------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the Aug. 9, 2001 issue of Workers World newspaper ------------------------- INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY CONFERENCE WITH COLOMBIA By Rebeca Toledo San Salvador, El Salvador Over 400 people from 35 countries, representing about 50 organizations, made the First International Gathering in Solidarity and for Peace in Colombia and Latin America a resounding success. All of Central and South America was represented, as well as countries in the Caribbean, Europe and North America. The overwhelmingly youthful crowd cheered, waved flags, chanted and applauded the many international speakers who spoke out against Washington's Plan Colombia, for peace with social justice, and in defense of the revolutionary movement in that country. The Faribundo Marti National Liberation (FMLN) of El Salvador managed to host the event despite extreme duress. The U.S. government, through its embassy in the country, put pressure on the University of El Salvador to cancel the event. A week before the event, some university officials pulled out, leaving FMLN organizers scrambling for a new site. It was a particularly treacherous move on the part of university officials, given the long, heroic history of struggle at the university. Even so, the FMLN managed to arrange to shuttle all participants to the event despite the fact that each day's session had to be held at a different site. The opening night's fiery speeches set the tone of the gathering. Dr. Fabio Castillo, general coordinator of the FMLN, said: "The world has been globalized. But it is not an irreversible globalization of neoliberalism. It will become a globalization of the left." As speeches continued, a big screen flashed pictures of Che Guevara and Mumia Abu-Jamal, who was one of the conveners of the meeting. Comandante Arturo Campos, member of the International Commission of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia- Peoples Army (FARC-EP), opened his talk by proclaiming, "We do not renounce the fight for power and socialism!" He continued: "The struggle against imperialism has strengthened the left and can be seen in the Bolivarian revolution in Venezuela, led by President Hugo Chavez; the Indigenous and popular uprisings in Ecuador; the strikes in Argentina; the struggle in Puerto Rico to end the criminal military practices on Vieques; the resistance of the people of the Dominican Republic and the Caribbean. "It can be seen in the advances of the Sandinistas in Nicaragua, the strength of the FMLN, the heroic resistance of the people of Cuba against the criminal U.S. blockade and the continental resistance to Plan Colombia." CREATE AN INTERNATIONAL MOVEMENT Speaking of the talks with the Colombian government of Andres Pastrana, he said: "We have proposed a government of national reconciliation-pluralist, patriotic and democratic, where more diverse sectors of society can be represented, including the armed insurgents, ethnic, Indigenous and mestizo people. For this we have constructed a 10-point platform. "This first gathering is the place to create a continental and international movement whose fundamental objective will not only be solidarity, but will also be to build resistance to the degradation of the environment, privatization, the national debt, and FTAA [Free Trade Area of the Americas]; and to secure democratic participation and sovereignty." Angela Torres Torres from the National Liberation Army of Colombia also spoke, to a rousing standing ovation. Bringing her organization's solidarity to the gathering, she said, "We will continue to fight and we will be on the frontlines together." On the second day participants presented position papers and working groups hashed out conference resolutions. Professor Heinz Dieterich, president of the Forum for Emancipation and Identity of Latin America in Mexico, spoke on Plan Colombia and the economies of Latin America. Dieterich mapped out the U.S. strategy to isolate conflict countries in the region such as Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador. He said Washington's reasons for escalation are both political and economic. And he said that the rise of Bolivarism is a direct threat to imperialist designs on the region. Angel Ibarre, president of UNES, spoke about Plan Colombia's effects on the ecology and the environment. He said the environmental struggle is connected to the struggle for solidarity and peace. "Pesticides used to fumigate lands in Colombia are used at 26 times the advisable strength. The U.S. and the corporations are not interested in doing away with drugs. Last year alone, over $47 billion was made on the drug trade." He went on to say that the natural treasures of the Andean region are another great reason for imperialist aggression. U.S. NEVER RENOUNCED MILITARY INTERVENTION R. James Sacouman, a professor at Acadia University Walfville, in Nova Scotia, Canada, spoke of the social impact of Plan Colombia. Sara Cifuentes spoke on human rights, migration and solidarity. She discussed the U.S. mercenaries being used to wage war in Colombia: "Dyncorp, which is contracted by the U.S. military, has special privileges in Colombia. Any plane brought into the country or taken out of the country by them, can not be inspected by the Colombian government." Shafik Handal, deputy of the Legislative Faction of the FMLN, addressed the gathering on the effects of Plan Colombia on the democratic processes in America. He said: "After the Cold War, the U.S. sought to spread 'democratization' in Latin America. But it never renounced military intervention and it never supported self- determination, without which there can be no democracy." Coronal Lucio Gutierrez, who was one of the military leaders of the popular revolt in Ecuador in 2000, spoke of Plan Colombia's military repercussions in the region. He said the fight against narco-trafficking is a U.S. strategy to build up the military and police of the region. "Plan Colombia is a plan of war that will bring destruction, death, oppression, suffering and more poverty to the countries of the region," he said. Other topics included Plan Colombia's political effects on the region, and the media and Plan Colombia. The day was also sprinkled with solidarity messages from several international delegations. Lourdes Cervantes, a Cuban representative from the Organization in Solidarity with the Peoples of Africa, Asia and Latin America, spoke. A union leader and a student leader from Colombia both addressed the gathering. Other solidarity messages came from the Committee in Solidarity with El Salvador and the Greek Communist Party. CISPES had been a major organizer of the event in both the United States and El Salvador. The rest of the day was spent in work sessions on the plenary topics discussed. The discussions were lively. All resulted in resolutions that were read the next day and incorporated into the final resolution. On the closing day, representatives of many more delegations addressed the meeting. Tarek Saab, president of the Permanent Commission on Foreign Policy of the Venezuelan National Assembly, reaffirmed his country's determination to weather an onslaught of imperialist attacks. Mónica Baltodano of the Sandinista National Liberation Front in Nicaragua drew resounding applause when she said that her party will always be at the side of the revolutionary struggle in Colombia and all over Latin America. Also speaking was a representative of the Colombia in Exile group of Germany and Narciso Isa Conde of the Revolutionary Forces in the Dominican Republic. An International Action Center delegate also addressed the gathering. Participants were excited by the IAC's proposal to surround the White House on Sept. 29. The date was declared an international day of protests against U.S. military intervention in Colombia and Latin America. The All-African Peoples Revolutionary Party of the United States, several communist parties, including Spain's, Portugal's and Canada's, the Colombia Action Network from the United States, and the Mexican Workers Party also brought messages of solidarity. RESOLUTION OF THE GATHERING The resolution adopted by the gathering read in part: "Plan Colombia is a plan of intervention and war by the U.S. against the people of Latin America and the Caribbean that seeks to smash the diverse and growing expressions of struggle, rebellion and popular victories. It seeks to impede the consolidation of participatory democracies that are contrary to the plans of imperialist hegemony and its attempt to impose the Free Trade Area of the Americas. "The fumigations and the official violence by the interventionist forces, the local military and the paramilitaries, which are the same, aggravate the problem. For that reason we condemn Plan Colombia and the Andean Initiative. And we demand that they be annulled in favor of the dialog at the table of conversations, seeking a political end to the social and armed conflict that exists in Colombia. "The fight against narco-trafficking should focus on lowering the demand in consuming countries; the punishment and expropriation of the international mafias that move freely with their capital throughout the world of finance and investment; substitution of illicit crops for the poor peasants and workers who dedicate themselves to this activity as a form of subsistence and the manual, voluntary and concerted eradication of the illicit crops." It listed a host of peoples that it solidified itself with, such as the people of Puerto Rico, the Zapatistas in Mexico, revolutionary Cuba, Bolivarian Venezuela and the women's struggle, among many. It also demanded freedom for Mumia Abu- Jamal and the five Cuban political prisoners being held in the United States. The resolution stated: "The causes that have determined great revolutionary change in the world historically have not disappeared. On the contrary, they have sharpened the resistance and the struggle of the people at the beginning of the 21st century for an alternative world that will guarantee development, justice, human dignity, participatory democracy and peace." It was a fitting ending to a weekend of revolutionary optimism. [The writer was part of an International Action Center delegation at the gathering in San Salvador.] - 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. 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