Colombia's farm protest has been infiltrated by FARC, government says

[KurtFF8]

A few days old but still an interesting article

Source (http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/08/22/us-colombia-protests-farc-idUSBRE97L17S20130822)


By Helen Murphy
BOGOTA | Thu Aug 22, 2013 6:26pm EDT

(Reuters) - A protest by thousands of Colombian farmers and truckers, which has blocked roads nationwide and become increasingly violent, has been infiltrated by Marxist FARC rebels, Defense Minister Juan Carlos Pinzon said on Thursday.
Clashes between police and agricultural workers became violent this week as authorities sought to remove dozens of roadblocks that have snarled travel on Colombia's highways and prevented produce getting to market.
Rocks and explosives were thrown as police launched teargas to clear protesters that Pinzon said have been mobilized in some areas by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.
The demonstrations, which began on Monday, are the second wave of so-called national strikes against President Juan Manuel Santos' agriculture and economic policies which farmers say leave them unable to make any profit.
Much of the violence took place in central Boyaca province, a key farming area, as well as southwestern Cauca.
"Everyone knows that the terrorist FARC end up infiltrating these kinds of protests and cause disorder," Pinzon told reporters in Bogota.
"There are sectors that infiltrate these situations because, let's be frank, potato farmers, valuable people, workers, are not really prepared to use explosives against the police or burn cars; there has to be evil minds behind that."
Potato, corn and milk producers complain that free trade agreements with Europe and the United States have made it difficult to compete with cheap imports.
Some coffee growers have joined the protests, seeking more effort by the government to weaken the currency. They also want help to pay for fertilizers and other farming chemicals.
The FARC, which began as an agrarian struggle against rural inequality in 1964, on Monday issued a statement of support for the protest.
Pinzon's accusation against the FARC comes as the rebel group seeks to raise its influence in rural areas while it negotiates with the government on a peace deal to end its insurgency.
The two sides are currently discussing the rebels' inclusion in the political system if peace is achieved after reaching partial accord on agricultural reform.
(Reporting by Helen Murphy; Editing by Peter Murphy and Cynthia Osterman)

[khad]

It's the Colombian government. The article and its central premise is constructed on some flimsy assumptions:


"Everyone knows that the terrorist FARC end up infiltrating these kinds of protests and cause disorder," Pinzon told reporters in Bogota.


"There are sectors that infiltrate these situations because, let's be frank, potato farmers, valuable people, workers, are not really prepared to use explosives against the police or burn cars; there has to be evil minds behind that."

In other words, they don't have any evidence. Therefore, in response to his "common sense," I would like to point out that fertilizer and dynamite are things that farmers would typically have in ample supply.

[KurtFF8]

Indeed, of course the govt will use that to justify any future crackdown on the strikes.

I found this CS Monitor article (http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Americas/2013/0729/FARC-peace-talks-stoke-hope-and-unrest-in-Colombia) quite interesting however:



The government claims that the FARC were behind the protests, potentially trying to gain political support. The protesting farmers deny this. However, on July 22 the rebels publicly offered the farmers weapons and troops to support their demonstrations. "We are ready to receive them, to support them, and guide them to final victory," the FARC's Magdalena Medio front said in a message posted on its website.


FARC negotiator Andres Paris said Sunday the government's refusal to meet protester demands called into question the latter's sincerity over agrarian reform. "It is worthless to talk in Havana of limiting land ownership, stopping foreign ownership, of a policy that favors the poor and national sovereignty, if the government turns what it has agreed to into empty words," Mr. Paris said. Both the FARC and the government established when negotiations began that no partial agreement was binding until a full peace accord was reached.

[Gorra Negra]

The only ones infiltrating the protests are the coppers themselves. In an eastern department, the peasant guards captured at least ten undercover cops as they were taking pictures of the protesters.

[Zergling]

Nothing new here. The Colombian government is pathetic as is even without the FARC to be a thorn on their side.

[RedSonRising]

The government will fling accusations of FARC involvement


That being said, I don't think the FARC are heavily involved in this at all. The momentum of truck drivers and agricultural workers is building on the protests conducted by the cafeteros a few months ago and have been mobilized regionally, with the involvement of Unions and a few popular political parties as well.

[Paul Pott]

What happens when FARC and other guerrillas demobilize? Who will they blame it on then, Venezuela?

[tuwix]

Indeed, of course the govt will use that to justify any future crackdown on the strikes.

And it's traditional strategy of the bourgeois colombian governement in class war in Colombia...

[--Navarro--]

as I said on http://www.revleft.com/vb/colombias-growing-labor-t182754/index.html
it's quite likely that Farc has made presence on the protests, because Farc is a daily reality in several areas where protests are also happening. but Farc agents are only a tiny minority in the protests, and, of course, it doesn't deny the legitimity of the protester demands.

[KurtFF8]

as I said on http://www.revleft.com/vb/colombias-growing-labor-t182754/index.html
it's quite likely that Farc has made presence on the protests, because Farc is a daily reality in several areas where protests are also happening. but Farc agents are only a tiny minority in the protests, and, of course, it doesn't deny the legitimity of the protester demands.

Even if the entire thing was some sort of "FARC conspiracy" it wouldn't take away from the legitimacy of their demands

[--Navarro--]

it would, Farc deeds against Colombian peasants and working class, deny any legitimacy their demands can have. you can't ask for land democratization when you are one of the main causes of land expoliation in Colombia, and you can't pretend you are on favor of protesting and a true democracy when you are allied with neoparamilitary groups, as Farc is.

See post http://www.revleft.com/vb/showpost.php?p=2660027&postcount=23 (third paragraph) for explanation (it's in Spanish tho').

[tuwix]

it would, Farc deeds against Colombian peasants and working class, deny any legitimacy their demands can have. you can't ask for land democratization when you are one of the main causes of land expoliation in Colombia, and you can't pretend you are on favor of protesting and a true democracy when you are allied with neoparamilitary groups, as Farc is.

See post http://www.revleft.com/vb/showpost.php?p=2660027&postcount=23 (third paragraph) for explanation (it's in Spanish tho').


That is neoliberal's opinion of one who defends colombian Free Trade Agreement with the USA.



explain the negative effects that FTA with the US has had on Colombian agriculture, so far. with real data and numbers, not with these assumptions with no basis on anything that you like to make.


Against effects of that agreement there are social protests in Colombia:



A nationwide strike in Colombia—which started as a rural peasant uprising and spread to miners, teachers, medical professionals, truckers, and students—reached its 7th day Sunday as at least 200,000 people blocked roads and launched protests against a U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement and devastating policies of poverty and privatization pushed by US-backed right-wing President Juan Manuel Santos.


https://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/08/25

[KurtFF8]

one of the main causes of land expoliation in Colombia,

This is just completely false. What is the argument to back up this claim?

[--Navarro--]

let's start with a number. in may 2013, there were 36.000 "solicitudes de restitución de tierras" from victims. in 36% of them, victims pointed to the Farc as the responsibles of the expoliation.