FARC attack religious procession, kill several

by James McKenna Sat Apr 19, 2003 19:06

I don't know any Irish people who would think such senseless murder is a good idea.

A crucial point in your story is the it was "SUSPECTED" to be a FARC attack. "Suspected" by pro American sources!

I "suspect" this was the work of one of the US backed right-wing (Israeli trained)death squads opeating in Colombia but I guess we'll have to wait for further independent investigation before condemnong any group or any race for alleged sympathy with alleged attackers.

by joe ranii Sat Apr 19, 2003 21:09

Here is a Marxist critique of the FARC--full article at link above. It expresses very well what I have found to be the case in Colombia. And the swipe at "cheerleaders" for FARC and its kindred is very relevant to some who post here !

"Originally formed out of self-defense groups created by sections of the peasantry that then aligned themselves with Colombia’s Stalinist Communist Party, the FARC central political orientation has been that of agrarian reform. In a country that is 70 percent urban, its popular support has steadily diminished. The methods employed by both the FARC and ELN betray a reactionary indifference to their effect on the consciousness of the working class.
Even though popular support for the guerrillas has declined, their financial base has grown considerably, in large part thanks to “taxes” levied from coca growers and drug traffickers in return for protection in the areas under FARC and ELN control. The paramilitaries of the AUC, of course, enjoy similar funding.
The guerrillas have supplemented their income through the kidnapping of civilians for ransom, including that of the Green Party presidential candidate, Ingrid Betancourt, last February. This act represented an utterly reactionary attack on the democratic rights of the Colombian people.

Meanwhile, the guerrillas have conducted indiscriminate attacks on the civilian population, through the use of car bombs in cities and, in the countryside, gas cylinder bombs, like the one that claimed the lives of over 100 civilians in May.

Alienated by armed actions that have no apparent socially progressive—not to mention revolutionary—ends, broad sections of the Colombian population have come to see the guerrilla organizations as little more than mercenary bandits offering no political alternative to the oppression and social polarization that dominate the South American country. Uribe and his supporters in the military and the right-wing death squads have exploited the resulting confusion.

Cheerleaders for the guerrillas in the various middle class radical protest outfits in the advanced capitalist countries never bother to make a class analysis of these organizations."

by colm durutti Sun Apr 20, 2003 13:05

James: You gave a link to Carlos Castano's book. Why ? Don't you know he's the leader of the paras ?

by Caspian Sun Apr 20, 2003 13:29

James, thanks for reminding us that Isreal trains these paramilitary murderers at bases in former Palestine. The Israeli made rifle, the Galil, is the preferred weapon of most fascist armies in South America. More CIA propaganda. Remember the American slaughter in Panama.

by Shock and Awe Sun Apr 20, 2003 15:33

This story is most likely CIA propaganda. But if it not so what?

Do people really think the Catholic church is a progressive organisation in these countries? Look at their role in the attempted counter revolution in Venezuala.

Down with the mystics!
For Workers Revolution!

by Josef Sun Apr 20, 2003 21:23

Anything youlot disagree with is written off in this way. Scary totalitarian state anyone?