bosses link up with drug barons IN DEPTH drugs' was a high profile US policy socialist DANIEL LIBREROS told imperialist war-monger Bush have been trying to sell the idea that the inLatin America. Both the Colom- fundamental political situation in drug-traffickers and government the country is a struggle between Until the Gulf war pushed it to institutions. But as Colombian the sidelines, the 'war against bian government and the
Lioneering, and would stay in their hotels. It is widely known that the traditioned bourgeois SOCIALIST OUTLOOK no 29. December/January 1990/91 hut she the tional Liberal politicians on the Atlantic coast, When journalists asked him why, he said "l don't know why they're going for me - I'm Anther example is Barco, the Colombian ing to drug-traffickers when he was elec- river in Colombia, the Magdalemn, rans through it. Two years ago ten judges went to investigate human rights violations in the zone: nine were assassinated, and only one survived: This judge was able to identify the killers: they were military officials. As a result of this a general was brought to justice, His response was to say: "I don't know why you're putting me on trial - I'm just obeying It's not just the army and the state who are political parties, One example will give a good lustiation. Slevi, who was one of the tradi- had his visa to enter the USA suspended. president, who would use acmplanes belong- contralled by the army and the para-milituries mass movement. You might find 20 or 30 bodies a month in these cemeteries. To enter these zones - for example one is on the mila. The people who live in these zones have Another such zone is on the border with Venezuela. This is a very important agncul- tural arca. It is very rich because the muin traffickers in terms of suppressing the mass are and you will find cemcteries where they dump the bodies of leaders and activists from the Panamanian honler - you need military per- movement. Certain areas of the country parties are linked to drug-trafficking, to report to the military every day. connected to dnig trafficking, Just the sarne as every one else. Police publicly burn confiscated cocaine while co-operating with the traffickers orders." peared, confirming the role of the traffickers in At the lovel of the state too there is clear At the level of the private soctor, there is a relationship berween the traditional capitalists of Galan, the Icading presidential candidate nf government began a the tourist trade: in fact they owned most of co-operation helween the army and the drug- $1,000 million more than the main cash crop and the drug exporting capitalists at the level To give one example, aller the assassination period of repression against the traffickers. Tourism on the West coast virtually disap- of transport, banking, commerce and industry. 500,000 live from the trade in Colombla - 8 percent of the economically ac- The wealth of these mafiosi is beyond accurate calculation. Between them more than the Colombian state agrarlan reform project INCORA has managed quality. The fallure of the bourgeois-controlled agrarian reform in all of these Is processed In Colombla by criminal cartels which control the whole process standing at $18 billion, this was entirely consistent with their known assets, Although 90 per cent of the crop is grown In Peru and Bolivia, 75 per cent When the cartels offered to pay off Colombia's entire foreign debt, them countries forces over a million peasants to grow a crop that pays up toten The best cocaine is grown in Peru, Bolivia and Colombla, In that orderof Peasnts grow it, lumpen elements transport and protect the trade and Its the cartels have purchased one million hectares of land as investments - The proceeds from the drug trade are staggering. $1 million of cocaine tive population. In Bolivia it Is 450,000 (15 per cent), and Peru 400,000. making them the most powerful financial sector of the bourgeolsie. the Liheral Party, the The drug industry produced In Colombia will fetch $5 milllon in the USA. the hotels. export. owners, and professionals process It. change the money that they get from their trade, This explains why Colombia has leas foriegh debt than other Latin American In 1988 when there was an interational pact that led to a drop in the price of coffee - fected dramatically. The export of coffee went down to $3,000 million in 1988 - but the money from drugs went up to $4,000 million - Far from being engaged in an all-out war traditional bourgeoisie are deeply impli- cated in the drugs trade. In reality the process of capital accumulation could not occur in Colombia withoul the revenue This happens at two levels. At the state level, the bourgeoisie established a law within the official bank nector which the journalists in Colombia call the Sinister Window, This al- lows the drug-trafficker to go and officially Colomhis main export - the country was af- against the evils of drug-trafficking, the of production and sale of the drug. Socialist Outlook, the real story is times better than legal farming. to buy in 25 years. very different. from trafficking. Page 26 countres:
capitalist system - it is one of the most profitable areas they have. I feel that people be denouncing this aspect of There is legislation that says that trade. In the mass social movement the biggest prblem that we face is that the left wing powerful in the countryside than it is in the towns, This is be- cause in the countryside the struggle is very moch a defensive struggle against the para- militarics. This allows for the politicisation of the peasants. In the cities there has been no recent history of mass struggle. The state ment more divided There is a tradition of de- politicisation consciously encouraged by the This is coupled with role of the trade union bureaucracy preventing the beyond economic demands to make political links. The trade unions in the cities have a very low level confederation CUT called a general strike a couple of the trade union headquarters and control the key areas of the are taking place in a cold climate - there is no adso have an international context which is structures are stronger and the mass move- unions can't pat forward political view- years ago, the goverment's response was to militarise the whole dispute and attack and as This means that the discussions on the Left radical movement, no mass mobilisations. We very unfavourable to us. The fall of the bureaucralic regimes in Eastem Europe has nst heen accompanied by the working class in pendent mass organisations. Not only do they not have a strategy for power they cannot those countries developing their own inde- cven organise themselves as a workers' move- cities. This meant the strike failed; capitalism with more vigour. of political development sassinate Icaders, occupy unions from moving struggle is far has the highest homicide rate in the world for a Murder is now the commonest form of death tion of Galan - the most important bourgeois: for males aged between 15 and 40. Colombla The drug-traffickers had their own huge in- shtutional military structure and they made in discriminate attacks in order to create public terror and recoup what they had lost. The weakness in the govemment was shown by the fact that just one month after the assussina- Figure of the time - Lopez, the Liberal Party boss, made a public speech to all the heads of the povate sector in which he said it was trafficking: * Why are we carrying out this war for the USA when they are cutting the When the govemment renewed their talks with the traffickers the military chief of one of nation not at war - over 10,000 political mur- the world - second only to the manufacture of 'madness' to continue the war against drug- the drug curtels in Medellin was killed. Jour- nalists found, from evidence in the American press, that US agents were directly involved with this assassination. US imperialism does not want to see any agreements between the Drug-trafficking is not a national problem but an international problem. Drug-trafficking is the second most important area of finance in arms. IF you take all the addictive drugs it adds up to $500,000 million a year - almost the equivalent to the entire third world debt. Sur- veys in Europe have shown that almost a third trafficking money. The destruction of whole layers of youth is linked in this way to the of the Swiss banking system is hased on drug- IN DEPTH The slaughter rather than the other way round price of our coffee exports?* state and the traffickers. ders occur each year. This is also true for the Catholic hierarchy. who play a very important role in setting ideological standards for the people. We must talk about the hierarchy of the Church hecause in Colombin, as is the case throughout Latin America, there is a radical christian tradition People may ask why the drug traffickers killed Galan. Why are there these conflicts and contradictions belween the drug-traffickers tion has two levels. One level is economic. American press. But the political reason is and the traditional bourgeoisie? The explana- stemmoing from the pressure from the USA because of the effects of drug addiction there. This has been talked about publicly in the more important. Bush has changed the tradi- tional pretext for American intervention in You will note that Noriega is on trial for drug- Drug-tralhicking has heen the cxcuse for lantic coust of Latin America Even here the position is hypocritical A document called Santa Fe I1, a counter-insurgency document approved by the British government, has stated that the USA's aim is to reduce the tion, Galan was assassinated as a waming to Bush and Thatcher to put frigater on the At- When the drug-tralfickers realised that the government was going to carry out this opera- go no further. In effect it was the traffickers who launched the war on the government level of trafficking in relation to the state be Latin America. The reason they use now This Follows on from the changes in Fastem Europe and the fall of the Berlin Wall. Bush made a speech a month before he took office in which be said the big problem in Latin America now is the fight against drug-trafficking and no longer the fight against communism. cause it is too obvious and public! trafficking not as a communist. is to combat drug-trafficking- within the mass movement. approved by the
been living under. Because of the control of ment. There is incredible ideological con- fusion as a result of the regimes that they have social democracy there is no great mass rodi- cal movement coming forward in Western During the talks berween Gorbachev and Bush in Malta, Gorbachev stated that he had no interest in Latin America. The American press did not miss the fact that the invasion of ment with Gorbachev. The USSR ix reducing national context we have the deleat of the Sandinistas in Nicaragua and a difficult time for the FMLN in El Salvador. The present Panama happened just 8 days after this agree- its level of material aid to Cuba. In this inter- the outrage felt by the masses. Bogota the capital was taken over by the mas- conditions. When the populist liberal leader Galtan put himself at the head of World War Two gave a boost to the Colombian economy, and saw the emer- La Violencia In the 1950s flowed from the power struggle between the fac- ses; town councils elsewhere were overthrown and popular juntas organised milltary operation re-established state control in Bogota, and one by one the Galtan was assassinated. The Insurrectionary upsurge that followed showed The bourgeois parties closed ranks to regain control of events; a bloody In 1948, at the height of his popularity, and In line for the Presidency, gence of an urban working class which began to demand better living tions after Galtan was murdered. Over 250,000 were killed out of a The political background these forces, It divided the ruling oligarchy. to run the municipailties. juntas were suppressed.
This is not to say that we have been What is a problem though is that the vision of communism, a view of the way forward is defcated; we are carrying out real struggles. pressure of the Page 27 revolutionarics in Latin America. drowned under the being Eventually the rise of a bonapartist clique in the army, led by General Rojas Pinilla brought a concordat between the factions of the oligarchy and a sys tem of power-sharing which gave the two parties the opportunity to have four-year terms of office, alternating at each election! This system, with SOCIALIST OUTLOOK no 29. December/January 1990/91 some alterations, still exists in Colombla. population of just 11 million in 1951.
rional Executive of A Luchar and a member of the International Executive Committee of viously doesn't compare to the 1,200 deatlis overall aim of the goverment. However we are optimistic about a quick radicalisation and more stable development of the Left in Daniel Libreros is a member of the No- agreement ou the rules of the game in order to put forward one line to the outside. We have been victims ourselves of the repression. We have of the Union Patriotica, but it does reflect the tadical and Trotskyists of the Fourth We have come to an bad 400 of our cadre assassinated This ob SOCIALIST OUTLOOK no 29. December/January 1990/91 ment that includes workers, that includes peasants and other sectors. From the point of view of Icadership the movement must be broad and pluralistic. This im- piles that you accept diverse ideological cur- the move- ment. In A Luchar we have radical christians, people from a Guevarist When M19 kidnapped the daughter of the 'godfather' Fabia Ochoa, the car- their control have been identified as being responsible for a horrific wave of Since then 140 paramliltary groups with an estimated 14,000 killers under tels met secretly and decided to launch a death squad (the MAS) to deal This formidable private army has also been used by employers to deal the Trotskyist Fourth International. within Intemational. nabonalists tradition, rents The war against the left While most of the guerrilla groups were content to control regional areas, tions, propaganda and displays of strength. As a result it became the target munist Party from the corridors of power led to a serlous crisis in the party, maoist rivals also bullt a smaller armed wing in the banana-producing areas castroite ELN guerrilla was formed, and the famous M19 emerged from the This tactic crystallised Into the largest guerrilla grouping - the FARC. Its both of the mafia drug barons and of the army, both of which feared Its in- the M19 generated a popular nationalist following through spectacular ac- discontented middle classes and militants forced into hiding by state and After the 1959 Cuban Revolution, the exclusion of the Colombian Com- By the mid 1970s guerrillaism was enjoying considerable popularity. A assassinations which have terrorised the nation. Colombia. and It began to bulld up a following among groups of the dispossessed. with their enemles In the labour movement. have the option of dissolving themscives into position of the Latin American Left - putting We believe building in a broad social move- cial democracy: Within the CP there are problems because of the interational situation and Gorbachev. At the moment they do not a social democratic party, even though in the past they have had electoral agrooments with A Luchar is itself a result of the recom- forward an independent revolutionary line, The guerrilla movement amongst those sectors outside the orbit of so- to confront the new situation. We see positive elements in the evolution of the situation with the left wing urban guerrillas. Military police display their might in Bogota of Antioquia and the Atlantic coast, known as the ERP. IN DEPTH the traditional bourgeois parties. privatised repression. fluence and tactics. unity, a unity that allows the mass movement We are not sectarian on the question of unity. We want a political dialogue with the base of tradition. A social democratic project is not The other sector of the guerrilla movement says that we will have dialogue with the vadoran FMLN has it We must insist upon fundamental social changes as part of that The preocupation of A Tachar is for Left solves its independent structures into a We continue to insist on unity because we see it as a necessity in the present situation. the M19 movement which has a long radical government - but in the way the El Sal- cal demands, But we want this unity without preconditions being placed on us. They say there will be unity if A Luchar publicly distan- ces itself from the guerrilla struggle and dis broader organisation. We have said that unity We want unity in the social struggle, on politi ward by MI9 in their discussions with us lowing direct meetings with Peres, Gonzales. lowing the actions of M19, put forward the ticipate in the civil structures. This resulted in proximately 13 per cent of the vote. This is Important for the Colombian Left which has amounts to acceptance of capitalism - a refonned capitalism and reformed parliamen- tary structures. The view of M19 has been en doned by international social democracy fol- we have a Left that has a lot of discussions but They say that our current, A Luchar is part of the illegal guerrilla Left in order to repress u. We are not What we do say is that the Their armed struggle is combined with the struggle for land At the moment though the guerrilla move- ment is divided into two paits. One sector, fol- idea of laying down arms in order to par- never previously exceeded 3 per cent in na- tional elections. But the point of view put for- market and liheral economics. In Colombia good results in the recent election - ap is quite impossible under those conditions. no mass movement to carry them forward. fearihle in the present situation. guerrilla struggle is legitimate. jpint action, for unity. it necessary to take a neutral view in order A Luchar have put Forward proposals for are now saying that term social democratic this period another discussion has M19 thie guerrilla struggle and the para-military violence amount to the same thing They say are proposing a short and Mitterrand. M19 and for social justice. come forward to end violence. dialogue. Page 28 In plan.
Stalinism after the Hungarian revolution of 1956, hut who tended to cart doubt on hasic But his notion of the "epistemological broak" in Marx's writings underestimated the real continuity of Marx's thought - and in- deed how concepts like "alicnation" and 'com- modity fetishism' continued to play a role in his scientific writings like Capital. (4) The real value of Althusser's intervention was marred by this one-sidedness and by his polemical excesses (when I hear the word The failings of Althosser's system, some of which have had a very negative effect.on The success and