Raúl Reyes: Guerrilla spokesperson, Colombia

...They continue to offer rewards for the capture of guerrilla leaders, and they continue to carry out political assassinations and massacres...

...For us, participation means opening up the mass media to broader segments of the population...

...The campesino cultivates coca because he has no other means of subsistence...

...The biggest problem is mpesinos...

...So it's natural that every time they discuss the guerrillas, they refer to them as "narcoguerrillas" or assassins...

...But the fact of the matter is that the problems in our country are much deeper than this...

...On an economic level, directing 50% of the national budget towards social welfare issues like health, education, housing and employment, so that all Colombians may enjoy these rights...

...We have always made our opposition to drugs in any form very clear, and we have stressed the impact drugs have had on the deterioration of society, not only in Colombia, but throughout the world...

...As I said before, agrarian reform is a major component of our platform, as is the protection of our natural resources from exploitation by multinationals...

...The presence of paramilitary groups throughout the country is also increasing-directed, fed, instructed and armed by the armed forces, and specifically by the Commander-in-Chief of the Army, Gen...

...But what we have in Colombia is a government that has not wanted to change its policies...

...What we have in Colombia is state terrorism...

...an illegitimate government that was elected with the support of the Cali cartel...

...Even within progressive circles in Colombia there have been many expressions of disillusionment with the FARC...

...So it's not true that in Colombia there is a free press...

...We all can have different interpretations about what has happened in the world during these very complex years...

...Five thousand Colombians who belonged to the UP ckers lost their lives in the last decade alone...

...There was pressure from the international community, and the government was forced to provide guarantees for the rebel combatants and their leadership...

...W e've come to expect these criticisms, but they ignore the fact that we have a clear proposal based on pluralistic principles...

...But as always, the political and ideological apparatus of the state is going to contradict this...

...They o movement...

...When the people say that they are hungry or that they need jobs, housing or health care, the government immediately labels them subversives...

...Harold Bedoya Pizarro...

...They are the ones who are always opposed to talking about any possibilities of peace, because they benefit from waging war...

...We provide an alternative to the many problems facing the country...

...What must the FARC now do to regain some of the credibility it had for many years of the insurgency, up until about 1992...

...In this way, the media have been able to create the illusion that the most important story coming out of Colombia is the fact that President Samper received some money from the Cali cartel to fund his campaign, and that if he were to be removed from power all the problems of the country would be resolved...

...They or their families are threatened, or they wind up dead...

...These are the fundamentals of our program...

...The problem is that the state is heavcted with ily armed and it exists to protect the interests of big capital at the lite, not with expense of working people...

...We're also calling for mass democratic participation on a national, regional and municipal level to make decisions about the many issues affecting our society...

...In fact, the recent neoliberal policies of the current Salvadoran government have made matters worse for many...

...You talk about a ten-point platform for a government of reconstruction and reconciliation...

...a government that would attempt to resolve the problem of drug trafficking in Colombia through a truly democratic agrarian reform program...

...We applaud that and see it as a victory for the Salvadoran people...

...They all relate to the political, economic, social and cultural needs of the country...

...It's a government which has been proven to be corrupt...

...Even a group of respected intellectuals from the Colombian left has recently published an open letter criticizing the guerrillas for no longer having a politicalideological program...

...Their main sources of information are the many press briefings held by the generals, who tell them what is going on throughout the country, which then get published as news...

...I think that now there are even greater expectations for the guerrillas than in 1992, when the government of C6sar Gaviria broke off peace negotiations...

...The government has been using the term "narcoguerrilla" to describe the armed opposition in Colombia, charging the FARC with being directly involved in the drug trade...

...These are some of our basic proposals for a government of reconstruction and national reconciliation, which the current illegitimate government doesn't even want to discuss...

...The guerrillas are an option of power...

...Many people say that the end of history has come now that the Berlin Wall has come down, the Soviet Union no longer exists, and the left has been defeated throughout the world...

...This brings us back to your initial question about how we can say we are committed to a peaceful solution to the conflict, while still holding onto our weapons...

...In rillas or fact, the government often uses the cartels as an excuse...

...Issues persist such as hunger, poverty, lack of jobs, lack of education and health, and these are the issues that led up to the war, that led people to take up arms and confront the military government in the first place...

...Is it feasible to talk about this kind of agrarian reform when such a great portion of the land you're talking about is controlled by drug cartels that have considerable autonomy from any state oversight or control, and to a we would call for We disti between the traffic and the ca The big are conne the political e the guer the campesino The campesir coca because h means of st great extent command just as much if not more economic and military resources than the actual government...

...The credibility of the armed insurgency in Colombia has fallen off considerably in recent years...

...So when we, as an organization with a nation-wide presence, find ourselves in an area where illicit crops are being cultivated, we deal with the people in the same way that we do when we are in areas where there are legitimate crops, such as coffee, bananas and corn...

...That is why I said we must applaud and salute the valiant and victorious people of El Salvador for what they've been able to achieve...

...How do you justify your struggle in an era when most armed conflicts throughout the region have been resolved politically and old Cold War antagonisms are apparently gone...

...This only creates more problems for the campesinos...

...We also have pointed out that those responsible for drug trafficking are not the campesinos...

...So it's natural that the hundreds of denunciations, the reports of massacres and assassinations of thousands of UP militants, and all the violations of human rights that are committed against the popular sectors in Colombia barely get reported...

...But the fact of the matter is that some things have not changed at all, and in many cases, they have gotten worse...

...First, we have to point out that in Colombia, there is no real policy for achieving peace...

...We will continue to fight against this illegitimate government, to defend ourselves, to protect the interests of the people, and to struggle by any means, until we see that there is a real and true commitment to peace...

...Yet we now know e has no other that the current government is subsistence...

...Can one speak of a political program of the FARC...

...We must change the country's military doctrine and rethink the role of the armed forces...

...The primary role of the armed forces, therefore, 23VOICES ON THE LEFT would be to protect national sovereignty, not to attack what they perceive as opposition or subversion, which in Colombia can very often mean anything...

...We're talking about a government that would be truly committed to defending the interests of the nation...

...not that there are cartels that are cartels autonomous from the state...

...But even with peace, the situation has not been totally resolved...

...But they were able to get here only through years of armed struggle that, in effect, forced the government to negotiate...

...There was a political commitment to peace on the part of all sides of the conflict, something that we can say does not exist in Colombia...

...That is correct...

...And the only reason they were able to negotiate a peace accord is because there was a political will on all sides to come to a negotiated settlement after so many years of war...

...To begin with, we're calling for a political solution to the conflict facing our country, and an end to the years of violence that have devastated generations of Colombians...

...Under what conditions would the FARC be ready to negotiate a peaceful settlement with the government...

...What would it take to get back to the negotiating table...

...The government wants to show that Colombia is a shining democracy where no real problems exist...

...The FARC does not consider the solution to the problem to be violence...

...It will have to resolve the problem with those who currently control the land, either by buying it from them, or by convincing them that they have to give up a certain amount of their vast holdings...

...Elected officials would be more accountable, and the rights of opposition forces and minorities would be respected and defended...

...This government would create subsidies for peasants in order to provide incentives for them to continue working in the countryside, to promote food production and to create jobs...

...We distinguish between the major drug traffickers and the campesinos, because we see NACIA REPORT ON THE AMERICASVOICES ON THE LEFT that the big cartels are connected with the political elite, not with the guerrillas or the campesino movement...

...In order to attain this goal, we must address the role of the state security forces...

...We talk about an economic model that is independent and not subservient to the demands of the IMF and the World Bank...

...The guerrilla movement in Colombia has a lot of credibility...

...a government that would put a different economic model in place...

...What do you say to these accusations...

...say, "we can't resolve these issues because we have the drug no cultivates traffickers on top of us, threatening us...

...Our program is based on ten points, and we invite all Colombians who are interested in creating a country that is fundamentally different to participate...

...That is why, for example, we have totally opposed the crop fumigations that have been occurring throughout the country with the support of the United States...

...We realize that agrarian reform is a problem that must be resolved by the state...

...Nevertheless, the people of El Salvador are able to breathe a little easier now, compared to the levels of violence they had to confront daily during the war years...

...and one that would return land to the peasants without any strings attached and provide them with technical assistance for communications and marketVoL XXXI, No 1 JULY/AUG 1997 ing...

...They must exist to defend the country's borders, and never turn their arms on the people...

...We can see that in El Salvador they signed a peace agreement and ended a bloody war that had lasted for years...

...For the moment, there are no such guarantees...

...We have a government that has created a repressive apparatus that doesn't permit people to protest or to make demands...

...What are its basic points...

...The government would have to offer guarantees in order for the insurgents to sit down and begin to discuss the new Colombia that we all must be involved in creating...

...Since information is controlled so tightly, it is not surprising that people know so little about the FARC...

...Those people who have more wealth would be taxed more to create a more equal distribution of wealth...

...The state has to figure out how to give land to those people who actually want to work it...

...In Colombia, the government limits a lot of information, and the journalists in turn have to limit what they repeat...

...a government that would be committed to social peace and to defending the country's sovereignty...

...inguish This was clearly seen in the case of the Patriotic Union major drug (UP...

...Whenever we put forward this pluralistic and patriotic proposal, we do so with the hope of resolving the problems responsible for the violence that has swept through Colombia...

...Drug trafficking in Colombia is a social, political and economic phenomenon which must be resolved by social, political and economic means...