[Marxism] on colombia and canada... my contribution

[Jeremias Zevi]

 Canada's Free Trade Deal With Narco-Terrorist Government
Colombia<http://basicsnewsletter.blogspot.com/2008/08/canadas-free-trade-deal-with-narco.html>
by Jeremias De Castero
http://basicsnewsletter.blogspot.com/2008/08/canadas-free-trade-deal-with-narco.html
Basics Issue #10 (Aug/Sep 2008)

On June 7th, 2008, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Colombian
President Álvaro Uribe Vélez signed a free trade agreement, pulling both of
their countries deeper into the miserable economic system of capitalism. The
experience of free trade for working Canadians over the last two decades has
been immiserating: jobs have been shipped to the more exploited countries of
the world; our public resources, like education and health care, are being
privatized; and Canada is participating in endless wars abroad.

As the deal was being worked out in June 2008, it's interesting to note how
much talk there was in the Canadian media of how Colombia has become so much
more democratic under its current president Uribe. Well if this trade deal
is about free trade, and we know how destructive free trade has been to the
world in the past decades, then what kind of democracy is the media talking
about? Let's sum up the "democratic" advances Colombia has made under Uribe
to get an idea of what kind of democracy the Canadian government has in
mind:
Since Uribe became president of Colombia in 2002 under the banner of
'democratic security', Colombian society has become more militarized and
more impoverished.

While supposedly more than 15, 000 right-wing paramilitaries have been
decommissioned, most have been reformed and rearmed into other
organizations. The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-Army of the People
(FARC-EP) have sustained their worst casualties in more than 15 years. At
the same time as the Colombia military has waged war against the FARC-EP
revolutionaries, the state's war against the general population has stepped
up as well.
In the last 20 years, the paramilitaries and the military forces have
assassinated more then three thousand trade unionists, both leaders and
ordinary workers, and hundreds of community activists, human rights workers,
and citizens critical of the government.

Throughout the same period there has been an intense increase of poverty in
Colombia, with an ever-increasing impoverishment of normal workers. Colombia
is also the country with the second highest number of internal refugees in
the world, a number that is increasing every day. This is the 'democratic
security' that Uribe and his government offers.

Uribe himself has a long history of connections with paramilitaries, drug
gangs and just general plain old corruption. When Uribe was governor of the
Antioquia province, it is known that he would have nightly meetings with
paramilitaries in his governmental compound, giving them lists of union
leaders and other community organizers to target for assassination. His
policies as the President have been a mixture of privatization, conservatism
in regards to social issues and an opening of Colombia to the exploitation
of foreign companies. None of these brutal and exploitative policies would
be possible without the support of foreign imperialist nations like the U.S.
and Canada.

Uribe's regime receives massive aid in the form of military hardware,
technology, military officers and contract mercenaries, costing the American
tax payers nearly a $1 billion per year.

On March 1, 2008 the Colombian military made an incursion into Ecuadorian
territory to bomb a site of FARC's revolutionary leader Raul Reyes, killing
him as well as 20 others. The affair caused an international stir as
Colombia broke international law, leading to a deterioration of relations
between Colombia and its neighbours, particularly Venezuela and Ecuador.

Finally, as a foreign policy chess piece, Uribe is much more friendly to the
counter-revolutionary policies of American and Canadian governments.
Currently, Latin Americans in almost every country on the continent are
building massive revolutionary movements for socialism. Colombia is the sole
country in Latin America where the fascist right-wing is being firmly
propped up with the help of America and Canada, even though the Colombian
people in the countryside have waged 40 years of insurgency against the
government.

Therefore, the Colombian military provides a sure foothold in Latin America
for those foreign powers wishing to stamp out people power in the
neighbouring countries.

The Canadian people have nothing to gain and much to lose from Canada's free
trade deal with Colombia. Exploited workers and oppressed people in Canada
must stand alongside Colombians in their struggle against the Uribe
government, because it is a struggle against the American and Canadian
governments too.

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