DIALOGUE AS AN ALTERNATIVE FOR PEACE: AN ONGOING POLITICAL FARC-EP
Written by Jesus Santrich and Rodrigo Granda.
Thursday, July 31, 2008 7:09
1. EXPERIENCES DURING THE COMMUNIST ARMED RESISTANCE IN THE FIFTIES:
in 1953 with a peremptory tone, threatening to deny "the right of amnesty" and proceed with relentless pursuit of rebellion, the regime made an urgent delivery requirement and unconditionally insurgent groups since the late forties came face of institutional violence.
armed resistance by then accepted the idea of \u200b\u200btalks with his counterpart as an alternative to find solutions to the confrontation. Consequently specifications were prepared to agree the dialogue with the envoys that the military is ready to send. In fact in the minds of the revolutionaries did not admit the possibility of imposition of unconditional disarmament when there were deeper reasons of social order that had given rise to conflict. Agree it was seen as a sad capitulation.
At all costs the Communists precursors armed resistance in Colombia sought in southern Tolima Regional Conference to be his which ultimately decide the procedure to continue the fight, if they could not continue the armed resistance in the conditions of that time, at least planning to continue processing and translation of what they could to preserve the movement.
Indeed in that year of the dictatorship of Rojas Pinilla, who had come to power with the complicity of the liberal-conservative bipartisanship, conducting talks took between government and insurgency, although it was given the situation in that the stigmatization of Communists was placing daily bread in times of danger the political situation in the detachments under his command. Remember the commander Manuel Marulanda "to offers of money by the heads of the leaders, who are believed responsible for the direction of not giving neither men nor weapons were repeated. The truth is that they were so tempting that no one could guarantee security in the midst of such conditions ... "
" It took cold blood, a lot of dedication and moral resistance to any evidence to resolve a situation as explosive and extremely complex. This is where the community demonstrates its ability to orient and guide even more acute conditions isolation of their general partisan or national sources. "
circumvented the terrorist strongholds and egged the government liquidators against the communist movement, the General Staff and Policy Committee take the contacts and talks with the military government, aiming to win time for the detachments to achieve the transformation that would enable move forward in advancing the broader movement of masses, in the place that everyone will find appropriate. "Raised a number of conditions for what could be a possible symbolic delivery"
Remember Comrade Manuel Marulanda in its "Campaign Notebook" "The first these detachments reached the Cauca and found the conditions created by previous commissions had visited this sector, to create what is known by the name of Agrarian Movement ...
Riochiquito Prías Alape commander continued the work a little more Later we found Marquetalia allowed in the extreme south of Tolima, "among other places where the momentum continued in the revolutionary movement.
This interlude of good intentions and efforts for peace launched by communist guerrillas of various kinds which had struggled for several years for their lives and their lands against government repression, soon was destroyed by the murder that came against most of its leaders agrarians or actions against whole communities of farmers who reworked their lives working the land, as happened with the operation launched against the Sumapaz and Villarrica.
In a brief summary in his book, Ceasefire, the commander Jacobo Arenas reminds us what happened in the so-called period of "pacification" of Rojas Pinilla:
"The Liberal guerrillas surrendered and handed their weapons at the behest of National Liberal leadership. The revolutionary guerrillas entered a period of recovery but not delivered or handed over their weapons. Sumapaz guerrillas were not delivered, Marulanda's guerrillas in Prías Alape, Trujillo Castaño, bordering the southern and northern Cauca, Tolima, were not delivered, the guerrillas under the command of Alfonso Castañeda "Richard" in Calarma, not delivered, the guerrillas Ezequiel Borja Rovira, Tolima, was not delivered, the guerrillas Agustín Bonilla "El Diablo" in the Alto Magdalena, was not delivered, the guerrillas led by Pedro Gonzalez, in the north of Tolima, was not delivered, nor is others already delivered under revolutionary leadership. The motion of Defense under revolutionary leadership was delivered or not delivered their weapons.
The guerrillas of the Llanos Orientales, Yacopi those of the Urrao, those of Santander, Boyacá, under Liberal leadership surrendered and handed over their weapons. Then most of its leaders and especially their leaders, starting with Guadalupe Salcedo, was killed falling into the hands of the mechanisms of intelligence and security, by police and army. The guerrillas in southern Tolima still in command of the Loaiza were reassembled by the government and military leaders for war against revolutionary guerrillas. "
Undoubtedly the betrayals forced to leave the retreat and fall also in the process of rearmament by the attack. The revival of revolutionary insurgency in command of armed resistance was evident in the Duck, Guayabero, Riochiquito and Marquetalia.
Regarding this point in reviving the confrontation Marulanda commander noted that "It is a stage of armed struggle in which the Communists themselves have to take up arms against the proposed crackdown physically exterminate the national territory . And a stage where the fighting was spreading and infecting other combatants rushing in solidarity actions in three or four departments. Last stage, which contributed greatly to the heroic cracking of the military dictatorship and creating favorable conditions for his overthrow. "
Jacobo Arenas For his part, wrote about that historic moment that
"in 1954, after the killing of students on 13 June in Bogotá, Rojas Pinilla assaults Villarrica, then the eastern part of Tolima and Sumapaz , while the guerrilla Marulanda Castaño and Trujillo were fighting in southern and Tierradentro Tolima, Cauca. In Villarrica was a war. The guerrillas acted jointly with the Defense for the first time. There were 10 thousand of the army engaged in the fight. The guerrillas and the peasants of Defense were 800. Fought even with "trappers" Fisto guns played their role, and more Macocos reason rifles and a few automatic weapon. The resistance lasted for almost a year. Then the resistance was cornered and began what is known as the column of march to San Rafael, at the height of the eastern Tolima and Huila, Meta and Guayabero in Duck in Caqueta, where large agrarian movements flourished. Sumapaz guerrilla resistance was when he fell Rojas Pinilla to power on May 10, 1957 and is when you start the second peace by military junta which took over the government. "
The revolutionary movement had since resumed the path of the arms, back to opt for dialogue in search of peace and consecutively enters a new phase of withdrawal waiting for the fulfillment of the commitments had been made by the State in terms of citizens' rights to return and begin to be interested in solving the problems caused by social neglect. It is precisely this symbolic place founded by the communist guerrilla leader James Prías Alape, Marquetalia, the place becomes the epicenter of the hopes for peace of demobilized combatants. After the peace agreements with the government, the result of dialogue in which entrusted the insurgency, Marquetalia, ceases to be an area of \u200b\u200bguerrillas and becomes a peaceful part of workers.
But again the hostility would government against the popular movement and betrayal. Among the many serious cases forced them to take up arms, was murdered in cold blood, in the back, at the hands of paramilitary hordes government mariachi, the maximum conductor James Marquetalia Agrarian Movement Prías Alape in January 1960. Later came the verbal attacks against the agricultural region to which most retrograde sectors of the oligarchy called independent republics while calling for his crushing military.
presents Let's see how this period of struggle and resistance commander Jacobo Arenas to 1984:
"In 1958 he became President Alberto Lleras Camargo liberal. At that time, and from the Senate, Alvaro Gomez Hurtado Catilin. launched violent against what he called "independent republics" that is, against the agrarian and self-defense movements. Already in the country, by the reactionary military commanders, not only developing the theory but the practice of "preventive war" now "internal war" under the doctrine of so-called National Security.
On 2 January 1960 was assassinated by "birds" liberal officers in command of the arch-José de Jesús Oviedo, alias "Mariachi", the great commander James Prías Alape revolutionary guerrillas. The troops arrived to rouse the mariachi Gaitania liberal and skirmishes were fought with the guerrillas Marquetalia, but suddenly the attack was stopped.
The January 8, 1962 unexpectedly returned to the Army and Marquetalia attack at any moment the operation was suspended and withdrawn forces. President Alberto Lleras Camargo was then.
Alvaro Gomez Hurtado, other senators and representatives reactionaries, the mainstream press and the military high command, return to his virulent campaign against so-called "independent republics" and are in progress in military leadership not only the "theory of preventive war," but concrete plans, objectives determined with absolute precision through the accumulation, processing, evaluation and specification of combat intelligence, and the May 27, 1964, 20 years ago, chaired by Conservative Guillermo León Valencia, rule began in Operation Marquetalia "under the general guidelines of the plan LASO, or Latin American Security Operation," for once and for all clear where it is ultimately left the orders of the military operation.
Marquetalia is therefore the symbol of this already long stage of modern guerrilla movement in our country. He showed the guerrilla revolutionary than can a core of fighters with political awareness, defining class, proud and belligerent than it is capable of leading a core, a core armed fighter who gets in their actions the art of mobile guerrilla warfare. It was a small group of 45 men he faced to 16 thousand of the Army. "
As we can see, then, from before its founding, from the time of the pioneers of the communist armed resistance in Colombia, the FARC-EP ever, and despite the malice of the regime, have been observed peace talks as a place to seek consultations on social justice. Therefore, the door to dialogue has always been open, however, as recalled by the National Secretariat of our organization insurgent Open Letter sent to the country, patriotic and democratic sectors of the three branches of government, in the first months of 2007, "peace, political settlement, remains the most expensive longing in the collective soul of Colombians. It was not possible because the above does not want to give up their privileges, or want to share, entrenched in their exclusive democracy and after the imperial eagle's talons.
La Uribe, Caracas, Tlaxcala and San Vicente, opportunities were lost because the oligarchy in power only wanted the demobilization of the insurgents without changes in the structures. "
In periods of negotiation have ratified the social objectives of the guerrilla struggle in both of those approaches we have taken up arms have always pointed not to find solutions or perks for the soldiers but to find political solutions to the conflict -social and armed with strong involvement of the population. In short, we understand that the political solution of the social and armed conflict must be purpose of all Colombians en todos los tiempos; pero deberemos tener claro que este no es asunto que se pueda manejar sólo con nuestras buenas intenciones y nuestros mejores deseos, puesto que los gobiernos, en sentido contrario a nuestros anhelos, como ha quedado demostrado en la práctica, incluso han utilizado los diálogos como estratagema para ganar tiempo para hacer la reingeniería del ejército que les permita continuar su siniestro juego de aventuras militares, en la búsqueda del aplastamiento bélico de la inconformidad, y no de soluciones sensatas a los problemas sociales que han engendrado el conflicto.
La lógica oligárquica que responde a una mentalidad mezquina y militarista, como lo recuerda la Dirección insurgent in the same note above, has brought disastrous consequences for the country, "five lost decades, hundreds of thousands dead, destitution, sovereignty tainted, false dependency and democracy have been the result of stubborn determination to annihilate the path of weapons discontent of the people. All military operations from 64 to 2006, from the Patriot Plan LASO to the gringos, ended in failure. All presidents since Uribe Guillermo León Valencia to short deadlines were set for the military defeat of the guerrillas, and ended after an illusion. "
Therefore, in a measure that has been pounding the warmongering of Uribe, boosted by Washington, its transnational dollar and the great power of the media of disinformation and manipulation deepens the conviction that peace with this government is a chimera would have to agree on establishing a new government desired to undertake the construction of Peace in the direction of social justice, which is a sacred right of the people.
Remember dialogues and other experiences which led to the failure in each one of them could help us get a clearer picture of the paths to follow in this struggle for negotiated solution to the confrontation, that in no way should cease in the consciousness of those in Colombia fight for the possibility of a better world for everyone.
2 - THE URIBE, PEACE MASSACRE.
One of the most important discussions took place in the eighties during the government of Belisario Betancur, whose agreements, La Uribe (1984), already show the concern of the insurgency to conclude peace but the significance of achieving the establishment of social justice and the opening of roads to people's participation in guiding the destinies of the country.
The "good intentions" of Belisario Betancur and Peace Commission, not enough for the Regime adopted a position consistent with the agreement in La Uribe. The conspiracy of militarism with the most regressive of the establishment without blushing launched the "dirty war" combined in an operation that targeted killing against the Patriotic Union and the Colombian Communist Party at first, then spread to all sectors of the Left the trade union movement, a progressive liberal and conservative leaders, human rights defenders and, finally, representatives and spokesmen popular, no doubt counting on the complicity of the senses undeniable Betancur Cuartas.
Commenting on the terrible circumstances of deepening of the dirty war that arrived to the country, the Staff of the FARC-EP, in an open letter of 24 February 1987 addressed to Enrique Santos Calderon, who since the insidious right-wing daily El Tiempo "inquired" about the state of the process peace against which consistently editorialized and sowed tares - stated:
"(...) the paramilitary groups, the reactionary military provoking the armed conflict in various parts of the country and particularly in guerrilla areas, torture, disappearances and killings of citizens that make up the dark under a state of violence and corruption by unknown country in the history of the war are not properly known as such but "dirty war actions," ie, the implementation of a plan of fascist terror, like those who suffered firsthand the Southern Cone countries ... "
And later point with certainty:
"The peace process begun 14 months before the signing of the agreements of La Uribe, precisely on January 30, 1983, from the moment he found enemies irreconcilable still harbor a lot of power. Everyone knows that this is militarism. And everyone can without difficulty pointing the finger at its main followers in command of the military machine of the State ... "
Despite the military high command, despite all odds, the Agreements of Uribe and the peace process sought about the agreement was an experience in which the country could see more clearly the altruistic aims of the guerrilla movement, and above all served to show that they still could have the "chance of beating the war with peace" (J. Arenas).
But what were the reforms posed by the FARC? Simply political, economic which epitomized in a government program that aimed to take a path social justice as the real possibility that could remove the hunger, violence, war ...
Within this perspective, the National Audit Commission cease-fire, truce and peace, one of the aspects considered priority was to cease the siege that for decades held by each government oligarchy.
The order to cease fire from the FARC and the government, there was the May 28, 1984, with the disadvantage that as of the day, as if different lines between civil and State military, Jacobo Arenas recalls in his book Cease Fire "The Army operational deployed in counter-guerrilla fronts 14 and 15 in the Caquetá, in the 10 vs. in Arauca, the 21, 22 and 23, at 4, 12 and 20 fronts in the Middle Magdalena, in the 3 and 13 fronts in Huila, and ordered to-order operating against all the other fronts of the FARC in the country. " It was a clear violation of the agreements of Uribe and the Presidential Order of the ceasefire from the Army, ordered by the general public circular Vega Uribe, which was widely circulated in the press the first of June l984 :
''The Armed Forces will continue as it has been willing to intensify the moment subversive organizations take their determination FARC cease-fire, intelligence operations, combat and military control, seeking at all costs weaken the most of their subversive activities. "
Since the beginning of the truce, then, so set in motion the actions to break the agreements of La Uribe and block a possible peace treaty democratic, stable and lasting peace in Colombia, to prevent the undertaking of that then it was intended as a "democratic opening" to ensure the mobilization of the masses to fight for a reform of exclusionary political practices.
The enemies of the process peace, civil and military embedded conceptions of the militarist National Security Doctrine took the body of the same Constitution to justify their warmongering, and also took the permanence of the state of siege to continue its dirty war by killing peasants and common people of communist revolutionary leaders and other organizations that believed in the project of peace and social transformation in ways other than war.
By then, next to the murders and massacres, were fired arbitrary arrests, disappearances, and torture, and generally featuring element s of the Armed Forces and state paramilitaries, as with death squads infamous type of MAS.
By persevering and for several tragic years of mourning, the Patriotic Union, democratic organizations and it is clear that the FARC, they raised their voices for the immediate completion of the siege that while serving as a screen to the repressive action against the popular movement, there was nothing against the terrorist violence of the state.
restricted against so-called democracy, which in reality was a total absence of democracy, it persisted in the struggle for democratic opening that would translate into the establishment social justice in freedom and dignity. The militancy of the UP., Remained within such propósit6os at the cost of martyrdom is unprecedented in the history of Colombia. Towards the end of 86 the list of killed and passed a thousand victims, a number that grew steadily until it reaches the staggering figure of more than five thousand killed.
An idea of \u200b\u200bjustice, the thought of progress for the country, a proposal for Colombia to become the nation pleasant for its inhabitants, was what they longed for the combatants and the people who lead the project Patriotic Union. And so accurate, it reaffirmed something that transcends time to register a need for this: "to achieve it, will need to unite to battle against the theory of security, which is the new concept fascist state."
From the early beginnings of the killing, by pursuing peace, but with your feet on the reality of genocide regime imposed rapidly, from Uribe in Meta province, Manuel Marulanda, Jacobo Arenas, Jaime Guaraco, Raul Reyes and Alfonso Cano, on behalf of the General Staff of the FARC-EP, in October 1984, stated: "Without defeat that theory and practice that turned sinister Chile, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay almost all countries of South and Central America in swamp of blood, all good will, every effort, generous and peaceful every effort will be futile because the brute force perched on military power would make it all moot, and Colombia would not achieve the desired peace conquer . If so, let us unite for the battle against the theory of security, bringing life to our people to rise up to conquer a truly democratic peace for Colombia. "
Like today, the so-called Democratic Security is undoubtedly extension and development of the National Security Doctrine, the hordes of generals, high officials and leaders of the oligarchy in the service of finance capital and imperialism in general war propelled by pushing the people to take the armed struggle as one of the main forms of struggle necessary. Jacobo Arenas was then warned "as the popular armed struggle becomes the main form of struggle of our people, even the power of the United States can sustain here grinning horde of paranoid generalito exclusive service and financial monopolies flourish in our country, like it or not, a new regime. "
In a brief balance of the "peace process" initiated by Belisario Betancur, the same guerrilla commander Jacobo Arenas says:
"Agreements of Uribe's slumber awakened nationalist front Colombian opinion because we had to stop the war that almost reaches the quarter century (...)
historic requirement arose who understood the peace process and the process national reconciliation. And among all did a day before unknown in the history of political and social confrontations of this nation (...). Until we get beyond the four years of Belisario Betancur.
And of course that day was to have enemies now home to a lot of power starting with the militarism (...), against those forces was not armed confrontation but political and the Colombian people won a tremendous space in the opinion.
Then comes the government of Virgilio Barco, a lot more right than the Conservative government of Belisario Betancur and the peace process suffers the most furious attacks of the militarism that puts into action against the peace process to the most obscurantist reaction ... "
Indeed, during the government of Virgilio Barco, the "dirty war" bolted, and the role of the military high command in the development of state terrorism aupado from Washington and who was involved bipartisan political leadership, liberal -conservative, became increasingly intensified.
3. SANTO DOMINGO: PEACE FOR DEFEAT.
By the second half of his administration, Virgilio Barco presents its formal demobilization plan and delivery through the development of the "dirty war." This plan is designed to defeat insurgencies or tired of the fight was hosted by the M-19 and subsequently by movements like the EPL, PRT and Quintin Lame, which terminate under the terms of the plan, give way to "rehabilitation" and its fusion to the Scheme, without throw the solution of social problems at home, but the accommodation of some of their leaders who came to represent positions that diverged from nothing those of the speakers of the traditional oligarchy. The products under the arrangements by Antonio Navarro Wolf, Vera Grabe, Rosemberg Pavon, Ester Morón, Eberth Bustamante, Otty Patiño and other specimens of the fauna of political opportunism, they might have embarrassed the revolutionaries of the likes of Jaime Bateman previously relied in them and gave their lives for social change in Colombia.
is only natural that under such conditions of surrender imposed upon him or Popular Liberation Army line Bernardo Gutiérrez agent, or the Socialist Renewal Current in various stage, the government claims they were a formula peace for all of the guerrilla movement, without causing any changes in the unjust social structures and instead will aggravate the oligarchic repression and exploitation, the FARC despise such initiatives.
4. THE CONSTITUENT: POSSIBILITY OF PEACE?
In the twilight of his mandate, the boat made a tentative proposal on setting up a Constitutional Assembly that raised very limited in the number of its members and its agenda, which, being placed under the guardianship of the Supreme Court, sought to curb transformers impetus to the Colombian people.
The FARC expressing the consensus of the Guerrilla Coordinator Simón Bolívar (CGSB), said the following:
"We believe that the country can not be postponed for a New Constitution to reflect the reality of the nation. A new charter that would ban the conceptions gringas National Security in the management of the state and patriotism filled the principle of sovereignty, that opens the door to the return of democracy with full and real guarantees for the free exercise of freedoms, social justice and economic policy to free us from the yoke of foreign debt, allowing for the expansion of productive forces and the use of natural resources to benefit society as a whole. "
constituent During the above period the CGSB, and within the FARC-EP, insisted more than ever in the direct participation of the masses, so they spoke passionately about a constituent in which "the whole country democratically contribution the development of a new Constitution that is faithful interpreter of the national situation and project the country to confront with confidence the challenges of the next century. "
While urging the constitutional process, on the other hand, the government prepared a fierce combination of military counter-insurgency approach. President Gaviria did not allow access to the process Guerrilla Coordinator, had closed the possibility of recognizing as dialogical participation only to the guerrilla groups that had negotiated with the government or were in the process of incorporating the terms of the scheme, had ignored the unilateral cease-fires that time the FARC-EP had proposed acclimate a new climate of dialogue, and persisted in its policy of "hands free" to military commanders to make presence and act in any part of the territory without permission.
The oligarchy was able to control the balance of forces and head of Gaviria Trujillo and the generalship, opened the decade with the escalation of the confrontation armed. While the end of 1990 marked a major shift in the national political situation with the expectations of the Constituent Assembly, there was the emergence of a new phase of armed struggle fueled by the attack on Casa Verde, then even the National Secretariat headquarters of the FARC.
Referring to this military adventure regime, the Communist Party at a sitting held in early 1991 stated:
"In light of the attack on Casa Verde, the hot topic of the tactic of combining forms mass struggle has come back to the agenda. The truth is that at this stage and suddenly launch a military coup the same day the elections, the regime found in the eyes of the nation that is their own political substance shuffle and put on the table several letters from the election to the military, using them simultaneously, as occurred on 9 December.
Thus Gaviria government was seeking a double win: in the electoral field and in the military field, legitimizing an overwhelming vote by the Constitutional breakdown of the truce that the FARC made a pact with the government since 1984 and Betancur had allowed intermittent dialogue between the guerrillas and the government.
The calculation of the general failure. And the resonant operation "Centaur Two" with its millionaires expenses, remained a serious error of this government, which speaks of peace while running the war ... "
The resurgence of the confrontation fueled by excessive governmental tactless undervalued insurgent military capability threw millions losses to the domestic economy and confirmed the failure of the military option as a mechanism for resolving the conflict, a guerrilla response to the obstinacy governmental measures as the deployed force in 1991 had no precedent in Colombia. This showed the quantitative and qualitative development that already had the armed movement, and in some ways forced the government to respond to call for dialogue with the guerrillas later, despite the escalation of the war, playing the popular clamor for peace, made through his spokesmen in the Embassy of Venezuela in Bogota.
5. CARACAS: THE GUERRILLA INSIST ON PEACE.
On April 30, 1991, before the government's refusal to give way to a process of talks with the CGSB, three members of the insurgent organization, unarmed, in company of ex-Prime Minister and the Constituent Alvaro Leyva, parliamentarians Rafael Serrano and Jesus Carvajal (members of the Peace Commission of the House of Representatives) and Hernán Motta, Chairman Charge of the Union Patriot at the time, were presented at the Embassy of Venezuela in Bogotá to express the government, again, the dialog layout of the guerrilla movement.
The government, arguing that this was an act of God, was negative before this initiative was given at a crucial moment of political life. Given this situation, the guerrillas are forced to opt for political asylum but not before sending a "Notice to the Pueblo Colombiano" in some of the points stated:
"We believe that once again frustrated our efforts for the resumption of talks, the government of Colombia is squandering a great opportunity to achieve peace in our country and we understand well that the administration of President Cesar Gaviria Trujillo, will be solely responsible for its consequences. We are fully convinced that the fate of Colombia can not be war ... "
After the previous events had the insistence of the CGSB in the dialogues, and being the spokesmen of the guerrilla in Caracas, the government gave yes to negotiations through the Embassy of Colombia in Venezuela.
start dialogue took place in the Colombian city of Cravo Norte, May 15, between guerrilla spokesmen Lucia Gonzalez Daniel Aldana and Miguel Suarez and government delegates and Carlos Eduardo Jaramillo Andrés González. From this meeting came the first agreement that led to Caracas as the new place of talks.
In Caracas, from delivery of the keynote speeches by our dialogue began to be felt radically different approach to the problems that had each of the parties.
presented
Social conflicts in Venezuela with origins in the profound problems of social injustice that led to the implementation of neoliberalism and threw in time, the output of the bloody Carlos Andrés Pérez from power, forced to negotiations have to travel to Tlaxcala (Mexico).
6. TLAXCALA: FAILED PEACE.
Tlaxcala negotiations are continuing the same process that began in Caracas.
From the beginning, the guerrillas had insisted on the need for broad participation of the masses through regional dialogue around the issue of the ceasefire, saying that it should be bilateral to make it real and practical. It was proposed to hold three "national meeting" to address the following global issues:
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