Volume 3, No. 9, September 2002

— G.Fellow

What should be the next stop after Afghanistan is being hotly debated in Washington. While the US thrust into Central Asia is being kept at a steady pace and nearly half a dozen new countries of the region have yielded under pressure to agree to US armed presence, the US forces are actively involved in the Philippines in pursuit of worldwide non stop war against the peoples of various countries. The US attack dog Israel has pushed up it terror campaign in Palestine, the Nepali government is being given millions of dollars, helicopters and arms and ammunition to curb the rising tide of Maoist revolution in the Himalayas, the Tigers of Elam have been forced to capitulate in the post 9/11 US aggressiveness, threats have been issued to the Basque rebels to follow the path of the IRA, Palestinians have been asked to change their leadership or get decimated, countries of the Middle East, like Libya and Syria, are ordered to mend their ways or face horrors, Iran is being asked to get ready to be the next target after the US forces a regime change in Iraq, Sudan has been forced into acquiescence, and so on and on,…… and now Plan Colombia, the brainchild of the notorious Clinton, is all set to unleash over the rebellious people of Colombia in particular and Latin America in general. In a word, the number one enemy of the people of the world has embarked on a worldwide military campaign to toughen its control over the planet, in the name of curbing "terrorism" here, in the name of "curbing drugs" there, and at other places to make the rulers of the third world abide by the diktats of this top gangster regime the world has ever seen. The US warhorse is practically going through all the continents of the world challenging, threatening, intimidating and making real war. Nobody knows who will be the next target as many are being talked about at the same time yet everywhere the threat of US invasion is real.

While the US armed forces have been asked to make preparations for an enormous, lengthy and deadly campaign in Iraq a blueprint for war on the Colombian people is already complete. Pastrana, who is going out of the presidential palace in Bogotá in a few days (in August 2002), called off the "peace talks" with the rebel forces in February soon after consultations with the US after the latter declared that the Colombian rebels are top on its hit list. In Colombia, neither are the rebels something new, nor has the US involvement in the internal affairs of Colombia begun only after the September 11 happenings. There the rebels have been fighting against successive pro-US governments for the last 36 years, and all along, the US has been the main defender and rescuer of the reactionary Colombian regimes.

Not only has the Colombian government survived due to enormous US assistance, the US is also deeply militarily involved in Colombian affairs. Moreover, the Colombian masses have a long history of enmity towards the US and of a militant resistance struggle against it.

Colombia is the northern-most country of South America, with ports on both the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. It is rich in natural resources, with an abundance of oil, natural gas, coal, nickel, and emeralds. Its agricultural riches include coffee and flowers, and there are vast forest and river resources.

Colombia has been ruled by reactionary regimes ever since the Colombian people forced the Spanish colonizers out in the nineteenth century, barring brief periods. The US capitalist and imperialist interests replaced the Spanish colonizers as enemies of the Colombian people. Like every other South American and Central American country, the US imperialists consider it as their backyard. The resistance has been the answer of the people to the repression let loose by the reactionary comprador ruling classes and their imperialist masters. The regimes in Colombia have remained highly oppressive throughout and have protected the interests of the feudal classes and the US corporate companies. In the last century it was the United Fruit Company of America that used to exploit the labour of the Colombian peasants and was responsible for the destruction of the traditional crop system that used to feed the Colombian masses. The US interests destroyed the Colombian peasant economy by converting it to banana and cocoa production, which were more remunerative than cash crops. Before this Colombia was self-sufficient in food.

Approximately 30 percent of Colombia’s 40 million (4 crores) people are peasants. This includes several Indigenous communities with their own languages and customs. Colombia is now facing the worst depression since the 1930s. Unemployment is running at an official rate of 20 percent, with some areas suffering 50 percent unemployment. A majority of the country lives below the poverty level. The Colombian peso has lost over half its value against the dollar since 1998. These problems are compounded by the Colombian government’s pro-International Monetary Fund neo-liberal economic policies of budget austerity and privatizations.

Peasant struggles against US interests have always been suppressed bloodily, though suppression through bloodshed has remained a feature right from the times of Spanish colonialism. Even after Spanish colonialism came to an end the peasants have fought in numerous civil wars against their rulers in the nineteenth century. Though those wars have been between various groups of the Colombian rulers yet they have been breaking out because of social injustice. So it can be rightly said that the social conflicts in Colombia have always given rise to armed conflicts. Long before the present day guerrilla armies came into existence the struggles in Colombia have always been an armed one. The rulers of Colombia were engaged in a civil war from 1948 to 53 after which, though the rulers have not fought among themselves, yet the resistance of the people has taken the form of armed struggle.

In the past, there was a "War of Thousand days" (1897-1899) and in the twenties of the last century a union movement and movements of the indigenous people rose up which were brutally suppressed. In 1928, the United Fruit Company slaughtered hundreds of banana workers who had struck work and were waiting for a negotiation delegation. In 1948, a popular liberal politician Jorge Elicier, was murdered and a civil war ensued which cost the people about 2,00,000 lives. This civil war was among two ruling groups known as liberals and conservatives but the people belonging to the toiling sections of the society were slaughtered without mercy. In a way, it was a war of landowners against the rural population.

The civil war of 1948-53 (the violencia) changed the political landscape of Colombia. During the civil war, independent peasant groups came up in different regions of the country and defended themselves against the terror of the warring factions. It is said that they were the precursors of today’s Colombian guerillas.

Both the warring factions of the rulers, the conservatives and the liberals, reached an agreement in the fifties and established the Frente Nacional (National Front). Both the parties simply disarmed and made an arrangement to take turns to rule the country every four years. These two parties have ruled essentially uninterruptedly for the past 150 years. While the rulers consolidated their hold over the state, some armed groups of peasants continued to possess arms. They continued their resistance in one-way or the other and formed Independent Republics where in the rural areas their word held the sway.

In Latin America, there has been a strong movement of the Catholic Church against the oppressive rule of the comprador classes. At many places, it acquired the form of armed struggle in the face of unparalleled terror of the state forces. In the beginning of the sixties, a broad mass movement against the Frente Nacional emerged and it was called Frente Unido del Pueblo [People’s United Front (FUP)]. This Front was lead by the Catholic priest Camilo Torres who interpreted the Bible from the point of view of the oppressed and justified rebellion against the oppressive and anti-people regimes and advocated their overthrow through the force of arms. He believed in and enunciated the concept of Liberation Theology in the service of the common man. Though he could never come closer to the theory of scientific socialism yet he advocated the rule of the poor and the oppressed and the formation of a state that would take care of their welfare. But he situated and restricted all his theory within the limits of the Bible, which can never be a basis for a real state of the working and oppressed masses. He delved into Christian Idealism and metaphysics when he talked about the sufferings and destiny of the human being, never understanding that religion cannot bring these sufferings to an end and neither can it change the destiny of man. Yet he advocated resistance and rebellion of the oppressed and, more than Tolstoy, believed in action. He led a powerful movement of tens of thousands of workers, slum inhabitants, students and peasants against social injustice and the undemocratic regime. When his movement became the target of the reactionary army he carried on an armed struggle of the peasants in which many Church Fathers and catholic activists died for the people at the hands of the reactionary ruling classes. In 1995 he went into hiding due to death menaces and joined the National Liberation Army (ELN) and asked his followers to do the same. The revolutionary priest died while fighting on February 15th, 1966

Earlier, of the numerous independent peasant republic, the major Peasant’s Republic of Marquetalia was crushed by the army in 1964.

These two guerilla organisations came into being in 1964. The immediate cause for their launch onto the political scene was the massacre of Marquetalia.

Some peasant groups influenced by the Communist Party of Colombia formed the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People’s Army (FARC-EP). The Communist Party of Colombia had close relations with the Soviet Union and it was forced by the extremely oppressive state and the widespread militancy of the peasant masses to launch an armed struggle. It based its vision of "socialism" on the Khruchevian theory of state capitalism as was being practised in the then Soviet Union. In this way, it acquired the character of armed revisionism, which thrived definitely on the acute class contradictions prevailing in the Colombian society. Ever since its formation, the FARC-EP has been continuing its armed struggle despite the collapse of the revisionist empire of the Soviet Union. Its program for social change is limited to a state-capitalist state, which in essence, is only capitalist and far removed from real socialism. The examples of East Europe, North Korea, Vietnam and Cuba are a testimony to it.

FARC has a vast base in South Colombia. The area controlled by it equals the area of a country like Bhutan. After the recent break in talks it has demanded that for any further negotiations its jurisdiction over the provinces of Caquetá and Putumayo be recognised.

Around the same time, a guerilla organisation inspired by the Cuban revolution and the rebellious ideas of Che Guevara and having a following amongst the peasant masses in Central and north Colombia was formed in Santander taking the name of the National Liberation Army (ELN).

In 1967, after the international division of the communist parties into "pro soviet" and "pro Chinese" factions, a third organisation was born: the Maoist People’s Liberation Army (ELP). It had its roots in the northern part of the country.

Colombia is a country where a great number of people have been compelled, through the destruction of agriculture, to abandon their livelihood in rural areas and forced to seek work in the cities. In this way nearly 65% of the population lives in and around the cities in ghettoes and shantytowns. Though the guerrilla groups have also a presence in the cities, yet their main base is in the rural areas. Basically, they are peasant guerrilla organisations carrying on their armed struggle in the interior of the countryside.

Another important guerrilla organisation, among others, had been the Movement April 19th (M19). It made its presence felt through spectacular actions. They had come into the limelight in 1980 when they occupied the embassy of the Dominican Republic in Bogotá. It formed its secret network mainly in the cities. Though much of the guerrilla forces occasionally split in many sub groups yet they were able to threaten the very existence of the government in the seventies. Their strength indicated that the Colombian masses hated the oppressive government and wanted a change for the better. Yet, the government was able to survive due to massive military and economic assistance from the outside, especially from the US imperialists.

In spite of the repression let loose by successive governments the Colombian people continued their struggle. There was a marvelous general strike in 1977. It meant the majority of the population was dissatisfied with the conduct of the rulers. President Turbay Ayala (1978-82) had introduced widespread killings of the revolutionary masses and activists through vigilante armed groups who operated as private armies of the landlords and cocoa kings. The "disappearance" became a standard word for underhand abductions and killings. The Colombian security forces collaborated with these militia gangs in a big way and this still continues to the present day, despite the widespread exposure and notoriety the state’s security forces have earned due to this. Disappearing of political opponents and torture has become common in police barracks, with the government passing new "anti terror laws". Any activist would just disappear leaving no trace at all, either alive or dead. The camps of these armed gangs were, and still remain, in close proximity to the security forces’ encampments and here the activists were tortured, mutilated and killed. Still the resistance to the government increased and spread to vast rural regions and the cities fast enough.

The expansion of the guerrilla movement scared the government of Belisario Betancur (1982-86). With the fight back of the people in El Salvador also increasing by the day, Betancur tried hard to neutralize the Colombian movement through the stick as well as the carrot. He suggested a general amnesty for political prisoners, which included many men and women guerrillas among them. He took some measures to release some people to show his "sincerity" and sought direct negotiations with the armed organisations. He succeeded in his agenda of further splitting the guerilla forces. Some of the guerrilla forces, including the FARC-EP, the M19 and the EPL agreed to a settlement while the ELN (and two other organisations) rejected the government’s proposal in 1984. The ELN accused the government of breaking the unity of the armed opposition to the detriment of the interests of the people.

After "peace" was established, the Maoist People’s Liberation Army activists participated in local elections under the name of Popular Front. Not much is heard of them in recent years. The FARC-EP launched an open organisation called Union Patriótica (Patriotic Union). On the other side, the government launched the formation of paramilitary groups on a massive scale for much bigger crackdowns over the anti-government and revolutionary forces and activists. The government continued with its policy of terrorizing the struggling masses and the so-called peace collapsed, forcing FARC and others to revert to guerrilla warfare again.

In the late eighties, the US stepped up its military aid to the reactionary regime in Colombia in the name of stopping the cultivation of cocoa and the narco trade. The US assistance for the regime in war against the rebel forces was termed as "a war on drugs" [see box: the Reality of…] and the conflict in Colombia was simply called "a drug war." For years the Reagan administration justified its criminal role in the class and social conflicts in Latin and Central America in the name of war on drugs, while in reality, it used the drug money to finance state wars against the peoples of the region. The covert US operations against revolution in Nicaragua unveiled a dirty relationship between the drug lords, CIA and anti-Sandinista reactionary rebel forces (named Contras) that came to be called as the Contragate Scandal. The US ultimately succeeded in liquidating the anti-US Sandinista regime of Nicaragua in 1989. It increasingly used the drug money-CIA nexus in a bid to liquidate the peasant rebel forces in Colombia, Honduras, Guatemala, Haiti and other countries of the region.

The war in Colombia has attracted US attention on a similar scale as the Maoist revolutionary movement of Peru. But in Colombia the US imperialists pumped in more dollars than in any other country of the region. The Colombian reactionary regime is the third largest recipient of US money after Israel and Egypt. The U.S.-trained Armed Forces include about 1,45,000 soldiers. In addition to the Armed Forces, there is the 1,05,000 strong National Police that is engaged in operations against the peasant guerrillas. There is other numerous special units that reinforce the main forces.

Paramilitary death squads are used by the Colombian government on a big scale to counter the revolutionaries. These death squads are under the direct control of the cocaine Mafioso and landlords who produce the bulk of cocoa in the northern belt of the country. Right-wing paramilitary organizations like the "United Self-Defense Units of Colombia" (AUC) routinely attack the civilian population. Many cases of its atrocities have been reported by the international press and the Amnesty International. [See Box] Even the CIA documents acknowledge that the AUC has indulged in violence and murder against the people. The AUC does all its heinous activities under a definite plan from Washington and under the direct eyes of the Colombian armed forces. This is a wicked illegal attempt of the "legal" rulers to terrorize the population so that the people stop supporting the rebels or participating in the popular mass movements. "They maintain close links with the Armed Forces, in many cases carrying out orders directly on behalf of the Army and security agencies, and have received organizational support from the United States Defense Intelligence Agency. The death squads and armed forces combined are responsible for the vast majority of the at least 40,000 Colombians killed in the last ten years." [The Fact Sheet]

In 1998, the President Pastrana, unable to stop the rebellion despite all deadly operations and mayhem, unveiled a plan to hold negotiations with the rebel forces. The Plan was "made in the USA" and Pastrana only reiterated it as his own and called it Plan Colombia. [See box]

In January 1999, the Pastrana regime and the FARC opened talks with the "possibility of a political solution" to the 35-year old rebellion. The FARC announced that they were willing to hold discussions to address "the social changes needed to end the conflict in Colombia" but that they will continue their struggle if the government refused to carry out the social change as demanded by them. As a precondition to the talks, the Pastrana government withdrew its armed forces from the FARC-EP administrated zone comprising Caquetá and Putumayo.

At the same time, Pastrana also recognized the political status of the ELN and made some moves to opening talks with them. The ELN advocated a National Convention "to address Colombia’s social problems." However, the ELN did not enter into talks while the government and the FARC continued their parleys. In 2001, the talking parties reached some understanding, that entailed development of Colombia, the menace of drugs etc., and stopped operations against each other. Ultimately, the agreement broke down in February 2002 when the FARC accused the Colombian government of backing out from the agreement for social development and change. In reality, after the September 11 events in the US the US asked Pastrana to toughen up its attitude towards the FARC. Pastrana, under different excuses, stepped up attacks on FARC forces, and when FARC retaliated in its own way the president announced the end of the rapprochement, derecognised Caquetá and Putumayo as FARC held areas and declared that it would take control of this zone, and put it into government hands.

The hard-line new President Alvaro Uribe, Pastrana’s successor, who took charge of the presidency in August, has requested the UN for mediation in Colombia’s 38-year-old war. Uribe won a "landslide victory" in the July elections and has promised a military build-up to target guerrillas. He had expressed his desire to meet U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan before he took over. It is most likely an effort to use the UN offices to impart international ‘legality’ for the escalation of the war in Colombia.

Uribe plans to equip one million rural vigilantes with radios to provide information to the security forces. He is closely involved with the drug business of cocaine production. When he was the governor of Antioquia Province in the mid-1990s, he "distributed weapons to citizens’ defense groups, many of whose members allegedly became far-right paramilitary death squads."

Uribe’s got a fitting welcome at his very inaugural function on Aug 7th. Mortar shells rained on Bogota, killing 14 people and injuring more than 60, as Colombia’s guerrillas fired their opening salvoagainst the new hard-line President. Moments before Uribe was sworn in, three shells exploded just blocks from the Congress building. Two other shells hit the building next to the presedential palace, wounding a policeman who staggered, bloodied from the scene. Rebels also sent mortar shells crashing into a military installation in northern Bogota,a nd set off several small bombs.

The Colombian rebels are on top of the notorious hit list of the US imperialists, and US forces are gearing up to take on the rural upsurge. On April 30, the US attorney general John Ashcroft has said, "Today, the U.S. strikes back at FARC’s reign of terror against the United States and its citizens. Just as we fight terrorism in the mountains of South Asia, we will fight terrorism in our own hemisphere." The coming days are going to witness another chapter of massive US crimes against the people of the world in the hills and jungles of Colombia.

As US imperialism, the number one enemy of the world’s people, turns more aggressive, various national liberation forces, with differing ideologies will arise throughout the backward countries of the world, to resist US hegemony. Many such resistances will take the form of armed struggle. Only those with a proletarian (i.e. Maoist) orientation will be able to fully bury imperialist domination in their country, and take it step-wise towards socialism. Others will compromise along the way. Yet, all those fighting US imperialism, to whatever extent, are progressive to that extent. Such is the case with the radicals of Colombia. To the extent that they fight US imperialism, to that extent they are progressive. To the extent they follow the revisionist ideology and policies of Khrushchev/Brezhnev or Castro, to that extent they cannot be expected to consummate the anti-imperialist struggle and take the country towards socialism. It would be for the Maoists of Colombia to lead the anti-US struggle by being in the forefront of the battlefield, and thereby wining over all progressive and confused forces to the path of real freedom, towards socialism.

<Top>