Re: Forwarded from Anthony #2 (Colombia, continued)

[aabdo@xxxxxxxxxxxxx (Tony Abdo)]

Anthony, I'm afraid I'm going to have vote with The New York Times on
this one.     Colombia is ALREADY in the middle of a 'total war'.    The
decision to go with this option was made many months ago by Bill
Clinton.    Bush is just a new quarterback, and nothing more.

It seems very evident that a key component of this assault, was in
channelling financial resources into the hands of the 'paras'.      The
Colombian military got a green light to extend the fighting into the
scorched earth mode.    And Clinton's, Plan Colombia, was that GREEN
LIGHT.

The whole concept of offering 'peace negotiations' and 'despegues' to
FARC and the ELN, seems to have been nothing more than a ploy to buy
time.... to build up 'para infrastructure.    It doesn't appear that the
FARC leadership got fooled in the least.

What are the historical parallels?     I'd have to see this strategy of
total war as having the most recent parallel. in Central America,
specifically Guatemala and El Salvador in the early '80s.      There
too, a Democratic Party president paved the road for the Reagan Central
American wars ahead.     It is not paranoia, nor being conspiracy
oriented, to observe the smoothness of coordination between the two US
capitalist, political parties.

We should remember, that the lesson for the US capitalist class from SE
Asia to themselves, is just that they didn't play hardball enough in
Vietnam.      That's the mindset that they currently carry into South
America.

That being the case, it is particularly urgent to begin anew efforts to
broaden the movement against this war.     International Action Center
and Colombia Solidarity Network are worthy endeavors.    However, they
have not shown the intensity that the new situation calls for.

The founding conference for a new coalition dedicated to building
opposition to the Colombian intervention, is much needed.

Tony
________________________________
Ron Jacobs
<Colombia Action Network Founding Conference Chicago, IL ~ April 7-8
The conference will bring together activists from around the country to
learn from eachother & make joint action plans for the coming year. The
conference will include guest speakers who are activists from Colombia.
Activists are starting to plan our founding conference, and we need your
help. To join the activist list serve and help with planning, send a
message to activistcolombia-subscribe@xxxxxxxxxxx
On-line registration materials will be available soon. We need help
getting the word out: Please send us addresses, fax numbers,
and e-mail addresses for activist groups you think would be interested
in receiving information about this conference. Materials will be going
out in about a week, so please send informations soon.>
_______________________________
Anthony wrote....
<Most important is that on Monday evening, President Andres Pastrana
announced that the "despeje" would be continued, despite the fact that
his stated conditions on the FARC (unfreezing peace talks) had not been
met. (Whether or not peace talks are frozen is a question sort of like
how many angels can dance on the head of a pin - government and FARc
representatives talk to each other daily - only not at the big table in
the main room.)

This means that there will probably not be "total war" in the next month
in Colombia, and that George Bush will not face his first major foreign
policy crisis in Colmbia, in February (as the New York Times prophesized
in last Sunday's editorial.)>