------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the July 12, 2001 issue of Workers World newspaper ------------------------- COLOMBIA FARC SHOWS GOOD WILL BY RELEASING PRISONERS By Andy McInerney What began as an exchange of sick and wounded prisoners of war in Colombia turned into a massive display of revolutionary good will. On June 28 the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People's Army (FARC-EP) unilaterally released 242 soldiers and police officers captured in battles over the last four years. Sixty-two more were released on June 30. The message of the unilateral release was clear: the FARC-EP is not the obstacle to a peace that benefits Colombia's poor and working people. The ball is in the U.S.-backed government's court. The FARC-EP is Colombia's largest Marxist insurgent force. Since 1999, it has been engaged in a process of talks with the Colombian government to address the social roots of the violent class struggle that has been raging in the country since the 1940s. As part of this process, on June 2 the two sides agreed to exchange 42 government soldiers and police officers captured by the FARC-EP for 15 guerrilla prisoners of war held in Colombian jails. But the FARC-EP went beyond that agreement with the mass release of 300 more prisoners. The June 28 release took place in a mass ceremony held in Macarena, a town in the zone cleared of government troops to facilitate the dialog process. FARC-EP Commander-in-Chief Manuel Marulanda presided over the release. "This magnanimous act is taking place amid the most intense and profound crisis recorded in the history of the Colombian oligarchic regime," the FARC-EP General Staff wrote in a statement. The insurgent leadership detailed the depression- level economic crisis in Colombia that is devastating the lives of millions of Colombian workers and peasants, worsened by the impact of International Monetary Fund dictates of privatization and austerity. This brutal regime of exploitation has been imposed with the twin pillars of death-squad state terrorism and U.S. intervention, recently expanded under the $1.3 billion Plan Colombia. "The carrying out of Plan Colombia is nothing but the brazen U.S. military participation on our territory, under the cover of a war against narco-trafficking, while the U.S. positions itself strategically in Latin America to guarantee the imposition of its neo-liberal plan: the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas," the statement explained. FARC-EP leaders outlined their proposal for a "Government of Reconciliation and National Reconstruction," which has been the basis of their talks with the government since 1993. The proposal calls for a new armed forces and a new state based on fulfilling the needs of Colombia's poor and working people. "It should be clear to the national and international community that the FARC is carrying out this unilateral release of prisoners of war with the aim of once again showing our unquenchable will for peace with social justice." The FARC-EP is still holding some 50 prisoners of war-- mostly officers. Despite the show of goodwill by the revolutionary insurgency- -and no doubt threatened by the outpouring of support that the FARC-EP generated--right-wing sectors in the Colombian ruling class immediately began calls to end the dialog process. "We're disappointed with the results achieved so far in the peace process," wrote National Council of Business Associations head Sabas Pretelt. The voice of Colombian big business called for the government to pull out of the talks in October if the FARC-EP refuses to make concessions. The FARC-EP's unilateral prisoner release came on the heels of another string of military victories. FARC MILITARY VICTORIES On June 23, hundreds of guerrilla fighters overran the Colombian military base at Puerto Leguizamo in the south of the country. The base housed forces from the new, elite, U.S.-trained battalions created as part of Plan Colombia. Thirty Colombian soldiers were killed in what was termed "the army's biggest blow since October last year." And in a spectacular raid in the capital city of Bogota, a FARC-EP unit with support from its urban militia exploded a wall of a prison, releasing 98 prisoners "including guerrilla fighters from the FARC-EP, the ELN [National Liberation Army], and other social prisoners," according to a FARC-EP report. "Our objective is to get FARC prisoners out of all the nation's prisons," said FARC-EP Secretariat member Jorge Briceno, "since the government is refusing to exchange prisoners. "We are forced to free them as best we can." >From the beginning, the FARC-EP has viewed the talks with the government as a stage in their revolutionary struggle for state power. "The peace process is a tactical stage in the revolution," FARC-EP Commander Martin Villa told the Boston Globe on July 1. "We have aspirations to gain national power and cannot hope that the government will give us a stake of power through the peace process." - END - (Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not allowed. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For subscription info send message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: http://www.workers.org) ------------------ This message is sent to you by Workers World News Service. To subscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To switch to the DIGEST mode, E-mail to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Send administrative queries to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
