Insurgency Continues to Gain Power in Colombian Civil War
For the past three years, the Colombian insurgency has been taking an increasing amount of control of the country’s civil war. Despite the implementation of the 7 billion dollar Colombia Plan (a plan designed to bolster the state and resist the insurgency) by the United States in 2000, the North American Congress on Latin America reports that “both main guerrilla groups, the Armed Revolutionary Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the National Libration Army (ELN), and other smaller groups have solidly retaken the military initiative…” According to NACLA, the rise of these groups in Colombia can be accredited to their savvy strategizing skills:
First, the FARC and the ELN have dispersed their fronts on a wider territory, strenthening their presence in areas in which they enjoyed popular support. Both groups also activated their links with the popular movements in cities, as was demonstrated in 2011 by the huge rally in the oil-city of Barancabermeja and again in their support of the Marcha Patriotica in Bogota earlier this year.
In addition, NACLA reports that the Armed Revolutionary Forces of Colombia have increased their attacks by 57 percent from one year ago. They are also attacking the state where it hurts most: its wallet. States NACLA, “it is estimated that the guerrillas’ attacks against pipelines and other related installations are causing a daily income loss of $1 million.” If the Colombian government does not find a way to counter the insurgency soon, the war may be over shortly.
Read the whole article here.
Last week I went to a Brooklyn gallery, umbrage,
at 111 Front Street #208, in Dumbo. It is a short walk from the High
Street exit, the first stop in Brooklyn after leaving Manhattan.
The exhibit shows photographs from the book “Violentology”
taken by the photojournalist and author Stephen Ferry.
This remarkable book of photos and essays documents the
suffering of the people of Colombia and their heroic resistance.
I have been spending time with this book and am struck by
the drama in the photos and the deep sympathy and understanding
in the essays.
I find it difficult to support FARC since it murdered Ingrid
Washinawatok, a sister member of the Fannie Lou Hamer Educational
Organization, who was in Colombia to work with indigenous people
to build a school, captured by FARC and marched barefoot for
miles across the border and killed. I do not deny that the government
forces also engage in violence, but it does claim to be revolutionaries.
The book “Violentology” explores the possibilities for peace in Colombia–
a cause which is undermined by US policies.