ENGDespite everything, we will persist
By Timochenko
We had already made some written comments on the discourse of President Santos, which he showed once again in his recent inauguration. We have also pointed out the total alignment of the mainstream media with the ruling class. The two, including 'Center Uribe' (Centro Democrático, NT), get greatly upset when we do not express what they want to hear from us.
The mainstream press actually are powerful companies of capital, dedicated to the specific task of spreading their own ideas to the rest of society. All events, which before reaching the public pass through their channels, are deliberately presented in the way that most fits their interests.
This happens in the international arena, where the Palestinian people, persecuted and violated for seventy years, are made to appear as the real aggressor. They don't have any right to defense and they have no choice but to submit to extermination decreed by Zionist capital. Cuba and Venezuela are considered criminals, while the United States is applauded for its righteousness.
«It doesn't occur to anyone that George Bush could be held liable for over a million dead civilians in Iraq, as a result of the invasion ordered by him in the interest of big oil companies»
The same thing happens at a national level. The guerrillas presented as being responsible for having started the long confrontation, and as the ones really and solely responsible for all the horrors that occurred during it. Meanwhile, the civilian and military monsters possess enormous resources and have thus ensured their respectability.
All of humanity is witnessing the imposition of a way of thinking according to which anyone who resorts to arms is a ruthless barbarian. Regardless of the reasons to do so. This is broadcast, omitting the fact that the rich and powerful produce the weapons, have the largest armies and wage the biggest wars.
It doesn't occur to anyone that George Bush could be held liable for over a million dead civilians in Iraq, as a result of the invasion ordered by him in the interest of big oil companies. Just as it is inconceivable to hold Álvaro Uribe liable for his massive crimes here in the interest of mafia landowners and transnational companies.
Instead, the dominant ideology, fed every day by the manipulative mass media, needs the underdogs, the rebels, those who don't agree with the invasion and dispossession of their homeland by Israel, those who fought against the gringos in Iraq, or the guerrillas who are facing a horror machine in Colombia, to be condemned without mercy.
«We reject, because it is contrary to historical reality, the idea that the hands of the Colombian ruling class are clean of blood from the Colombian people»
For them, there is no other opportunity than the cruelest public execution. That is what large capital and landowners are demanding; it is what the media are proclaiming. Experts, graduated in their best universities, immediately put their talent at their service. Every candidate to occupy a place under the umbrella of the big ones is getting ready to replace one of them in this crusade.
We did not start to dialogue because we were defeated or disenchanted, but because we have always believed in the civilized way, because we believe that despite everything it is possible to achieve, with the support of the great majorities in Colombia, decent agreements that should result in the bilateral proscription of violence.
We reject, because it is contrary to historical reality, the idea that the hands of the Colombian ruling class, the traditional political parties - or the mix in which they are represented today -, their governments, the state as such, the economic groups, the mainstream press and many other sectors in the shadow of power, are clean of blood from the Colombian people.
«It doesn't surprise us that the mainstream press has tried to silence the different forums for victims held to date. In all of them, this great truth has come to light»
All of them, encouraged by the vulgar purpose of profit, in full coordination or kneeling before the American post-war governments, have violated in every way, repeatedly and systematically, the rights of peasants, workers, students, intellectuals, revolutionary opposition parties and other popular sectors in struggle. They can no longer deny it.
To the point of generating this war, in response to their atrocities and impunity. Therefore, it doesn't surprise us that the mainstream press has tried to silence the different forums for victims held to date. In all of them, this great truth has come to light. They are the real perpetrators and those responsible for the horrors of this long conflict.
If they decided to try the route of dialogue, it was with the purpose of obtaining the victory, that has been denied to them for half a century on the battlefield, at the Conversation Table. For the ruling sectors in our country, the political solution makes sense only if it ensures their absolute reign for a thousand years, only if it condemns the rebels to hell.
«Accusing us of all evil is fashionable»
And that is what really lies behind the new rhetoric media barrage. Their scribes in the mainstream media scream that the state recognized its victims and that it issued a bill for their compensation; that it has apologized a couple of times. As if that were enough to change things, as if they weren't making efforts to leave the crime machine intact.
Accusing us of all evil is fashionable. It has always been. To pervert, manipulate and demonize everything we say. Our willingness, which exists without any doubt, to explain whatever necessary and assume the consequences, faces the baseness and perfidy of those who aspire desperately to crush us, we know that.
But we are here. Convinced of moving forward, confident that after a peace agreement Colombia will not remain the same. This is precisely what differentiates us from our adversaries; they just hope to get us out of the way to not change anything, they want everything to remain the same. They growl and threaten when it gets complicated for them, but that doesn't work; we are not like them.
Colombian Jungle, August 8, 2014.
Last modified on Sunday, 10 August 2014 17:28
FARC rejects location military bases in the midst of the civilian population
The Column "Mariscal Antonio José de Sucre" reports:
On August 2, 2014, three explosive charges were fired against facilities of the battalion "Battle of Boyacá" in the city of Pasto, where the headquarters of the 23rd Brigade, attached to the Task Force Pegaso, operate. Eight soldiers died and 16 more were injured; these results were concealed from public opinion.
Only two of the charges worked, one within the battalion and the other at the foot of the wall around it, affecting a civilian home. The blast also affected, though not seriously, other homes, which served for the media to stir public opinion against us. According to the most elementary principles of war, we have always denounced the fact that the National Army's bases are located in the midst of the civilian population. During the action, two civilians were slightly injured, unfortunate fact that we regret. We will make great efforts to avoid repetition in the future.
Jungle of Nariño, August 8, 2014.
Leading Command Mobile Column ANTONIO JOSE DE SUCRE
Western Block 'Comandante Alfonso Cano' of the FARC-EP.
Last modified on Friday, 08 August 2014 20:55
Deaf, blind and mute
In February 2012, in a guerrilla camp in the South of Colombia, we heard on the news that the FARC terrorists had sewed the mouth of a poor farmer with wire, in the South-West, just because he didn't want to take a “burro bomba”, a donkey with explosives on his back, to the nearest army outpost (1).
The 42-old farmer was interviewed by the two most important private television channels in Colombia, Caracol and RCN. After that, 99% of the Colombian population was convinced of the fact that the FARC had not only attacked the population, not only committed atrocious human rights violations, but also that the guerrilla fighters exhibit psychopathic traits, because who on earth would send a donkey on a suicide mission or sew somebody's mouth with wire?
One month later, a handful of independent media hesistantly started to report on the protests of the local people against the army. They said the army had committed the crime in name of the FARC-EP (2) A shrewd guerrilla fighter from the area made a video of the protests and sent it to my unit. In the video, it becomes clear that the truth is not always easy to discover in Colombia, “the eldest democracy of Latin-America” - to say the least -. And when it is discovered, in nine out of ten cases, these truths aren't covered by mainstream media and thus remain unknown for most of the world population.
«The fact that the FARC-EP has caused suffering in the framework of this conflict shouldn't be changed into a pretext to not allow us to discuss these kind of issues»
When does a truth become a truth? When it is said by the powerful? When it is proven by Human Rights Watch? When it is repeated a thousand times by the most influential media corporations?
The fact that the FARC-EP has caused suffering in the framework of this conflict (which has repeatedly been acknowledged by our spokesmen (3)), shouldn't be changed into a pretext to not allow us to discuss these kind of issues. Mainstream media in Colombia have done quite a job in discrediting the insurgency, in positioning anti-left frames in society, in withholding information from the people and even in deliberately disinforming them about a wide range of subjects; from the National Agrarian Strike, to a speech held by ex senator Piedad Córdoba.
How is it possible that while the majority of cases of victimization have been caused by the state and its paramilitaries (4), mainstream media insist almost exclusively on FARC victims, to such an extent that public opinion starts to believe that the only problem that exists in Colombia is the guerrilla movement?
If I were a Colombian civilian citizen, living in, let's say, Bogotá, I would be really interested in knowing what the mothers of Soacha think about the intellectual author of the assassination of their beloved ones sitting in congress, for example. Why don't we hear them?
«This isn't about impunity nor about us not wanting to face victims»
Talking about false positives, I have the strong suspicion, when I read comments on social networks and on the internet in general, that a great number of people (even Colombians!) believe that the false positives scandal is about some fifty or hundred cases, instead of the 3925 assassinations registered as such, and the number keeps growing.
This isn't about impunity nor about us not wanting to face victims. It is about the fact that the media could play an essential role in the reconciliation of the Colombian people. In my viewpoint, they should help spread the truth about the conflict, giving a voice to its victims; to all its victims. That is to say, the information spread by the media should be proportional. But it isn't. Instead, they fuel hatred against the guerrillas, as if that in some way helped to reach peace. If we take a closer look at the owners of the mainstream media, this shouldn't surprise us: the two most important economic groups (Santo Domingo and Ardila Lule) possess an 80% of the media in Colombia.
What will these people say when the whole truth about the conflict comes out? Wir haben es nicht gewußt?
(1) http://colombiareports.co/farc-torture-colombian-farmer-over-donkey-bomb/#
(2) http://remapvalle.blogspot.com/2012/03/campesinos-en-el-cauca-protestan-por.html
(3) Recently, Pablo Catatumbo said in an interview: “We are willing to talk to all these people, to clarify what happened and to express our regret for any suffering we may have caused. We are sorry, we share their pain and we know we can count on them for the reconstruction of the country”. http://farc-epeace.org/index.php/point-of-view/item/466-reconciliation-cannot-be-achieved-by-decree.html
(4) The websites http://www.nocheyniebla.org/node/78 and http://www.verdadabierta.com/ have an extense databank of human rights violations committed in the context of the conflict in Colombia.
Last modified on Thursday, 07 August 2014 13:38