Thugs in Colombia try to thwart democracy
international |
anti-war / imperialism |
news report 
Thursday July 24, 2003 08:17
by joe ranii
Aware that they would receive perhaps 2% of the vote if they ran for election in Colombia, FARC's answer is to threaten to kill decent men and women who have the guts to seek a mandate from the people. This crude intimidation provides further evidence of the FARC's ideological disarray and moral bankruptcy.
From Reuters:
Colombia's largest guerrilla army, the Marxist FARC, has threatened to kill all candidates for October municipal elections, saying they and their families will be declared military targets.
In a letter sent to the nation's mayors, obtained by Reuters news service over the weekend, FARC — the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia — said the threat extended to candidates for mayor, governor, city council and provincial legislatures.
The nationwide vote, the first election under the government of President Alvaro Uribe, is slated for Oct. 26. The president took power last year promising to make Latin America's most violent nation safe again.
Comments (4 of 4)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4Aware that democracy is a fig leaf which can be easily manipulated by the rich and corrupt, Uribe, leader and representative of Colombia's landowners is seeking to run for President again contrary to the Constitution. Ripping up the rule book is nothing new to the gang of militarist, facist, gangster elite in Colombia.
As part of Uribe's drive for absolute power, attention is being distracted away from the wholesale thieving of the Colombian nation by offering the people two scapegoats to blame for Colombias misfortunes the FARC nad the ELN. This campaign is having some success, as tunnel visioned mouthpieces the world over regurgitate any and every pro-Uribe propoganda available. Rumours of financial incentive for doing so persist, and have not yet been disproved.
More biased reporting from Joe ranting colombian military junta PR black ops spokesperson, give it a rest Joe Ranting, you're not doing very well.
Jo Ta Ke's posting shows at least that s/he knows something about Colombia, unlike most who post here on the topic. However, I am disturbed that s/he so glibly discards democracy as "a fig leaf". This confirms my belief that FARC fellow-travellers are anti-democratic. S/he is also quite wrong to say that Uribe is seeking to change the constitution in order to run for a second term. It is some of his supporters who have suggested this, with the reasonable argument that the problems of Colombia cannot be solved within one four-year term. There is nothing sacrosanct about the single four-year term to which Colombian presidents are currently restricted. Its roots go back to the flawed settlement of the Liberal-Conservative civil war of the 1950s. As part of the deal, it was agreed that the parties would alternate the presidency. Such a settlement has nothing to offer today--Colombians should be free to give or deny Uribe (elected as an Independent) a mandate for another 4 years, based on their judgment of how he has done so far. All indications right now are that most Colombians would happily give him another term. However, despite Jo's mistaken assertion, Uribe has NOT asked for any such constitutional change. And yes, Jo, Colombia has a constitution, and holds regular elections. You see, it's a democracy--didn't you know that ?
Right wing paramilitary forces trained in counter insurgency at the USA funded Shool of the Americas kill endless numbers of Colombians. They are particularily keen to rid Colombian society of trade unionists, Uribe does nothing to stop them.
The executions of trade union leaders and the gross intmidation faced by ordinary Colombian workers whenever a union is discussed is supported by Uribe because it suits his masters and their ultimate masters the caplitalist class in the USA primarily but the same class worldwide.
The apologist for the Colomnian government and their USA backers does not mention these forces at all. Not surprising as it is their black propagande.
Raise a dust storm about hte FARC and the ELN. But they fail to answer he questions if they are such besotted terrorists then how come they are still around after such a long time.
There's a simple answer, the peoople don't see them as ruthless terrorists they are made out to be in the black propaganda. No they see them as providing the only protection they have from the thugs', the paramilitary and police, attacks.
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