[Marxism] Colombia: One Million March Against Paramilitary Violence and War

[Sean Andrews]

Anthony,

Good article.  I also thought this statement might be of interest:

http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2008/03/102191.htm

Remarks with Colombian Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos Before Their Meeting
Secretary Condoleezza Rice
Washington, DC
March 12, 2008

QUESTION: Secretary Rice, are you investigating Venezuela's
relationship to the FARC and might you consider putting them on the
State Sponsor of Terrorism list?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, we're certainly interested in the information
that is emerging and we'll be following the circumstances very
closely. I would just note that it is an obligation of every member of
the United Nations not to allow their territory to be used in any way
to support terrorism and not to support terrorists. And the FARC is a
terrorist organization and so there should be no support for them. And
so we are following the developments with interest.

...

I'm actually quite stunned at the credulity with which the major US
media is treating this tack of the story.  Considering that the
Columbian government *asked* Venezuela to get involved with the FARC,
it seems completely ridiculous to act as if there is some corrupt
subtext here.  I don't usually think that NPR is completely
awful--though I understand the position they are representing--but
this segment yesterday which pretended to speak to the average
Venezuelan about Chavez regarding the Columbian incident, but somehow
ended up spending most of its time speaking to one of the leaders of
the coup against Chavez in 2002: go figure, he wasn't a fan.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=88091821

It is interesting to me how evident the bias is in this story.
Usually US mainstream media tries to hedge themselves more, but there
is such a dominant consensus that Chavez is evil incarnate, that they
don't seem to be able to even pretend.

In any case, I heard from my Colombian friend about the anti-FARC
rallies last month (evidently organized on Facebook--do you know
anything about that?) and I am sure she will be very glad to hear
about these gatherings.

s


On Wed, Mar 12, 2008 at 11:00 PM, Anthony Boynton <northbogota at yahoo.com> wrote:
> Colombia: One Million March Against Paramilitary
>  Violence and War
>
>  Written by Anthony Boynton
>  Wednesday, 12 March 2008
>
>  http://towardfreedom.com/home/content/view/1253/1/
>