I. With the approval by the US the governing elites face situaCongress of the so-called Plan tions of ungovernability and Colombia, the political, social crises of domination and military conflict in (Colombia, Ecuador, Colombia could become one of Peru, Bolivia). the main scenarios of anti- The successive indigenous imperialist confrontation in the uprisings in Ecuador, popular Third World. and peasant uprisings in Bolivia, The US decision to finance as well as the decomposition of and directly lead Plan Colombia the Fujimori regime [Peru] on is presented as an operation of the one hand. and the nationalstruggle against drugs and the ist discourse of Chavez narcotics trade; yet 80% of the (Venezuela], on the $7,500 million for Plan others, have whipped up the Colombia has a counterinsur- tempests in the Andean region. gent political objective. Simultaneously, we witness a This will be implemented growth of anti-neoliberal disthrough the destruction of content and resistance in the cultivations on which other countries of Latin 400,000 peasant families America and the Caribbean. depend for their survival. US imperialism is therefore Destruction of cultivation and playing all its cards to achieve a ecological-ethnic-cultural "stabilisation" depredation, similar to the Plan Colombia is intended to experience of "Operation change decisively the relationDignity" in Bolivia; an ship of forces in the Colombian operation led by US "advisers"
internal conflict, if not to estaband soldiers and the USAID lish a control over the Amazon agency. region and the oil wealth of the Plan Colombia means the Orinoco, or reaffirm the milimost serious foreign aggres- tary presence in the zone of sion of recent times against a the Panama Canal and the Latin American country, and Caribbean. confirms the desire of the imperialists to assure their 4. The argument based on hegemony over Latin America the "national security" for the and the Caribbean. United States is a manifestation It fits into the US vision, of tutelage and the most comaccording to which the plete and arrogant ignorance "Colombian disorder is becomNot any notion or national ing a regional danger", increas- sovereignty which conflicts ing the "insecurity of the hemi- with US interests. sphere" and endangering the This policy submits the Latin "national security" of the American peoples and counUnited States. The empire has tries to the economic control resolved to turn Colombia - and neo-colonial pillage of the and the Andean region - into international financial organisaa new theatre of war. tions and the multinational companies (payment of the for2. The decree issued by the eign debt, unequal exchange, Clinton administration on privatisation) and accelerates August 23 which approved mil- the path towards the creation itary "aid" of $1,319 million to of the American Free Trade the government of President Area (AFTA). Pastrana, can only be read in This seeks an "integration" one way: it is a declaration of subordinated to the US interwar against the armed insur- ests and which in many aspects, gency (FARC, ELN, EPL), and puts in question currently also against the trade union, existing regional blocs, in parpeasant, popular and human ticular Mercosur [the Latin rignts movements, against the American trading bloc, as dispolitical parties of the left and, tinct from the NAFTA, which in the end, against all the includes the US, Canada and democratic actors Mexico]. in Colombian society. It also seeks to tighten disciIn the framework of a politi- pline over the Latin American cal, social and armed conflict governments, and block any that in recent years has led to alternative project of demo35,000, deaths, 1,000,000 cratic and sovereign develop"internally displaced" (a figure ment proposed by the left and only exceeced by the the popular camp. Rwandan-Congolese drama) At the same time. Plan and 800,000 exiled, Plan Colombia pursues a delimitaColombia, far from being an tion of areas of influence with option for peace, is an instru- the imperialisms of the European Union, competing ment to strengthen the repressive capacity of the state, as for Latin American markets and well as of the criminal paramili- the bioenergy and strategic tary organisations. wealth or the Amazon.
It assigns to the EU govern3. This escalation of the US ments the role of "humanitarinterventionist strategy takes ian" donors, above all to balplace in a Latin American land- ance macroeconomic scape characterised by eco- disequilibria, the payment of nomic crisis, the growth public and private debt, and of social resistance, and the loss the "collateral" social effects of of legitimacy of the "neoliberal the scorched earth policy. model".
In some countries, moreover, 5. Unlike other US intervenTroops on streets of Colombia: aiding US drive for dominance tionist operations, Plan Colombia uses military pressure to assure the application of the anti-popular denationalising adjustment plan that the Pastrana government and the IMF agreed in 1999.
This accord established the conditions to pursue counter-reforms which • undermine free education and public health and solidaritybased systems of social security;
• deepen the flexibility of • the privatisation of state companies, roads and rivers;
• the sale of biodiversity:
• the private exploitation of energy resources;
and the negation of the rights of the indigenous peoples This adjustment plan aggravates unemployment and poverty in a country where 50% of the population survive on less than two dollars a day, and where a small oligarchic minority (3%) owns 70% of the land.
These counter-reforms have an antidemocratic character -and can only be applied by the suppression of basic social rights and by violating elementary human rights. They have been contested by the social movements, through strikes, and by various mass demonstrations.
6. Before the latest grave developments, there had been grwoing opposition to the implementation of "Operacion Sur" in the Putumayo region (as a pilot for Plan Colombia), The trade union, peasant, indigenous, neighbourhood, women, religious, organisations and movements, Amnesty Inter-national, and the Peace and lustice Service, as well as the political fronts and parties of Latin America (in particular those grouped in the Sao Paulo Forum), are beginning to mobilise against this US aggression and in solidarity with the Colombian people. Many NGOs, solidarity groups in Europe, the US and Canada, together with personalities like Noam Chomsky, Eduardo Galeano, Jose Saramago, Dario Fo, and Danielle Mitterrand, among others, have now signed a Manifesto for Peace and Human Rights in Colombia.
All these mobilisations and campaigns demand:
• full respect for national sovereignty and human rights;
the dismantling of paramilitarism, the immediate end to state terrorism, and the ending of impunity for those guilty of innumerable massacres;
• the withdrawal of the 300 US military "advisors" and an end to any foreign intervention;
•and respect for the autonomy of the social, peasant and indigenous movements -including in the zones controlled by the armed insurgency - and the demand for "dialogue with social justice" as a condition for peace.
7. The sections and sympathising and fraternal organisations of the Fourth International participate in these movements and campaigns and in the battle against the media frenzy, which beneath the cloak of the "war against drugs" seeks to neutralise the actions of a great number of NGOs and social and democratic movements.
At the same time, we insist on the necessity of engaging in the development of a broad, plural and unitary campaign of solidarity with the popular and indigenous movements and organisations, not just in Colombia but also in Ecuador and Peru, which are directly targeted by the repressive strategy of Plan Colombia.
The forces of the Fourth International agree also on the necessity to emphasise the class nature of this war, and the legitimacy of insurrectional struggles which are in practice struggles of anticapitalist resistance against the local oligarchies and the expression of a concrete anti-imperialism.
In such conditions, the next World Social Forum (Porto Alegre, January 2001), is an opportunity for militants to incornorate the consenuences of the Colombian and regional conflict into the discussions and debates against capitalist globalisation, and on the political and social projects for a radical transformation of society. Charlie van Gelderen There is growing resistance about land invasions in Zimbabwe, but nothing was said about the powerful and often racist" white farmers who violate South African laws. "Serious crimOutlook