Interview with Guerrilla Commander Raul Reyes:
"THE SANTA FE DOCUMENT II IS STILL APPLIED IN COLOMBIA TODAY"
Q: The military often says they have discovered drug laboratories
protected by the guerrilla movement. Do you have a comment about this?
RR: This is absolutely false. It is part of the misinformation
campaign, part of the Army's inability to demonstrate results. These
factors justify their presence in some areas by discovering alleged
laboratories which are actually mere workshops a few peasants have,
places they set up to work the coca leaf.
They grow nothing more. These are not laboratories, but merely places
where they store some gas and some salt to process the leaf which they
will later sell to intermediaries. That's it. But the military makes
it into something big to justify to the US the use of US aid for the war
against drugs. They are trying to fool not only Colombians but also the
North Americans themselves, because anyone who doesn't know that says:
"so these guerrillas are winning the war" and that's why they show off
thousands of hectacres they've fumigated lately, and that also is
untrue.
If the North Americans wanted to verify this, we can get them the
necessary information, we could show them the coca regions, take them to
the laboratories the military has allegedly destroyed and they will see
that this is all a farse, that it is deceit, a lie that is being told
not only to Colombians but also to the international community.
Q: I understand that you have formally invited representatives of the US
government and Colombian anti-narco trafficking authorities to the zones
where the FARC-EP fronts are located so that they can verify in person
that there are no links between the narco traffickers and the FARC-EP.
RR: It would be very interesting to have a means of communicating with
them, to allow them access to places that we indicate, in any department
because the FARC-EP are all throughout Colombia, so they can see and get
information on the other Colombia, the Colombia the Colombian government
and military hide.
That would be very important because it would allow the North Americans
and their government to see the reality they are not aware of. It is
very important for us because our policy is to communicate with
everyone, our policy is to talk with different goverments and their
parties, with social organizations, intellectuals and all religious
expressions. This is how we have spoken with various European
governments, neighboring and other Latin American governments. Likewise
it would be equally important and very positive to be able to speak with
the US, all the more so since they have put their government forth as a
possible participant in the dialogue process to facilitate the terms to
be approved of with the FARC-EP.
This could be a possible beginning to look for methods for peace,
because it is also clear to us that the governments that will
participate in a possible dialogue must participate with the approval
and the request of all parties concerned, including the FARC and the
guerrilla organization that represents part of the Colombian society and
State. We will not accept any government or organization appearing as
facilitator in representation of both organizations (both States, both
governments - Bogota's and our own) which has been invited by Bogota
alone because we must also be included in the process. All of this
would then allow us to advance with our proposal, which may turn into
something very important in making the Colombian reality known so we can
all work together to solve the current political and socio-economic
crisis.
Q: But the US tendency toward Colombia is one of handing over more war
material to the government in Bogota. Is this not contradictory?
RR: Yes, this is well known and the press in Colombia makes a big deal
out of it. It is skillfuly manipulated also to show that they have
North American aid because everyone knows that North America is not
satisfied with President Samper because of his involvement with the
mafia, and his profits from narco dollars.
So they want to demonstrate that this is not so, because the US is
still providing a lot of financial aid and the so called plans for the
war against illegal crops in Colombia. If they receive any aid at all,
large or small, they magnify it, make it larger than life evidence of
the fight they are not really fighting. It is not true that they are
fighting against drugs traffickers, the ones they are fighting are the
peasants, the poor, those who have no other choice.
We think that the North Americans lack information, they lack the
knowledge of where their resources end up, and who benefits from them.=20
Those resources do not end up where they were assigned to go.=20
Supposedly allocated for the war against drugs the resources are really
used in the war against the guerrilla, against the peasants, and to
contribute to financing the paramilitaries. So we would like to be able
to show the North Americans whenever they like what our vision is
regarding these matters. We would like to show such public figures as
Mr. Carter and others, so they may have information about what the
Colombian political class is, and how it acts to deceive not only
Colombians but also North Americans.
This is a problem that is part of Colombian politics. Perhaps the
North Americans do not realize that if the resources they gave were
invested in other areas like agrarian reform, roads, health facilities,
and education, then it would improve the image of North America in
Colombia. It would not contribute to what they are doing today, which
is actually creating more pain for the people by protecting the corrupt,
the narco traffickers, and the mafioso government represented by Dr.
Samper.
Q: But do you really believe that the North Americans are so naive and
so misinformed that they do not know exactly what is happening in
Colombia with respect to narco trafficking?
RR: No, they are not naive, but they get information from a State and
they are a State. At the State level there are exchanges; they have
political, economic, and military relations. We also know that North
American policy has various interpretations, and not all North Americans
agree with the policies. For example, not all agree with Mr. Helms
concerning the embargo against Cuba, or the repressive laws against
Colombians, or against Iraq or other regions in the world. Likewise
they must see that in Colombia there are also various interpretations,
but that this can strengthen and benefit Colombia and her friends to
find ways besides North American repression. This can happen if they
have accurate information and not only reports from Colombian
intelligence, General Serrano Cadena, the Colombian army, DAS, or the
President himself, be he Samper or Serpa.
Q: How do you view the creation of a new Anti drug Center in Panama by
the US?
RR: This is part of a strategy to protect their interests. We all know
that above all US policy is to protect what they consider theirs, and
they believe that everything in the world belongs to them. So they are
on the Panama/Colombia border in support of Panama's government, and by
request and in support of Colombia's government as well. So that is
where they are going to stay, and they are going to set up some bases
that will be not for mafia control, but rather to control the
revolutionary organizations on the continent. So this has some
political implications that naturally affect the US and of course all of
the people in the region, countries not part of the empire but rather
dependent on the US.
But perhaps the US has not thought that this may complicate the future
for them, because in the Colombian case anti US sentiment is
increasingly strong. This is a product of their poor policies, and it
is why many people in Colombia see them not only as their enemies but
also as meddling in their domestic affairs. This is why they are
looking toward Europe. They think that Europe is different, and of
course its behavior is different from US behavior because the US is
closer to Colombia and South America than Europe.
Q: In any case, can you summarize that the Santa Fe II Document (which
was drawn up by US foreign policy advisors in 1989, editor's note) is
request and in support of Colombia's government as well. So that is
where they are going to stay, and they are going to set up some bases
that will be not for mafia control, but rather to control the
revolutionary organizations on the continent. So this has some
political implications that naturally affect the US and of course all of
the people in the region, countries not part of the empire but rather
dependent on the US.
But perhaps the US has not thought that this may complicate the future
for them, because in the Colombian case anti US sentiment is
increasingly strong. This is a product of their poor policies, and it
is why many people in Colombia see them not only as their enemies but
also as meddling in their domestic affairs. This is why they are
looking toward Europe. They think that Europe is different, and of
course its behavior is different from US behavior because the US is
closer to Colombia and South America than Europe.
Q: In any case, can you summarize that the Santa Fe II Document (which
was drawn up by US foreign policy advisors in 1989, editor's note) is
still in effect because there is a concern reflected in the document
with respect to Colombia's socio political development, the growth of
the armed movement, etc.?
RR: Yes, even though the East-West conflict disappeared with the "fall
of true socialism in Moscow," in Colombia the Santa Fe II document is
still applied. This is evident in death squads, the application of the
theory of national security, and the internal war that massacres
political opposition, where social protest is criminalized, and where
anyone who protests because of hunger, thirst, desire for education, to
be paid for a job, or to have a job, is henceforth considered
subversive. This is the application of the theory of national security
which allows the government to maintain fear in the population so they
can impose the neo liberal model with force. Economic opening is
another element that contributes to Colombia being in such a serious
situation. This also gives the revolutionary movement led by the
guerrilla more elements to justify its existence, expressed by growing
numbers of armed men and women, and by entering into new areas of the
economy, and in society.
The Jos=E9 Mar=EDa C=F3rdoba Block of the FARC-EP hereby makes known that:
1. In combat with units from the 17 Brigade of the Army and its
paramilitaries 10 soldiers were killed, the Convivir headquarters in the
center of Medellin was destroyed, and a powerful explosion was placed
against Uniban. Furthermore a hacienda and two buses from the
paramilitary company Rapido Ochoa were destroyed in the jurisdiction of
Altamira, the village of Betulia, Antioquia, when five paramilitary
murderers were killed. Later in Carepa in combat with paramilitaries
from the Army's 17 Brigade, ten were killed and five more were seriously
injured. Confiscated for the people were 10 AK guns with 1,000 bullets.
2. There were no guerrilla losses.
Jos=E9 Mar=EDa C=F3rdoba Block Command
The Mountains of Colombia
April 1998
1. What do the FARC think about the presidential candidates and their
peace proposals?
We must know who among all the candidates will be the new President of
the Republic and then know his peace proposals as Chief of State. We
must not forget that historically in the period of electoral debate many
promises are made that are not kept in the presidency.
2. What do you think about this possibility in relation to the other
actors in the conflict (the State, the ELN, EPL and the
paramilitaries)? Is there a possibility to take this process up as the
Sim=F3n Bol=EDvar Guerrilla Coordinator? What do you think about the
proposal of the National Convention of the ELN as a basis to begin the
process?
Rest assured that the revolutionary organizations are not stepping back
in the peace proposals with social justice set forth time and again.=20
The State has the responsibility to create the political conditions for
rapprochement with the various political forces in order to begin
dialogues, for which is is necessary to assume the challenges implicit
in the construction of understanding, tolerance and the solution to the
causes of the conflict.
3. What requirements or conditions do you feel are necessary in order to
sit at a negotiation table in the future? Are there political, social,
economic and cultural conditions necessary to begin this process?
In various documents and public speeches we have noted that in order to
begin serious peace talks we must see the evacuation of troops from the
municipalities of Uribe, Mesetas, Vistahermosa and Macarena, the
department of Meta and the municipality of San Vicente del Cagu=E1n in
Caquet=E1. We also will attend dialogues as an armed revolutionary
organization and will not accept them under denigrating name calling far
from the raison d'etre of our organization. Thus, we demand true
commitment and political will in dismantling paramilitary groups and
death squads in the army. These organizations go unpunished after
murdering and displacing unarmed civilians, under the pretext of
defending State policies. Everyday Colombia is closer to a larger war
stimulated by the devastating effects of the neo liberal model,
corruption in all parts of the government, intolerance, lies and
blackmail made possible by the governmental regime. These are
sufficient reasons for reacting responsibly in true civilized solutions
which must be the result of the patriotic meeting of all social,
political, economic and religious sectors who are interested in changing
the dangerous direction our country has been taking to this day.
4. Would your willingness to begin a reconciliation process be for the
long term, medium term or the present, and under what arguments? =20
Since there has been a true political decision to abandon the path of
war and the government has seriously begun the construction of peace
clamored for by the poor, we feel that it is not wise to attach time
limits because peace demands immense resources of every kind, and time
counts too.
PRESS RELEASE FROM THE FARC-EP
To the wives and other relatives of the North American New Tribes
Missionaries who were disappeared on the frontier of Colombia with
Panam=E1, we confirm to you again that the FARC-EP carried out a careful
investigation in the entire region of the Antioquian Urab=E1 regarding the
worrisome case and to date we have no other information than that made
known in a Press Release from December 1997, attached. The guerrilla
organization cannot assume the responsibility for acts we did not commit
and it is unjust to make statements regarding alleged actions lacking
any objectivity at all.
We would like to believe that the humane, explicable tasks of relatives
worried about the disappearance of their loved ones have nothing to do
with the various pretexts the Pentagon and the White House use with the
approval of their country's extreme right. They seek nonexistent
motives to openly intervene in the domestic affairs of Colombia with
more dollars, planes and combat helicopters, military advisors, experts
in communications and mass destruction arms to support the Armed Forces
and Ernesto Samper's government. Elected with drug money and known
throughout the world for the high rate of Human Rights Violations and
International Human Rights Violations, besides corruption, Samper covers
his delinquent acts under the wide umbrella of impunity, threats,
indiscriminate murders and forced displacement of peasants and the
unarmed civilian population.
The FARC-EP would like to alert the people of the US of the dangerous
outcome US (or other foreign) military intervention against the
revolutionary organizations fighting for peace for the 30 million poor
will have. So we make the urgent call to your people, to social
organizations, the progressive and the democratic forces to demand that
their government avoid another dangerous venture similar to or worse
than Vietnam, part of our sad memory.
Attached is the press release referred to.
In the spirit of Bolivar,
THE INTERNATIONAL COMMISSION
May 1998
TO THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY
The Internal Conflict and Narco Trafficking
The Colombian military government has launched the largest and most
desperate propaganda campaign based on their admitted incapacity to
militarily or politically defeat the Guerrilla, in order to sell the
International public opinion on the idea of an alleged link between the
Guerrilla and narco trafficking. This is a resource copied from the
Hitlerian practice of repeating and repeating a lie until attaining its
acceptance as a truth.
In some ways this campaign is a remake of the story about the birds
throwing themselves into the line of fire. Is not Samper, against all
ethical grounds, enjoying the seat of Bolivar thanks to the money he
received from the Cali cartel? Was not General Bonett, Commander of the
Armed Forces, Commander of the III Brigade of the Army when the Cali
Cartel moved with complete freedom, in the center of crime? Perchance
was not General Bedoya the one who commanded the VII Brigade when the
coca zones spread across the Eastern Plains? Not to mention the
Attorneys General, controllers, lawyers, and congressmen who also
benefitted from the dirty mafia money.
Joe Toffal is right on when he declares the Colombian regime a narco
democracy.
The dirty campaign designed to link the Guerrilla and narco trafficking
lies on two essencial propositions: on the one hand, it seeks to
delegitimize the Guerrilla and reduce it to common delinquency to avoid
it being considered as an alternative for change and power; and on the
other hand, it seeks to open a space to justify direct US intervention
in the internal conflict. The first is impossible for an oligarchical
government which has sown injustice on Colombian soil for decades; the
second is starting to motivate the Pentagon.
US intervention in domestic affairs in Colombia is not a new event: the
US has granted military aid and advisors to the Colombian Army since the
attack on Marquetalia, including the attack on Casa Verde and the
combats in Yari, during which General Bonett himself admitted receiving
electronic and satellite aid to fight the Guerrilla.
We would like to send a clear message to the US and the international
community: The FARC-EP do not engage in the cultivation of coca leaves,
we do not tend crops or processing laboratories, and do not traffick
cocaine. As a principle we condemn narco trafficking for the horrible
evils it causes human beings and especially young people. The
cultivation of the coca leaf and the poppy in Colombia is doubtless a
serious social problem. It has to do with hunger, unemployment and
forced displacement caused by State violence. The solution cannot be
simply irrational repression of the poor peasants. If we have attacked
fumigation helicopters and planes it is not only because they are an
obvious military target, but also and above all because we do not agree
with the devastation of the environment and the irreversible damaged
caused to the flora, fauna, water springs and the people by spraying
toxic products. Surely the US would not permit similar sprayings in
their own territory.
The solution to the narco problem must take up the social causes which
generate it. The truth is that the Colombian government, because of its
vested interests, has never been politically willing to carry out the
urgent task of the redistribution of land. It has been busy adopting
economic policies for the exclusive benefit of monopolies while the
majority of Colombians hear only demagogy and redeeming promises that
are never kept. It is necessary to implement a coherent plan of crop
substitution to open new perspectives for the sustenance of peasants,
complemented with the execution of a true development program including
land titles, credit which is favorable to the peasant, highways, health
and educational facilities, a market for their products, the
construction of ports and airports, among other urgent necessities. Of
course, in this effort the solidary participation of the International
Community is necessary.
In Colombia the Medellin and Cali drug cartels have almost been
dismantled, but their activities have resurged with the tolerance of the
Army by the paramilitary cartel led by the Casta=F1o Gil family, while in
the US the most notorious distributors remain untouched. If we solve
the social causes which push the peasant to illegal crops, and if we
educate US and other international youth for non consumption, the
Cartels which still persist in Colombia and in the US will have no
incentive and narco trafficking will then begin its descent into
history.
The International Commission of the FARC-EP
PRESS RELEASE
The 34 Front of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, Army of the
People, hereby informs the national and international public opinion:
1. On Tuesday April 28 a 60 unit patrol from the Granaderos de Frontino
Battalion, Antioquia, occupied the town of Encarnaci=F3n in the
municipality of Urrao. There it began to gather together the
townspeople in the name of the Autodefensas de C=F3rdoba and Urab=E1. They
later opened fire against the town, leaving 23 peasants murdered, 10 on
the outskirts and 13 in the Ca=F1on del Maravillo. They also burned the
hospital, looted the stores and broke down doors to various houses.
This military operation was completed in conjunction with Captain
Osorio, Urrao military base Commander. This base has been linked to
other massacres in the region, totaling more than 150 dead.
2. As a result, this new massacre is the responsibility of the Official
Armed Forces, which made good on the threats they had previously made
known in the village.
3. Now as always some public officials seek to manipulate the facts, and
are presenting them as the result of confrontations with the guerrilla
and paramilitary groups.
4. This massacre is the continuation of the dirty war, the expression of
the Doctrine of National Security, which leads the Official Army and
converts the people into the internal enemy to defeat.
34 Front of the FARC-EP
The Mountains of Antioquia, April 1998
The 9 Front of the FARC - EP denounces the following:
1. The peasant murders in the villages of Ingenio, Topacio, San Juli=E1n
and Agua Bonita, in the municipality of San Rafael in Antioquia, are
being carried out by troops in the Barbacoas Heroes Battalion; more
precisely, by members of the Rancho de Lata military base dressed as=20
paramilitaries.
2. We accuse General Carlos Alberto Ospina Ovalle, Commander of the
Army's IV Brigade, of managing or scheming these murders, which have
already provoked the massive displacement of the population.
3. We call on Human Rights Defendor NGOs, on the Catholic Church, on the
International Red Cross, the Attorney General, and the Press to
intervene so the IV Brigade will respect Human Rights and end their
attacks against the civilian population.
COMMAND OF THE 9 FRONT OF THE FARC-EP
The Mountains of Antioquia, April 1998
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Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia
Ejercito del Pueblo FARC-EP
Comision Internacional
E-mail: elbarcino@laneta.apc.org
http://burn.ucsd.edu/~farc-ep/ (Revista edicion #17)
http://members.tripod.com/~farc/ (Revista edicion #16)
http://www.contrast.org/mirrors/farc/ (Espejo Revista #17)
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