In an illegal incursion into
Ecuador on 1 March, Colombian troops murdered 17 combatants of
the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People’s Army
(FARC-EP), including Comandante Raúl Reyes, a long-time
military commander and member of the FARC-EP’s Secretariat.
Among the other victims was the well-known revolutionary song-writer
Julian Conrado.
The cold-blooded attack on
the camp came just days after the FARC had unilaterally released
several prisoners into the hands of Venezuela and the International
Red Cross in a promising move to prompt negotiations for a more
generalized humanitarian exchange of prisoners of war held by
the two sides.
This latest provocation shows
once again that the Colombian regime of President Alvaro Uribe
has no intention of seeking a political, negotiated solution
to the decades-old conflict but rather intends to further intensify
its ‘dirty war’ against the insurgency and all those
Colombians who oppose its fascist rule. Its brazen violation
of the territorial sovereignty of its Ecuadorian neighbour – a
clear and unequivocal violation of international law – demonstrates
its willingness to destabilize the peace and security of the
region as a whole and provide a pretext for direct U.S. imperialist
aggression directed against Venezuela, Ecuador and other progressive
governments in Latin America.
There can
be no doubt that the Bush Adminstration
is pulling the strings behind this whole affair, using its Colombian
puppet to provoke a wider war in the vain hope of reversing the
growing anti-imperialist movements throughout the region. To
cover its imperialist plans, Washington and its flunkies in Bogotá are
now churning out all sorts of clumsy and patently false accusations
accusing Venezuela and Ecuador of secretly supporting and financing
the insurgency and even assisting FARC in obtaining uranium to
produce a radioactive bomb. Such fabrications and lies should
fool no one.
At
this critical juncture, the Communist Party of Canada calls on
the Canadian government and all peace-loving Canadians to denounce
this dangerous provocation, and to demand that the UN Security
Council condemn Colombia’s
grave contravention of international law, demand that the Uribe
regime and its U.S. masters respect the sovereignty and
territorial integrity of all neighbouring states, end its internal ‘reign
of terror’ against workers, peasants, trade union and human
rights activists, to seek a political solution to end the civil
war in Colombia.
The CPC also demands that the Canadian government remove the FARC-EP
and the ELN from the list of terrorist organizations, and instead
offer to facilitate negotiations between the belligerent parties
in Colombia with the aim of achieving a just and lasting peace
in that country.
******************
RAÚL
REYES: HERO OF THE COLOMBIAN REVOLUTION
From
his upbringing in the countryside, Raúl Reyes – the nom de guerre of
Luis Édgar Devia Silva – joined the Communist
Party of Colombia early in life and was quickly acknowledged
as a competent organizer and respected member. Later as a trade
unionist, he led a number of struggles for the rights of both
rural and urban workers. His revolutionary views and commitment
to social justice led him to become a member of the FARC-EP
in the 1970s, eventually becoming one of its highest ranking
leaders. Raúl was a powerful and eloquent spokesperson
for FARC’s aims of constructing a new, truly sovereign
and democratic Colombia, based on the self-emancipation of
both the peasantry and the working class.
At
the time of his assassination, Comrade Raúl was a member
of the FARC-EP Secretariat (its highest executive body), responsible
for international work. Between 1998 and 2002, he led
negotiations with the Colombian state seeking to achieve a
just and comprehensive end to more than 40 years of civil war.
During this period, Raúl oversaw the release of roughly
400 militia troops, officers, military, and political detainees
in an effort to win peace with social justice. In February
2002 however, the peace negotiations came to an abrupt end
when the Colombian state, with the encouragement and financial
support of the United States, launched a series of attacks
against the FARC-EP and their supporters and renewed its decades-old ‘dirty
war’ against the insurgency.
In
the field, Comandante Raúl was a ‘tactical genius’, famous among
the rank-and-file for his formidable leadership skills. As
a leading Marxist-Leninist, Comrade Raúl combined his
day-to-day work with a deep understanding of revolutionary
theory and its application to the practical struggle of the
Colombian people. Raúl Reyes gave his life for a socialist
Colombia within a socialist Americas.
The
Communist Party of Canada denounces this illegal murder orchestrated
by the Uribe fascist state, and reasserts its solidarity with
the FARC-EP and with all the progressive and anti-imperialist
forces of Colombia. We
grieve for our fallen comrades and with all who fight for social
justice in our hemisphere. We are certain that, even
in dying, Raúl Reyes’ lifelong commitment to the
revolutionary transformation of his country and this hemisphere
will continue to inspire revolutionary advances, sooner rather
than later.
LONG
LIVE THE COLOMBIAN REVOLUTION!!
COMANDANTE
RAÚL REYES, ¡¡‘PRESENTE’!!
DEFEAT
FASCISM!! FOR
A NEW COLOMBIA!!
Issued by the Central
Executive Committee,
Communist Party of Canada
March 6, 2008