Colombian rebels join forces against Uribe

[bemildred]

Bombing in Central Colombia today also.

EASTERN COLOMBIA, Aug 24 (Reuters) - Colombia's two
leftist rebel groups have agreed to form a military alliance
and will step up attacks against the government of
U.S.-backed President Alvaro Uribe, rebel sources told
Reuters on Sunday.

The landmark accord, which could herald an escalation in
Colombia's four-decade-old guerrilla war, was struck after
a series of secret meetings between top commanders of the
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as FARC,
and the smaller National Liberation Army, or ELN.

"The leaders of the FARC and the ELN have agreed to join
military forces against the government of Uribe. We will now
carry out nationwide joint military operations," a rebel
involved in the negotiations told Reuters in the mountains of
eastern Colombia.

Reuters

[IndianaGreen]

1. I will shed no tears for the war criminal Uribe

This scumbag former leader of death squads, who bought the Presidency of Colombia. is a good pal of George W. Any friend of Bush is no friend of ours.

I will include President Arroyo of the Philippines among those leaders that should be toppled by wars of national liberation.

[bemildred]

2. I was kind of wondering what they are up to.

Sounds kind of like "bring it on" aimed at Alvaro.
Or maybe Dumbsfeld.

A Colombian "Tet offensive" might have interesting effects
while Uncle Sugar is all spread out and "occupied" in Iraq.

[Zuni]

3. Uribe was elected overwhelmingly

despite mass intimidation from FARC and ELN 'death squads'. Last I saw he had overwhelming popular support to destroy these narco terrorists.
From what I heard of the FARC, they sound like pre 1975 Khymer Rouge, who had similar harsh policies in areas they 'liberated'.
Wars of national liberation? You think FARC or any revolutionary communist is going to free anyone?

[IndianaGreen]

4. Bawahahahahahaha! Yeah, you go on believing that crap!

If you are worried about narco-terrorists, you should have worried about Ollie North, or that terrorist Otto Reich and his pal John Negroponte.

How wonderful it was to force Colombian peasants out of land they had farmed for generations in order to make room for a CONOCO oil pipeline!

Terrorism is taught at Fort Benning, together with torture and assassination. When it comes to training terrorists, the United States is second to none!

[Zuni]

9. hold on, wiseguy

1. How do you know that torture and assasination are taught there? I know the School of the Americas Graduates often have shady reputation, but how exactly do you know what they are taught? What do you know about military training anyway? How do you teach 'assasination'? Is there a class like Assassination 317? Do you take 'Torture 101' after lunch? How do you teach 'torture'? I always thought it came naturally to some people. i figure if you want to torture someone, it is not hard to figure out easy methods off the top of your head.

2.The FARC are the #1 Cocaine dealers in the world. After the breakup of the huge drug empires and the fall of the USSR, they cornered the worlds largest drug market. Ollie North, Noriega and the Contras were pikers compared to these guys.

3.I do not think brutality cannot be taught. it results from culture, personal beliefs and mental state. The Waffen SS were trained just like ordinary soldiers, only it was their fanatical political and philosophical beliefs and their orders from above, along with their conditions (the brutality of the war in russia for example)
that made them so brutal.

4. the FARC/ELN are hated by the majority of the Colombian people. They are brutal death squads, known for random murders, killing public officials, kidnappings, hostage taking, extortion, terrorism, torture and excessive brutality

5. So, some peasants were moved to make room for oil facilities. Not happy about it, but it Happens all the time, all over the world. In New York whole neighborhoods were moved to make new highways and/or airports and trainstations.Major revenue sources and major public works projects often displace people. For example tens of millions of people were dislocated in Mao's China to collectives or forced labor camps called Laogai. In Nicaragua, under the Sandanistas in the early 1980s thousands upon thousands of Indians and Peasants were either herded off their homeland to make room for public works projects or into collective farming areas. The Khymer Rouge in 1975 dislocated a whole country! they forced millions out of Phnom Penh with less than an hour to prepare. Even hospital patients were wheeled on beds and carried on stretchers out to countryside.
I could go on and on about examples of people dislocated, far more people and far more brutally than what the Colombian farmers have suffered. Sometimes, a Country like Colombia could make a lot of money off of oil

[Aidoneus]

5. Washington signals escalation of US intervention in Colombia

Rumsfeld: “Frontline in terror war”
Washington signals escalation of US intervention in Colombia
By Bill Vann
26 August 2003

The Bush administration signaled strongly last week that it is preparing to escalate its military intervention in Colombia’s four-decade-old civil war.

Back-to-back visits to Bogotá by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, were accompanied by the announcement that President Bush has given the go- ahead for the resumption of an aerial interdiction program aimed at intercepting and shooting down planes suspected of carrying illegal drugs or weapons.

Arriving in the Colombian capital at the head of 50-member delegation, Rumsfeld reiterated the Bush administration’s support for the country’s right-wing president, Alvaro Uribe.

“I’m here because in the United States we are interested in the regional stability,” Rumsfeld told a press conference at the end of his one-day visit to Colombia. “Colombia is a very important country that is in our same hemisphere,” he added, stressing that it is “on the front line of the global war against terrorism.”

The visit by Rumsfeld, which followed that of General Myers by barely a week, was aimed in part at reassuring Uribe of Washington’s support in the wake of the Bush administration’s cutoff of military aid to Colombia last month. The move, which involved a relatively small amount of funds left over from the previous fiscal year, was part of a global US retaliation against countries that had failed to repudiate the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court and assure a blanket exemption for US personnel from any potential war crimes charges.

There is no doubt that the two countries will arrive at an understanding. Colombia is presently the third-largest recipient of US military aid, trailing behind only Israel and Egypt. In terms of US military training, Colombia ranks first, with American Special Forces troops having trained 15 regular Colombian battalions as well as a specialized brigade created at Washington’s behest for the purpose of guarding a 500-mile pipeline that carries petroleum from oilfields operated by the US-based Occidental Petroleum Corporation. About 75 Green Berets are stationed at two military bases in oil-rich Arauca Province for the purpose of training the Colombian pipeline protection brigade.

--snip--

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2003/aug2003/col-a26.shtml

later in the piece there's a few statistics regarding the economic situation in Colombia. I don't consider myself naive, and I realize such is the quite deliberate program of the international mob boss, but some of those figures were rather startling:--

...Approximately 130 Colombian union leaders and militants have been assassinated just since the beginning of this year. Last year, 184 unionists were assassinated, the largest number for any country in the world....

...a 7 percent fall in food sales since the year began, even as production increased by 3 percent...

...construction has recorded the largest growth of any industry, projects to build affordable housing for the working population have declined by 50 percent...

...the masses of people who live in poverty, an estimated 33 million out of the country’s 42 million people...

That all goes a long ways towards explaining why there's a civil war.. don't much care for the FARC, but I can't say I'm rooting against them with a system like that.

[bemildred]

7. No sense of irony at all.

"I'm here because in the United States we are interested in the
regional stability"

He's there because they kicked his ass out of Washington for a while
to let things cool down.

"Colombia is a very important country that is in our same hemisphere"

Worthy of George himself.

"Plan Colombia" is toast, a complete failure, and they have no
clue what to do next. As you point out, it's a big mess, brutal,
but an end to the "Drug War" and outside intervention would be a
start. The Commie rebels appear to be getting bolder again, and
this is mostly bluster to try to counter that perception after all
the bullsit and dick-waving these last few years.

[dani]

6. Colombian Rebel Groups Reject Dialogue With Government

Colombian Rebel Groups Reject Dialogue With Government
VOA News
25 Aug 2003, 23:20 UTC

VOAnews

In an apparent show of unity, Colombia's two main leftist rebel groups have ruled out possible peace talks with President Alvaro Uribe's government.

The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as the FARC, and the National Liberation Army, or ELN, made the announcement Sunday in a joint statement that was posted on the FARC's Internet web site.

The guerrilla groups said they would reject any peace as long as what they called the "illegitimate government" of President Alvaro Uribe maintains its current policies.

[IndianaGreen]

8. With the bulk of the US military tied up in Iraq

a wonderful opportunity for mischief presents itself.