Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People´s Army. New Year's message to the Colombian people.
To oppose the illegitimate government of Uribe - A new government of Peace. FARC EP greet the Colombian people on the occasion of the new year 2003. The end of 2002 leaves a great load of frustrations for our people, because the government of Álvaro Uribe represents the interests of large landholders/cattle raisers, large national economic groups, international financial capital led by the IMF and the World Trade Organization for benefit of the interventionist strategy of the USA, and therefore all its decisions are detrimental to the popular interest. The political regime of the country headed by Uribe Vélez, is progressively manifested as a civil dictatorship that erases the borders among the different powers of the State supported in the Interior Commotion, with the attorney general's office open to the service of a paramilitary strategy, with a parliament submitted under the pressure of recall, the same as with a judiciary branch already threatened with judicial reform, with the media defending the Uribe agenda and with a public force corrupted by the rivers of money handled for the bloody witch hunt undertaken from the 7 of last August and of which the main victim is the poor civilian population. After the spectacular military unfolding, the cloying praises of the media to the President and the aristocratic arrogance of the Minister of the Interior, the following remains clear: The economic measures of this Government such as the tributary reform, the labor reform and the regime of pensions, affect mainly the middle and poor sectors of the country because that is what the International Monetary Fund demands. The great Colombian financiers and the transnationals will have assured their gains, because neoliberalism continues to be the navigation chart of the State, and the entrance to the FTAA, its strategy. The governing minority increases the internal and external national debt in an unrestrained fashion to increase the military spending and to pay the favors to the political class through administrative corruption, having the State to pay in the next year as payment to the service of the debt $ 25.4 billion that is 37.8 % of the national budget, while it unloads on the people all the weight of the crisis suffocating them with new taxes. The imperial interference of the government of the United States of North America in Colombia is increasing. And the "aid" in dollars and military machinery will continue to grow, as their orders continue to be accepted by this groveling government whose mafioso past is not only known but indeed manipulated by the gringos, in contradiction of their own stated policy against dealing with criminals. The agrarian economy will continue sinking, more now that the United States prohibited the elevation of our customs tariffs. Hommes, Echeverri Strap and ministers Botero and Junguito guarantee the neoliberal continuity developed in Colombia since the presidency of Cesar Gaviria. The approved referendum is essentially a catalogue of the small political mechanics that seeks to legitimize the dictatorship, and to impede the development of new political alternatives when the situation of the country demands the dimension of a Constituent Assembly to unify Colombians. The paramilitary strategy of the State continues to bring its terror to the sectors fighting for better living conditions. This government, like its predecessors, continues developing this terror with the regulation of the military zones, the new network of anonymous informers, soldier-farmers or the new Convivir (paramilitary vigilantes), and opening the doors of new institutionalism to the paramilitary mafias, facilitating the clubs north of Bogota for their meetings with political and managerial bosses, without obstacle from the authorities. The State despairs to integrate more sectors of the civil populace in the confrontation, offering money which stimulates criminal groups, encourages mercenary activity and foments division of a society that sees deepening abysses around the easy, but illegal enrichment. The moral of "every person has his price" builds the ethics of betrayal. Unemployment, the high and increasing fees of public services, the persistent liquidation of the national health system, the contraction of the agrarian property and the high cost of living, have sent new social sectors of the country into absolute poverty. The announced oligarchic official plans, are not going to prevent the disaster that has already happened in brother countries of Latin America. The election of Mr. Uribe Vélez as President is the result of a violent campaign of intimidation and paramilitary blackmail, deceit and bribes, manipulation of the ballot boxes on the part of the juries and witnesses, of gangster money that flowed through different zones of the country. In spite of this, it only reached 25% of the electoral potential, with a general abstention of 56%, being therefore a minority government and consequently illegitimate. But the illegitimacy of this Uribista regime is reinforced by its own exercise of power put to the service of hatreds, retaliation and war. Incapable of taking positive steps in favour of reconciliation it daily creates new fraticidal confrontations, pushing more sectors into the bloody vortex. It has turned its back on its own prisoners of war, abaondoning them to their fate while lying about it to their families. It promotes the farce of a dialogue process with the paramilitary- its bastard son, whom it nurses, instructs, finances and protects as it tries to advance the development of its own fascist party. The regime's illegitimacy is further reinforced by olympically delegating the search for peace to the Secretary General of the UN, when we all know that the will and the decision to reach peace by way of dialogue cannot be delegated, and that the contribution of the international community must be the fruit of agreements and not of imposition. And Uribe increases his illegitimacy with his humiliating and permanent acquiescence to the colonial orders of high civil Pengagon employees and the gringo State Department. The solution to the serious crisis suffered by Colombia demands a profoundly anti-oligarchic content; We are announcing to the social sectors, its movements, and all Colombians opposed to the fascism of Uribe Vélez, the formation of a democratic and anti-neoliberal Government, which, with a program for peace, will constitute an alternative power to lead the country through paths of hope, sovereignty and social justice. This new government, will be composed of 12 Colombians representing all the regions of the country and all the sectors that are identified within the Platform of Ten Points for the New Colombia, and will in principle advance its clandestine activity while it achieves the strength to develop this platform in view of all the country. We summon Colombians in 2003 to increase their mobilizations for democracy and better living conditions, to organize themselves, openly or clandestinely, to confront Uribista fascism. We call upon you to strengthen the Bolivarian Movement for the New Colombia and to construct the New Government that will defend national sovereignty, legislate the search for the wellbeing of the majority, and reconcile the Colombian family supported by social justice. Because this civil war that the Uribe Vélez regime is taking us into cannot be the destiny of our country. CENTRAL GENERAL STAFF, FARC-EP mountains of Colombia, December 23 of 2002 ____________________________________ Committee for Solidarity with Colombia P.O. Box 21564, 1850 Commercial Drive Vancouver, BC Canada V5N 4A0 [EMAIL PROTECTED] ------------------------------------------- Macdonald Stainsby http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/rad-green http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/leninist-international -- In the contradiction lies the hope. --Bertholt Brecht _______________________________________________ Leninist-International mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/leninist-international
