[Marxism] The Right Wing Peace Movement and the FARC

[Anthony Boynton <northbogota@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hopefully I can write something longer on this issue,
but those of you interested in Colombia should know
that is happening Monday. There will be a massive
"Peace" demonstration, which will really be a massive
WAR demonstration against the FARC.

Newspeak may have gone further here than in most other
places.

Here is a brief explanation. After the FARC bumbled
Hugo Chavez hostage release negotiations, the
Uribistas and the United States launched a major two
pronged political offensive aimed against both Chavez
and the FARC.

On the one hand Uriba removed the government's
recognition of Chavez as a mediator, and started a
public relations blitz against Venezuela. According to
this PR campaign Venezuela has become the exit route
for much of Colombia's drug production with the
complicity of the Venezuealan military - implying the
complicity of Chavez; the FARC operates in Venezuela
and holds hostages there; Chavez is talking about US
invasion of Venezuela through Colombia to cover his
own war plans, etc. etc. This campaign is carried 
mostly through El Tiempo, RCN, and Caracol (the major
newspaper company and the two most important TV and
radio chains), but reflected in all the media.

The campaign against the fARC has two fronts:
diplomatic and internal. The diplomatic front has
featured Uribe and his minions flying hither and yon
getting pledges to keep the FARC on the list of
terrorist organizations, to which all the EU and key
european governments all agreed (Spain, France, etc.)
and having Condi Rice and eight Democratic Party
members of Congress visit to discuss the unratified
trade agreement. 

The centerpiece of the internal anti-FARC offensive is
mobilizing the country in a massive series of
demonstrations Monday. Businesses and schools will
close, all the political parties including the Polo
are supporting the mobilization - although it has put
the Polo into a quandary.

Every newspaper, radio and TV station is promoting the
demonstration on the news and in free ads. The
interent is being flooded with appeals to march from
individuals, poltiical parties, churches. the Chamber
of Commerce, etc. 

The official slogans are "No more kidnappings", "No
more lies", "No more deaths" "No more FARC".

The Polo has gone back and forth on whether or not to
participate. Its most recent decision has been to
participate but separately, and with its own slogans
calling for humanitarian exchange and general peace
negotiations.

This is still a major step to the right for the Polo.
Leaders of the Polo, particularly the Mayor of Bogotá
have appeared on tV calling the FARC a "terrorist"
organization. This is something the Polo has always
refrained from doing in the past, because this label
is what is used to justify the violence and repression
directed agains the FARC, and the left in general.

That violence is also present in the government
offensive against the FARC.

A general military offensive has been launched. It
includes attempts to encircle FARC cencampments where
the government believes the fARC is holding hostages,
and attempts to engage the FARC in combat, especially
along the Venezuelan border.

So far the offensive has not included violence against
the legal left, but it has included thinly vieled
threats, especailly agains tht elife of Liberal Party
Senator Piedad Cordoba, who was the key mediator
aiding Chavez in the release of Clara Rojas, her son
and Consuelo Gonzalaez. The Minister of the Interior,
who is also the leader of the Conservative Party,
Carlos Holguin, told the press that Cordoba had to
expect people to defend their country against her
after she had sided with the country's enemies.

Monday's event will probably be portrayed outside of
Colombia as a "peace" demonstration. It will in fact
be an anti-FARC demonstration, and a war
demonstration.

There is a large anti-demonstration campaign growing
on the internet, but it is unsponsored and not very
well organized. How effective it might be is
impossilbe to tell.

More later, Anthony


      
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