The FARC: we're gonna win
In the past few months, not much has gone the FARC's way. They screw up a hostage release, get duped about a release, Hugo Chávez tells them to demobilize, even Fidel Castro tells them their tactics are going too far, and millions of Colombians march against them.
But the FARC just released a statement telling the world they will fight on. It is a long, rambling statement. Basically, there is still much kidnapping work to be done and the fight can only be successful with more drug trafficking perseverance. They always treat their enemies like slaves with "dignity." And they assure the Colombian people that they will never submit and will fight until everyone deserts until the end.
3 comments:
Someone I really respect had long encouraged me to subscribe to Monthly Review. Fall of 2005 when I started graduate school I perused the copy at Carolina's Davis Library and found a super pro-FARC article.
I had a Colombian friend during my semester in Ecuador whose mom was kidnapped. They had to pay half of the ransom to get her back and then the second half, but they didn't have the second half so that's why they fled to Ecuador. She said her mom had never been the same psychologically ever since. I was already not at all a fan of FARC but that made it a little more personal.
So I said there was no way I could subscribe to Monthly Review. Maybe that was overly sensitive as I'm sure MR has plenty of good articles.
It's simply hard to imagine sympathizing with a group whose modus operandi includes kidnapping people and chaining them to trees.
I once worked an asylum case for a Colombian who got on the FARC kidnap "list". Was simply not safe anywhere in Colombia. Before even targeting a person the kidnappers had their master id# and information about relatives bank accounts. Even if you moved to another city they tracked you and got to you. If not directly then through criminal gangs who would "sell" a kidnap target to the guerillas. It was almost like having a bounty on you.
Even for Colombia where kidnapping has been turned into an art form the past 4 decades, the FARC were masters. And still are considering the staggering numbers of people they still hold.
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