[Marxism] On the so-called FARC "hostages"

["Sky Keyes-Vogt" <skeyesvogt@xxxxxxxxx>]

I sympathize with much of what aaron aarons said, however as Comrade Simon
Trinidad said himself (at his trial, directly before he yelled "long live
the people's army"), the strategy of taking civilian hostages (and
betancourt is that) does more damage than good to the movement.  However, I
am not so convinced as other people on this list that the FARC wasn't
organizing a release of these hostages.  A recent news article quoted an
anonymous member of leadership in the FARC as saying that Commadante Cano
had ordered that the hostages be grouped together for either release or
negotiations/release...  I dont think that the FARC's communique ruled out
that they were planning something, they merely said that the two local
leaders f'd it up (purposely or inadvertantly).  There is so much intrigue
and misinformation coming out of Colombia that it takes a lot of time to
piece things together (the incident in which Raul Reyes was murdered was
certainly such a case).... as one article i read noted that with the Jessica
Lynch 'rescue' and the Pat Tillman story, things often take a while to
become apparent.  Cano himself might not have wanted to let that part of the
story out because it might make him look weak to the 'strong' people in the
FARC such as Mono Jojoy and the militant peasants that refer to Cano as an
'intellectual half-timer' (see the book Walking Ghosts). The U.S. just
finally admitted that it had intelligence people as part of the operation,
this was flatly denied until now.  So we will see in due time what actually
happened in this situation.  What is important is not to slander the FARC
(and i am not accusing anyone of doing this), but also to criticize them as
comrades who wish to see a socialist Colombia one day.  We wouldn't be doing
our job if we didn't criticize FARC, the Cuban gov't, socialist parties here
in America or anyone else pursuing socialism in earnest; but in my view this
should be done only as their comrades....

in solidarity,

Sky Keyes
warehouse worker
CCSU undergrad
researcher at Univ of Hartford Center for Social Research
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