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The Militant (logo)
Vol. 80/No. 35 September 19, 2016
(front page)
Agreement to end Colombia-FARC war opens door for class struggle
BY MAGGIE TROWE
The government of Colombia and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of
Colombia (FARC) guerrilla group announced Aug. 24 that after nearly four
years of talks they have reached a “definitive agreement,” ending more
than 50 years of hostilities, the longest armed conflict in the history
of Latin America.
Cuba’s revolutionary government was instrumental in facilitating the
negotiations, hosted in Havana, with Cuba and Norway as “guarantor”
countries and Chile and Venezuela “accompanying” countries. Cuban leader
Fidel Castro has been a proponent of a negotiated end to the conflict
for decades.
The agreement puts working people in Colombia in a better position to
defend their interests without the obstacle of the war, which was often
used as an excuse for government clampdowns on political and labor rights.
Some 80 percent of the 220,000 people who were killed during the war
were civilians, the big majority at the hands of rightist
paramilitaries, soldiers or police. More than 10 percent of Colombia’s
47 million inhabitants were displaced.
While in the last half decade the number of killings by paramilitary
groups and the military has dropped dramatically, more than 110 trade
unionists have been killed since 2009, according to Human Rights Watch.
As part of the accord the FARC will be allowed to form a political party
after turning over its weapons to a United Nations mission. The new
party will be guaranteed five seats in the Colombian House and five in
the Senate in the elections of 2018 and 2022, regardless of the outcome
of voting.
Amnesty will be granted to those who committed “political” crimes. Those
found guilty of “war crimes” or “crimes against humanity” will be held
for a time in special centers, not prisons. The government agreed it
would not extradite demobilized guerrillas, blocking Washington from
attempting to bring them to the U.S. for trial on alleged drug
trafficking charges. The agreement will be voted on in an Oct. 2
plebiscite.
The Colombian Senate voted overwhelmingly Aug. 29 to approve holding the
referendum. Former President Alvaro Uribe is campaigning against it.
In the 1960s, several guerrilla groups grew out of peasant struggles for
land and resistance to repression and massacres by Colombia’s U.S-backed
capitalist rulers. Today just 0.4 percent of the population owns 62
percent of the best land and 83 percent of farmers lack agricultural
machinery.
The FARC became the largest group. It was formed in 1964 by peasant
leader Manuel Marulanda, then a member of the Communist Party of
Colombia, which looked to the Stalinist regime in the Soviet Union for
political guidance. The FARC split from the Communist Party in 1993.
At its height the FARC organized more than 10,000 combatants and
occupied large swaths of the Colombian countryside, but in recent years
had lost ground to government offensives.
Under Plan Colombia, initiated by the administration of President Bill
Clinton, Washington has sent military aid totaling nearly $10 billion to
Colombia since 2000, ostensibly aimed both at eliminating coca and at
the guerrillas.
‘FARC didn’t intend to take power’
Unlike Cuba, where the Rebel Army led by Fidel Castro began organizing
land reform, literacy campaigns and other revolutionary measures in
areas under rebel control even before it succeeded in overthrowing the
Fulgencio Batista dictatorship, the FARC and other guerrilla groups left
capitalist economic and social relations intact in the areas they
controlled.
While guerrilla groups denied U.S. and Colombian government charges that
they were involved in drug trafficking, they defended the collection of
a tax on those involved in the drug trade, like they did on other
capitalist enterprises.
The guerrilla leaders never saw the armed struggle as a road to
increasing the self-confidence, class-consciousness and discipline of
workers and farmers to rapidly take political power. Instead, Marulanda
“conceived a lengthy and prolonged struggle,” Castro explained in the
book La paz en Colombia (Peace in Colombia), published in 2008. Castro
also criticized the methods of the Colombian guerrillas of taking both
civilians and soldiers hostage. (See page 7.)
The Armando Rios First Front, the 200-strong FARC unit famous for
holding presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt hostage for six years,
announced July 6 it doesn’t intend to disarm. The National Liberation
Army (ELN), another guerrilla group, has said it is willing to negotiate
with the government.
Related articles:
Lessons of Cuban Revolution valuable in Colombia
Fidel Castro’s 2008 book discusses how Cuban fighters took power, course
of leaders of FARC
Rebel Army’s moral values key to overthrow of Batista
UN caused cholera epidemic in Haiti; Cuban doctors fought it
IRS attack on Pastors for Peace is aimed at solidarity with Cuba
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