Re: [Marxism] The FARC's "dirty bomb" and Uribe's stupidity

[Anthony Boynton <northbogota@xxxxxxxxx>]

Yesterday Joaquin Bustelo contributed a post on the
absurdity of the Colombian government's claims that
the FARC 'wants to make a dirty bomb' using uranium.

The apparent stupidity of the slander campaign of the
Colombian government are worth taking note of for two
reasons: 1) they say a lot about how Colombian
domestic politics work, and 2) They are an indiciation
of the crisis of the Uribe government lurking just
below the surface.

Absurd as those claims are, they were not stupid in
terms of Colombian domestic politics. Uribe and his
gaggle's PR straegy is to continuously demonize the
FARC for any and all real and imaginable crimes. Truth
is not very important to them because they control the
Colombian media much more tightly than any political
faction controls the media in the United States or
most other imperialist countries.

What is stupid is that Uribe, if not his whole gang,
thinks that he can do the same thing outside of
Colombia's borders where the press is not controlled
by the family of his Vice President.

Now Uribe is extending his tactic of demonizing his
opponents to Hugo Chavez, and he is making the same
stupid mistake of using this method outside of the
border's of Colombia.

Yesterday Uribe said that Colombia would charge Hugo
Chaves with "genocide" in the international court of
justice for allegedly financing the FARC. This is
another allegation based on the computers the
Colombian government claims to have removed from the
camp of Raul Reyes.

Uribe's charge is so absurd on the face of it that the
New York Times reporter, Simon Romero, did not even
mention it in his lead article on the conflict between
Colombia and Venezuela, protecting Uribe from
ridicule.

Similarly El Tiempo deleted Uribe's remarks from its
website, although they appear in the print edition.

Uribe's key diplomats have urged him to shut up and
back down, but so far he has not taken the charge off
the table.

A key problem the State Department and Pentagon have
in Colombia, is the extreme fragility of the Uribista
coalition, and its dependence on one man who seems to
be cracking under pressure.

Uribe's behavior has become more and more erratic in
public over the past year. His coalition is divided
more than three ways, with one key party demanding
that the constitution be amended again to allow him to
run for a third term, and another strongly opposing a
third term. Meanwhile his chosen successor, the
Minister of Agriculture who is known as "uribito"
(Little Uribe) is being investigated for corruption
and for his ties to the paramilitaries over his
decision to hand over land belonging to displaced
Colombians to an agricultrual corporation linked to
the paramilitaries.

(An unconfirmed rumour that Uribe suffered a heart
attack recently continues to go the rounds in this
city.)

Uribe's most trusted advisors have mostly left the
government either because of conflicts with the Prez,
or because of corruption scandals, or because of the
para-political scandal.

Uribe's isolation at the top is almost total. Even the
national police bug his telephone and leaks the
conversations to El Tiempo, which publishes it. (The
Santos family does not want Uribe to run for
reelection. Their party, the Partido de la U wants one
of the Santos cousins, the Vice Prez and the Minister
of Defense) to succeed Uribe in 2010.)

Uribe wants to defeat the FARC before his term in
office is over in 2010, but many of those around him
do not want to defeat the FARC. Why? Not for love of
the FARC, but for love of the business of war, and the
drug business. The officer corps of the Colombian army
need the FARC to perpetuate the flow of money which
not only pays their salaries, but which is the basis
for enormous opportunities for corruption.

Similarly, the continuous focus of attention on the
FARC distracts attention from the sectors of the
military and land owners who are deeply involved in
the drug trade. If the FARC disappears, and the drug
trade doesn't....the finger will begin to point in
other directions.

These tensions within Uribismo extend to the question
of war with Venezuela. Economically a war with
Venezuela is likely to be a disaster for many sectors
of Colombian capitalists. However, it could be a
bonanza for the corrupt officer corps, and it could be
a bonanza for the drug dealers who Chavez's government
have been intolerant of, with the exception of corrupt
officials who Chavez' has been weeding out. 

Despite the superficial unity of the Colombian ruling
class and petty bourgeoisie behind Uribe, there are
deep divisions just below the surface. 

Anthony


      
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