wish.

Given the attacks of US imperialism and its allies against Bolivarian Venezuela, and especially in the case of armed aggression against that country - what role would the FARC-EP play?

Solidarity is a matter of the heart of every revolutionary, and such a feeling towards the peoples fighting against imperialism is a constant in us. Especially the solidarity with Cuba and Venezuela. Perhaps that is very little or nothing compared to the huge needs these fraternal peoples have in the fight against imperialism. Frankly, our solidarity will be symbolic because we believe that the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, the heroic Venezuela of Bolívar and Chávez, as well as Cuba, the heroic Cuba of Martí and Fidel, have the spiritual and material strength to resist any aggression To resist without being dependent on anyone.

At the general debate of the 74th UN General Assembly, Colombian President Duque presented alleged evidence of the presence of the ELN in Venezuela on 25 September . It turned out, however, that the photos in the report were fake, because neither the date nor the location of the footage matched the information in the report. The result was that the head of the Colombian intelligence service and the military counterintelligence, General Oswaldo Peña Bermeo, was relieved of his duties. What is your assessment of this?

Unfortunately, the Colombian state continues to play its role as Cain of the Continent, continuing the constant conspiracy against Venezuela, and carrying along the usual interventionist game of Washington.

We do not want to go into the subject of the photos or the way Peña Bermeo was scapegoated, because that has been rife with the media, despite the bias of the transnational media corporations that also play the Empire's game , But let us express our opinion on some more general aspects and make it clear that it is difficult and difficult to know how far the close and dark ties and cronyism of the United States with the lackey governments of the region, among them Colombia in the first place. Following the old pattern of subjugation and subordination of politics to the terrible monster in the north, the petulant Duque government has its bearings on the destabilizing role that Colombia plays against a brother country.

Since his inauguration, Colombia's foreign minister has been running an anti-Neo-Zolan campaign disguised as diplomacy. The first goal is the overthrow of President Nicolás Maduro. But that's not the only task, because in addition to the Lima group, there is still the stinking organization of American state, OAS, with its Secretary General Luis Almagro at the top. But that is only one of the many chapters of a long history in which Colombia spearheaded the subjugation of the whole continent. This goes back to the beginnings of the Bolivarian Revolution, when the Gringos realized they would lose part of their "backyard" through the emancipatory wave. The example of this was the anti-imperialist rebellion of the Venezuelan people around Comandante Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías,

The Colombian government is thus a marker on the Pentagon's political interventionist board to crush the Bolivarian Revolution, and Southern Command has only recently formulated its goal in the document "Venezuela Freedom-2 Operation," President Nicolás Maduro Military operation to be carried out by the Conference of American Armies with the support of the OAS.

Everything written down by the White House and implemented by the Southern Command on the OAS, the Lima Group and all international rights. In the media, President Maduro is portrayed as a dictator, and since January 10, the date of his legitimate mandate, he is no longer recognized as a usurper and the political and economic blockade is tightened. The military action is part of a menu in which President Duque helps irresponsibly. I do not doubt that this mendacious and obtuse government not only concludes what's left over from the Havana Peace Agreement, but also drives the country into war, which would have devastating consequences on all levels. A decade would not be enough to eliminate the damage of a confrontation that in practice would take no more than two or three days. It would be madness, but so disgusting are these lackeys of Washington.

In recent weeks and months, there have been large demonstrations by Colombian students about the right to education, against corruption at universities and against repression. What do these mean for Colombia and its popular movement?

The actions of the student body have not started yet, not even those of the Indígenas and other strata of society, which are mostly ignored by the big press. They are part of the protests and demands of the popular movement in all parts of the continent. In response to the neoliberal policies that subjugate the majorities of debt and misery, the Latin American continent is seething.

We have already said that there is an implosion caused by neoliberalism that is developing today under the conditions of the worldwide crisis of capitalism, its structural crisis. The peoples are looking for alternatives, but many governments that are leaning toward the interests of transnational corporations are following the disgraceful recipes of the IMF, and we see the consequences. It is no coincidence that there are uprisings such as those recently in Peru, Ecuador and Chile, and we must not leave unmentioned the growing discontent and the increase in protests in Argentina and Brazil.

The core of the problems is neoliberalism, and Colombia does not escape that too. The rejection of corruption and impunity is one of the factors, another is the rejection of criminal repression. But there are other elements that are mostly hidden, such as the right to life votes, the voices calling for an end to the daily killings of social leaders and ex-combatants. Or what you already said about the right to education.

The patience of youth comes to an end. She is tired of kindly asking for the solution of problems accumulated over decades without any positive response from the government. The neglect of public education in Colombia is a shame. The negligence of the government in respect of these civil rights is as great as the basic needs for health, housing, employment, etc. What you are seeing is just the beginning of a development. No doubt the protests will escalate. Social policy in the age of sorcerer's apprentice Iván Duque, who mirrors peace, re-invents war and privatizes public property, is gruesome, but he can count on the goodwill of the media pack, which seeks to exacerbate the criminalization of those who dare .

https://www.jungewelt.de/artikel/365939 ... ollen.html

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Re: Colombia

Post by blindpig » Fri Nov 22, 2019 3:41 pm

Colombia’s US Ambassador Advocates 'Covert Actions' Against Venezuela in Leaked Audio
Top Colombian officials acknowledged failure of regime change in Venezuela and total disarray in Washington.

By Lucas Koerner
Nov 21st 2019 at 8.48pm

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Colombian Ambassador to Washington Francisco Santos was recalled to Bogota after the leak. (Valentin Flauraud / Reuters)

Caracas, November 21, 2019 (venezuelanalysis.com) – Senior Colombian diplomats discussed strategies for regime change in Venezuela in a leaked audio published by Colombian news site Publimetro on Wednesday.

Speaking in a Washington DC cafe, Colombian Foreign Minister Claudia Blum and Ambassador to the US Francisco Santos repeatedly stressed the failure of US-led efforts to oust Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

“The solution is not a military coup, because the military is not going to remove [Maduro]. Nor is the United States going to remove him at the point of an “I don’t know what,” observed Blum, alluding to the possibility of US military intervention in Venezuela.

Santos stressed the need for clandestine operations to “support the opposition.”

“The only thing that I see is with covert actions within [Venezuela] to make noise and support the opposition which is very isolated,” he told Blum.

The ambassador additionally reported that the “CIA [Central Intelligence Agency] is not getting involved [in Venezuela],” a fact that Blum appeared to lament.

Santos went on to complain about the apparent disarray within the Trump administration. He noted that the State Department and the White House were divided over the Inter-American Reciprocal Assistance Treaty (TIAR), which the former “wanted” but the latter did not. The TIAR was activated in September at the behest of the Venezuelan opposition, which hailed the move as a first step towards foreign military intervention in Venezuela.

For her part, Blum concurred with her ambassador’s assessment, lamenting that with US elections fast approaching, “no one knows what Trump is going to do.”

Santos responded by speculating that if Trump fears losing the presidential race, “he will go into Venezuela,” a possibility downplayed by the foreign minister.

Both officials, however, agreed on the urgent need to remove Maduro from power.

“If this guy doesn’t go, Colombia has no future,” warned Santos, going on to describe efforts to enlist US congressional support on Venezuela.

“Let them understand that this shithole is going to destabilize the whole continent,” he emphasized.

Since opposition leader Juan Guaido’s self-proclamation as Venezuelan “interim president” in January, the hard-right Colombian government of Ivan Duque has spearheaded efforts to oust Maduro.

In February, Colombia strongly supported a US-led attempt to force “humanitarian aid” across the Venezuelan border, which Blum dismissed as a “fiasco.”

More recently, tensions have been on the rise along the 2,219 kilometer Venezuelan-Colombian border since Bogota resumed hostilities with guerrilla factions in August.

The leaked audio is the latest in a series of Venezuela-related scandals that have dogged the Duque government in recent months.

In September, photos and witness testimony surfaced revealing that Guaido had crossed the Colombian border in February with the assistance of Colombian paramilitary groups in coordination with the Colombian authorities. The Duque administration had earlier been accused of turning a blind eye to accusations that Guaido’s envoys to the country had embezzled money destined to support deserters from the Venezuelan armed forces.

Weeks later, Duque came under fire after presenting false evidence of ELN activity in Venezuela during his speech at the UN General Assembly in New York.

The latest scandal provoked condemnation from Caracas, with Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza slamming Colombian interference in Venezuelan affairs.

“Colombia has been affirming for years that Chavismo destabilizes the region… Meanwhile in a leaked conversation the new foreign minister and ambassador in the US confess how and with whom they conspire to destabilize Venezuela,” he tweeted.

https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/14728
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Re: Colombia

Post by blindpig » Sat Nov 23, 2019 5:03 pm

Curfew in Bogata: On Nationwide Strike's Second Day

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Citizen spins fire during a protest on the second day of a national strike in Bogota, Colombia, Nov. 22, 2019. | Photo: Reuters

Published 23 November 2019

Former presidential candidate Gustavo Petro denounced an intelligence operation aimed at frightening citizens.


Making noise by banging pots to call for attention, thousands of people gathered on Friday afternoon at the Bolivar Square in Bogota to reject President Ivan Duque and his neoliberal policies.

"We are here to protest against Duque's government," art student Katheryn Martinez said while banging a pot with a spoon.

"It is a government that kills children and does not recognize it," she added and recalled a bombing where eight minors died, which forced Defense Minister Guillermo Botero's recent resignation.

Although citizens were protesting peacefully, the police entered Bolivar Square to disperse them by throwing tear gas, which obliged demonstrators to run through the streets of downtown Bogota.

Colombia's capital city was not quiet on Friday. In various places, citizens improvised dozens of demonstrations, roadblocks, and barricades.

In a fruitless attempt to suppress social protests, however, President Duque reinforced surveillance in Bogota, a city that has more than 7 million inhabitants.

"I've decided to strengthen the security force's presence and increase intelligence capabilities. I ordered the deployment of Police and the National Army patrols in critical places," he said.

"The Government of Uribe-Duque is creating panic, repression, and death to Colombia's people. Duque is afraid. Resign now, Duque" The meme reads, "Indign yourself! A member of Colombia's Riot Squadron (ESMAD) fired tear gas at close range against one of the protesters who was rejecting Ivan Duque's neoliberal administration in Bogota."

On Nov. 21, millions of Colombians took to the streets to hold the biggest protest against President Duque since he came to power in Aug. 2018.

Besides being concerned about his government's little commitment to the Peace Agreements, the population rejects a neoliberal policy package which seeks to raise the compulsory retirement age, increase workers' contributions to the pension system, reduce the state's role in social security, lower the young people's minimum wage, among other things.

So far, however, the right-wing president has failed to consolidate a parliamentary majority willing to approve his proposals, which are often justified as if they were tools to "fight corruption."

Great Pot-Banging Protest in Bogota: Accompanied with casseroles, citizens chanted ‘Get Out Duke!!’. They decided not to obey the curfew and threw themselves into the streets. The pot banging protest occurs throughout the country.

Former leftist presidential candidate Gustavo Petro, who convened the pot-banging protest, held that the Duque administration implemented an intelligence operation aimed at frightening citizens.

“The curfew decreed by Peñalosa in Bogota was used to mount a panic operation withing middle class and poor neighborhoods. Its goal was to sabotage the social movement with panic.”

In this regard, there is evidence in social networks. During the curfew, citizens recorded police officers who were breaking glasses and, in some cases, forcing homeless people to collect stones.

“The Police are chasing protesters and breaking the glass from houses and cars in the Patio Bonito area,” independent outlet Colombia Informa reported and posted a video in which dozens of police officers, who are unequivocally wearing their uniforms, are chasing citizens on foot.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Col ... -0001.html
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Re: Colombia

Post by blindpig » Tue Dec 03, 2019 12:40 pm

WHAT HIGHLIGHTED THE NATIONAL STRIKE IN COLOMBIA
25 Nov 2019 , 1:37 pm .

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Hundreds of thousands of Colombians left to march across the country against the government of Iván Duque (Photo: Getty Images)

As an ongoing episode, the national strike called by broad sectors of Colombia's national life is evidence of the structural nature of violence, media complicity and state terrorism in that country. It also demonstrates the mobilization that begins to wake up from the rejection of a political class installed on a servile agenda to Western power centers.

MANY REASONS FOR A CALL
The national strike called by various Colombian sectors, such as workers' centrals, university students, the Colombian Federation of Educators (Fecode), the Unitary Central of Workers (CUT), the Confederation of Pensioners and the People's Congress, is a manifestation against the government of the rightist Iván Duque that has happened since November 21 in the main cities of the Andean-Caribbean country.

From there it grew and now adds to organizations of students, peasants, women, indigenous, Afro-descendants and opposition parties to the government.

The reasons for the discontent are based on the rejection of the National Development Plan (PND), which does not achieve a national consensus. Also to initiatives such as the proposal to reduce the salary for young people to 75% of the minimum, plans to eliminate the public part of the pension system and the privatization of state-owned companies such as Ecopetrol, Interconectado Eléctrica SA (ISA), the System of Interbank National Electronic Compensation (CENIT), regional electrification companies and all companies where the State's participation is less than 50%.

In addition to arguing that the government wants to turn Colpensiones into a private fund, lower taxes on large companies and multinationals and impose more taxes on the middle class and workers, corruption cases in Odebretch are linked with the Ruta del Sol, the Construlena Navelena Consortium , the so-called " tous carousel ", the Cartagena Refinery complex ( Reficar ), Fedegan and the District University.

For the convening sectors, the Duke administration prepares for a neoliberal onslaught in 2020, unions related to its government have proposed differential salary by region, hourly hiring and elimination of the minimum wage.

Faced with the protests, Duque reiterated his respect for constitutional law but rejected the use of violence, after a meeting with the Permanent Commission for the Coordination of Salary and Labor Policies in the House of Nariño, where the General Confederation of Workers and the Confederation of Colombian Workers, as workers' centrals and production unions, reiterated that there is no pension or labor reform presented by his government and pointed out that these aspects should be carried out in a permanent discussion at the labor consultation table.

He stressed that his government is not promoting lowering the minimum wage and that it will not support the increase in the pension age, nor the increase in the contribution of workers, nor is it promoting any involvement in Colpensiones.

FALSE POSITIVE WEEK AND FEAR CAMPAIGN
The 1977 strike marked a before and after the social protest in Colombia, since then a social protest did not cause such tension, especially when Uribism was defeated on October 28 in the first regional elections after the signing of the peace agreement in 2016. Some of the previous measures indicated:

On Monday, November 18, the Colombian Executive granted extraordinary powers to governors and mayors so that they could prohibit the carrying of weapons and the consumption of alcoholic beverages and even apply a curfew in their respective jurisdictions.
That day the first degree (maximum alert) quartering of the military forces was ordered.
On Tuesday 19, Migración Colombia announced the closure of all land and river borders from midnight that day until 05 in the morning of Friday 22.
That day there were raids in several groups of artists and in an alternative media, which generated protests from the Foundation for Press Freedom (FLIP).
In Bogotá, at the request of the local authorities, there were military in "accompaniment" with the police patrols.
Reliving the Democratic Security strategy used by Álvaro Uribe Vélez during his administration between 2002 and 2010, the Duque government has been characterized by the increase in murders against human rights defenders, the strengthening of paramilitary groups, the return of State crimes and false positives among which the bombing in Caquetá against children stands out.

According to the Institute for Development and Peace (Indepaz), since the signing of the Peace Agreement, 777 social leaders and 137 ex-combatants of the former Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia - Army of the People (FARC-EP) have been killed. Indepaz said that in 2019, 155 leaders have been massacred by illegal groups.

That week Colombia witnessed the militarization of cities, raids without a warrant against human rights defenders, acts of intimidation, a campaign of widespread fear and black propaganda against the strike called for 21N. The entire institutional force (Army, Police, SIJIN, Prosecutor, ESMAD and others) was aligned in the military and war treatment against social protest.

A week before the call, on November 14, Christian Krüger Sarmiento, general director of Migration Colombia confirmed the expulsion of two Venezuelan citizens who allegedly had destabilization plans in the municipality of El Rosal (Cundinamarca) during the protest day, he said to have "information from different sources that have allowed us to identify eleven foreign citizens who would pretend to affect citizen security and social order during the marches on November 21".

Days before, seven other Venezuelans were expelled by the Colombian immigration authority under this same presumption.

On the eve of the national strike, 15 Venezuelans were expelled after a protest that ended in confrontation with Colombian security forces for the distribution of food in a shelter. According to Caracol News , at least five of them would have false documentation, and three of them would be members of the Bolivarian National Armed Forces (FANB) that infiltrated to cause destruction among migrants, the real existence of evidence is unknown.

Seven of them remained in the hands of the Colombian authorities to be prosecuted for the attempted escape, a situation that occurred during their transfer to the border area on Wednesday 20. According to the entity, the captured foreigners could face sentences between four and eight years of prison when checking their responsibility in these facts, which left an injured official.

Krüger said the situation was "quite strange" and said there is information about "people who want to sabotage." In a statement he referred to "the possible presence of members of Chavista groups" while asking Colombian citizens "not to stigmatize" Venezuelans.

He also pointed to the Venezuelan government as one of those responsible for these attempts to infiltrate the protests. "It is clear that Maduro's dictatorship intends to affect the region. Diosdado Cabello himself has stated that this is their intention," said Kruger.

AN AWKWARD CONVERSATION: "IT'S MY TURN TO INVENT THINGS ..."
The Colombian media Publimeter released the audio of a controversial conversation between Foreign Minister Claudia Blum and the Colombian ambassador to the United States, Francisco "Pacho" Santos, in a reserved room of a hotel in the city of Washington.

Santos, former vice president of Uribe management, attacks the State Department of that country and ministers of the Duke administration while trying to explain to Blum, who still does not replace Carlos Holmes Trujillo, current defense minister, on how relations are handled With the North American country. It gives you an overview of the political world in Washington and what your priorities should be at the head of that portfolio, offering to make an agenda with politicians in that city.

Regarding the United States, he affirms that what once was a good State Department is now destroyed.

Similarly, the ambassador told the chancellor that he should start his diplomatic administration with a strategic agenda, not as Holmes who "had no strategy" at the head of the Foreign Ministry. He reveals that he put them to "run and make appointments" in the United States, but then "canceled" them.

The talk shows cracks in the country's foreign policy, also divisions and competencies between the Uribismo tokens for the presidential elections of 2022. When they talk about the possible presidential aspirations of Holmes on behalf of the Democratic Center, Santos, who will surely postulate his name, He said that Holmes "thinks that I'm going to get into politics," to which Blum replies: "That you're going to be his competition."

The outgoing Defense Minister, Guillermo Botero, is politically responsible for the massacre of 17 minors in an army bombing in rural San Vicente del Caguán and the murder of Dimar Torres, a former FARC combatant who was fulfilling the peace and he lived as a peasant in the municipality of Convention, in Norte de Santander. Santos said about Botero: "I have a problem, I do not have an interlocutor in Defense, because Botero did not work, did not speak English and did not come, so I hope Carlos is an interlocutor, hopefully. He does not know about that, but ..."

Venezuela is, for Santos, the second most important issue on the country's agenda, which is "a bit stationary, but I think that is going to move." And he says that part of his agenda is to bring US congressmen to the border so they can see what the humanitarian situation is. They add that the Lima Group is a "chicharrón", that it is "very weakened" and that "it must be reinforced, but I don't see what to do. Today I feel Maduro uncomfortable, but calmer," says the ambassador.

Blum also questions humanitarian aid for Venezuela. "People no longer believe, that humanitarian aid was a fiasco," and Santos says that "Trump is not going to get into Venezuela. But if this man does not leave (Nicolás Maduro), Colombia has no future. If this man does not it goes away, it will make our lives impossible. "

Restless about it, Blum asks for help to "(...) think, because the solution is not a military coup, because the military will not do it ...". And he adds: "I have a lot of confidence in you, because I know what you are capable of." To which Santos replies: "The only thing I see is with covert actions in there, to generate noise and support the opposition that is very lonely there."

In his defense Santos said that "he was telling (Blum) how politics is working in the United States, and that is the truth," apologized to Guillermo Botero because he knew that "he was busy with the issue of Colombia", but " I needed to highlight the importance of the defense minister with the United States, but it does not mean that Botero has not made an interlocution. "About Holmes Trujillo said he has" a hyper-respectful relationship. "

IN THE HEAT OF UNEMPLOYMENT: CURFEW AND STATE TERRORISM
The national strike was accepted throughout the Colombian territory and ended with a national cacerolazo. That afternoon, a peaceful mobilization of 30,000 people took place in the central area of ​​the capital, which ended in a confrontation between a group of hooded men and agents of the Police Riot Squad (ESMAD) of the Police in the central Plaza de Bolívar, in Bogotá , when the alleged protesters tried to enter the mayor's building by force at the end of a day of protests.

The mayor of Cali, Maurice Armitage, decreed a curfew from 7 pm due to "a series of vandals, misfits and criminals" who "are robbing and looting business." Cali was one of the main sources of violence in the country with 23 injured police officers (of 28 throughout the country) that night, while in Candelaria and Jamundí, municipalities near the south of Valle del Cauca, they also decided to implement this measure. In Popayán the authorities took the same decision as a measure to regain calm, although the restriction only applied to the historic center.

Defense Minister Carlos Holmes Trujillo reported on Friday 22 that at least three people died in the protests that took place on Thursday and that about 273 people were injured on the day. "In the last hours the authorities have confirmed the death of two people in Buenaventura and one more in Candelaria, both from the department of Valle del Cauca," he said.

According to the official's statements, the deaths occurred after alleged attempts at looting in the region, however, videos were released through social networks where ESMAD agents used force against protesters.

On Friday 22, a curfew was decreed throughout Bogotá by the mayor of that entity, Enrique Peñalosa, who had announced that a curfew would be implemented in three locations south of the city. To ensure compliance, he announced that he would deploy some 4,000 soldiers and 7,000 police officers. This measure was taken for "disorders" registered in the department, however, Peñalosa had assured that he would not take this decision because "there is an effective presence of the police force in the city."

That night there was a car bomb that left three police officers dead and seven more injured in the municipality of Santander de Quilichao, in the department of Cauca,

That day, Colombian Senator Roy Barreras asked the Attorney General of the Nation, Fernando Carrillo, to investigate allegations of acts of vandalism recorded in various parts of the country induced to delegitimize the peaceful protest.

In the social networks a fear campaign was generated in which they warned residents of some cities about alleged waves of looting by "vandals". Inhabitants of some middle class sectors generated adverse reactions to the protest over fear of being "invaded by the hordes."

On Saturday 23, massive peaceful rallies took place in various parts of the capital where the non-conforming also demanded that the initiatives they carry out are not repressed. However, as on previous occasions, ESMAD used tear gas and dispersed the concentrations while President Iván Duque insisted that his government respects the citizen's right to peaceful protest.

The Attorney General's Office (PGN) and the Ombudsman's Office denounced that an 18-year-old, identified as Dylan Cruz, was hit in the head by one of the tear gas devices used by ESMAD.

A CONDITIONED REFLEX
Unlike other days of protest in the continent, those of Colombia had been slow to activate and this is due to particular characteristics of Colombian society. The population is an exceptional witness of how the crisis induced by the same sectors that run it in Venezuela has been used to manipulate it; This has been the case in every crucial process, be it elections or protest.

These results are reflected in social disorder, poverty and misery, unemployment and underemployment, citizen insecurity, industrial economic underdevelopment, impunity, ineffectiveness, laxity and corruption of the judicial apparatus.

Inoculating the fear of being like Venezuela with conspiracies and false positives while permanently attacking the neighbor no longer seems sufficient for Uribism to achieve its objectives.

http://misionverdad.com/trama-global/lo ... n-colombia

Google Translator
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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