http://themilitant.com/2016/8040/804003.html
The Militant (logo)
Vol. 80/No. 40 October 24, 2016
(front page)
Colombia ‘no’ vote reflects discontent with gov’t, FARC
BY MARK THOMPSON
Voters in an Oct. 2 referendum in Colombia narrowly rejected a peace
pact that had been signed just days earlier between the government and
the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). Opposition parties
had campaigned against the deal, appealing to resentment at concessions
granted to the FARC. The majority of those eligible did not vote.
“People saw the agreement as a done deal,” Ever Causada, a spokesperson
for Sintramienergética, a union of miners and other energy workers, told
the Militant by phone from Barranquilla Oct. 11. “In the areas most
affected by the confrontation between the government and the FARC, the
vote was overwhelming for yes.”
Tens of thousands joined student-led marches in the capital, Bogotá, and
other cities Oct. 5 urging continued support for a negotiated end to
decades-long fighting between the government and the guerrillas. The
country’s union federations have issued similar appeals.
Former President Álvaro Uribe, who led the “vote no” campaign, met with
President Juan Manuel Santos Oct. 5 to propose “adjustments” to the
agreement. A joint statement by government and FARC representatives two
days later said they were holding talks to “promptly find a solution.”
They said an Aug. 29 cease-fire would continue.
Some 220,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed over five
decades in fighting by soldiers, cops and government-backed paramilitary
groups with the FARC and other guerrilla groups. Another 92,000
disappeared, and 7 million have been displaced, mainly peasants who fled
the countryside to escape bombings, land mines, kidnappings and murders
by both sides.
“In the zones most affected by the war, some people resent what the FARC
has done, but the majority say forgive and start over,” César Pachón
told the Militant Oct. 10 from Boyacá. Pachón is a leader of Potato
Growers Dignity and other peasant organizations.
The 297-page peace accord was signed by Santos and FARC leader Rodrigo
Londoño, also known as Timochenko, at a televised ceremony in Cartagena
Sept. 26. Those attending included 12 Latin American heads of state and
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry. Timochenko asked for “forgiveness
for all the pain that we have caused.”
The agreement followed four years of negotiations hosted in Cuba, whose
revolutionary government was instrumental in promoting an end to the
conflict. The FARC agreed to surrender its weapons to United Nations
monitors and reconstitute itself as a political party. It also agreed to
collaborate to end the production and trafficking of drug crops, which
it had taxed in areas it controlled.
The opposition campaign led by Uribe attacked a guarantee for the new
party of 10 unelected seats in the Congress for two legislative terms.
It also condemned the amnesty granted to FARC leaders charged with major
crimes, who would be eligible for reduced terms of community work, and
financial benefits granted to FARC members.
In the plebiscite, which asked, “Do you support the final agreement to
end the conflict and construct a stable and enduring peace?” 50.2
percent voted no and 49.8 percent yes. It had been forecast to pass by a
two-to-one margin. Only 37 percent of voters turned out.
Discontent among workers, peasants
“There’s a lot of discontent with President Santos and Uribe took
advantage of that,” noted Pachón, pointing to attacks by police and
paramilitary groups on recent strikes. “The Santos government held
negotiations with the guerrillas over the question of land in the
countryside” without involving the peasants. “He and Uribe have the same
policies,” he added.
“The situation for working people is getting worse,” said Causada.
“Santos is raising the sales tax and imposing anti-worker labor laws.
For every worker directly employed, there are now nine contract workers.”
Formed in 1964, the FARC became the largest of several guerrilla groups
that grew out of peasant struggles for land and resistance to
repression. It was linked to the Communist Party of Colombia, which
looked to the Stalinist regime in Moscow. Its methods included
kidnapping for ransom.
The FARC is estimated to have numbered 20,000 in 2002 when Uribe became
president and launched a major military offensive, backed by Washington.
Today it is said to number 7,000. Santos, who was Uribe’s defense
minister, opened negotiations when he became president in 2010.
The FARC’s course was the opposite of the movement led by Fidel Castro
in Cuba, who organized working people there to overthrow the Fulgencio
Batista dictatorship on Jan. 1, 1959. Those who launched the
revolutionary struggle in 1953 “had a clear idea of our objectives, and
this remained constant,” wrote Castro in the 2008 book La paz en
Colombia (Peace in Colombia). But the FARC “never planned to conquer
power through the armed struggle,” he said.
Castro also criticized the FARC’s methods. “Civilians should have never
been kidnapped, nor should the soldiers have been kept as prisoners in
jungle conditions,” he said. “These were objectively cruel actions. No
revolutionary aim could justify them.”
In Cuba the Rebel Army led by Castro began organizing working people to
carry out land reform, literacy campaigns and other revolutionary
measures in areas under rebel control. The FARC left capitalist economic
and social relations intact in the areas they controlled.
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