Aporrea, Miércoles, 22/07/2009
El 1 de enero de 2009, la pequeña Isla de Cuba celebró el 50º
aniversario de una revolución que logró derrotar a la brutal dictadura que la
dominaba para comenzar a establecer en
su largo y a menudo complicado camino hacia el socialismo.
En todo el mundo, los medios de comunicación masiva han
combinado informes con distorsiones y mentiras sobre el tema de la democracia
enla isla, focalizando la revolución en el más claro de sus símbolos: su líder
histórico, Fidel Castro y el icónico ejército guerrillero que marchó a la
Habana en la primer semana de 1959, precisamente con Castro y el revolucionario
de origen argentino, Ernesto Che Guevara a la cabeza.
En el mejor de los casos, esta visión nos presenta sólo una
imagen parcial sobre la Revolución Cubana ya que pasa por alto los cientos de miles
de personas que en el movimiento urbano clandestino se opusieron al asesino
dictador apoyado por los Estados Unidos, Fulgencio Batisa quien fue derrocado
por la revolución en combates callejeros, movilizaciones obreras que pararon la
producción hasta llegar a la organización de huelgas generales como la
organizada el 2 de Enero de 1959, misma que finalmente puso al régimen de
rodillas.
El mismo punto de vista sobre Cuba también hace caso omiso
de la lucha de los trabajadores y otros sectores populares que, después de huir
Batista, transformó la lucha contra la dictadura en una revolución que derrocó
a una clase política cuya corrupción y régimen autocrático ponían en peligro
las aspiraciones del pueblo cubano por democracia y justicia social. Una Revolución
Socialista iniciaba a unos pasos de la mayor potencia capitalista de la tierra.
Showing posts with label Latin America. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Latin America. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Friday, March 7, 2008
Raul Reyes and Colombia's tragedy
On March 1, Raul Reyes, a central leader of the 18,000-strong
left-wing guerrilla army, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia
(FARC), was killed in an illegal midnight attack by the Colombian army.
The attack targeted a FARC encampment three kilometres south of the
border in the Putumayo province of Ecuador.
At least 21 FARC members were killed in their sleep during the cluster bomb attack. The Colombian military then invaded Ecuadorian territory to retrieve the body of Reyes, the FARC's chief negotiator and public spokesperson. Reyes bloodied corpse, still wearing pyjamas, was presented to the Colombian media as a trophy.
Reyes — born Luis Edgar Devia Silva on September 30, 1948 — began his revolutionary activities as a member of the youth organisation of the Colombian Communist Party, where he became an organiser.
Reyes became a union militant, working at a Nestle plant, until 1980, when he, along with many other unionists, was kidnapped and tortured by the army.
Seeing few alternatives, he moved to the mountains to join the FARC, which was waging an armed struggle against the Colombian dictatorship. Reyes' transformation — from union activist to guerrilla — reflects the tragic reality of politics in Colombia, which holds the macabre record of the highest rate of killings of trade unionists in the world.
By 1984, Reyes was on the seven-member FARC secretariat and, as their chief international spokesperson, became the best-known face of the FARC.
At least 21 FARC members were killed in their sleep during the cluster bomb attack. The Colombian military then invaded Ecuadorian territory to retrieve the body of Reyes, the FARC's chief negotiator and public spokesperson. Reyes bloodied corpse, still wearing pyjamas, was presented to the Colombian media as a trophy.
Reyes — born Luis Edgar Devia Silva on September 30, 1948 — began his revolutionary activities as a member of the youth organisation of the Colombian Communist Party, where he became an organiser.
Reyes became a union militant, working at a Nestle plant, until 1980, when he, along with many other unionists, was kidnapped and tortured by the army.
Seeing few alternatives, he moved to the mountains to join the FARC, which was waging an armed struggle against the Colombian dictatorship. Reyes' transformation — from union activist to guerrilla — reflects the tragic reality of politics in Colombia, which holds the macabre record of the highest rate of killings of trade unionists in the world.
By 1984, Reyes was on the seven-member FARC secretariat and, as their chief international spokesperson, became the best-known face of the FARC.
Raul Reyes and Colombia's tragedy
On March 1, Raul Reyes, a central leader of the 18,000-strong left-wing guerrilla army, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), was killed in an illegal midnight attack by the Colombian army. The attack targeted a FARC encampment three kilometres south of the border in the Putumayo province of Ecuador.
At least 21 FARC members were killed in their sleep during the cluster bomb attack. The Colombian military then invaded Ecuadorian territory to retrieve the body of Reyes, the FARC's chief negotiator and public spokesperson. Reyes' bloodied corpse, still wearing pyjamas, was presented to the Colombian media as a trophy.
Reyes — born Luis Edgar Devia Silva on September 30, 1948 — began his revolutionary activities as a member of the youth organisation of the Colombian Communist Party, where he became an organiser.
Reyes became a union militant, working at a Nestle plant, until 1980, when he, along with many other unionists, was kidnapped and tortured by the army.
Seeing few alternatives, he moved to the mountains to join the FARC, which was waging an armed struggle against the Colombian dictatorship. Reyes' transformation — from union activist to guerrilla — reflects the tragic reality of politics in Colombia, which holds the macabre record of the highest rate of killings of trade unionists in the world.
By 1984, Reyes was on the seven-member FARC secretariat and, as their chief international spokesperson, became the best-known face of the FARC.
The current armed conflict in Colombia dates back more than five decades, to "La Violencia", the 10-year civil war between the Conservative and Liberal parties of the Colombian oligarchy that caused at least 200,000 deaths from 1948-58.
Many workers and peasants fled the violence, creating independent "peace communities" in the country's south. When the government attacked these communities, residents formed self-defence organisations with the assistance of the communist party. Out of these groups, the FARC was formed in 1964.
Since John F. Kennedy's administration, the US government has funded and supported the Colombian government in its brutal counter-insurgency war and state repression against the Colombian people — more than half of whom live in abject poverty.
After a truce was negotiated in 1984, the FARC helped form the Patriotic Union (UP), which participated in elections and won a number of senators and hundreds of local councillors. A wave of terror was unleashed in the year following the elections that resulted in 4000 UP activists being murdered.
Faced with this mass slaughter, the FARC withdrew back to the jungle, where they now control around a third of Colombian territory.
In the late 1990s, the FARC took part in peace negotiations with President Andres Pastrana's government. They were again betrayed. Under the cover of a truce, the Colombian government prepared for an escalation of its war.
The US and Colombian governments devised Plan Colombia, whereby the US provides Colombia with around US$600 million in military aid each year.
Ostensibly part of the "war on drugs", Plan Colombia is actually focused on the part of the country controlled by the guerrillas, while ignoring areas controlled by the right-wing terrorist paramilitaries of the United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia (AUC).
Despite claims from the US and Colombian governments, the FARC denies it is involved in drug trafficking, insisting its involvement extends only as far as refusing to forcibly eradicate the coca plants that are the only source of income for impoverished peasants in territories that it control. The FARC calls for alternative crops to be provided for peasants to grow, and sustainable markets to build effective local economies.
A 2002 Colombian government report admitted that the FARC garners only 2.5% of the profits of the cocaine industry, through taxes imposed on the areas it controls. By contrast, the AUC (linked to the Colombian state) receives 40% of drug profits, and is connected to the large cocaine cartels.
Colombia's President Alvaro Uribe is himself linked to both the paramilitaries and the illicit drug trade. Uribe's father was a drug trafficker killed by the FARC in 1983 and Uribe himself was close friends with notorious drug lord Pablo Escobar of the Medellín Cartel, who was killed in a shoot-out in 1993. In fact, in 1991, the US Defense Intelligence Agency listed Uribe as one of Colombia's top 100 drug lord in his own right.
As governor of Antioquia province, Uribe was also an architect of the Convivirs, the immediate predecessors of the AUC. When the Convivirs were outlawed in 1997, they were simply transformed into the then-legal AUC. The AUC are responsible for the murder of over 800 people every year, including trade unionists, peasant leaders and peace activists, and claim to control 35% of the Colombia's Congress.
It was in the struggle against this system — of state-sponsored terror controlled by drug lords and corrupt politicians, and of terrible poverty and oppression — that Raul Reyes gave his life. At the time of his assassination, the FARC were again negotiating for prisoner exchanges with the Colombian government.
Reyes was centrally involved in these negotiations — which were torpedoed by Uribe in November. In particular, Reyes was the key negotiator with the French government over negotiations for the release of French-Colombian Ingrid Betancourt, who is being held by the FARC.
To the last, Reyes insisted that the FARC "is struggling for a new Colombia, hand in hand with the Colombian people. The FARC is part of the people. It is struggling for political power so that there are no exploiters or exploited, so that we can have a just society."
Uribe's brutal murder of Reyes and other FARC fighters was aimed at destroying this goal.
At least 21 FARC members were killed in their sleep during the cluster bomb attack. The Colombian military then invaded Ecuadorian territory to retrieve the body of Reyes, the FARC's chief negotiator and public spokesperson. Reyes' bloodied corpse, still wearing pyjamas, was presented to the Colombian media as a trophy.
Reyes — born Luis Edgar Devia Silva on September 30, 1948 — began his revolutionary activities as a member of the youth organisation of the Colombian Communist Party, where he became an organiser.
Reyes became a union militant, working at a Nestle plant, until 1980, when he, along with many other unionists, was kidnapped and tortured by the army.
Seeing few alternatives, he moved to the mountains to join the FARC, which was waging an armed struggle against the Colombian dictatorship. Reyes' transformation — from union activist to guerrilla — reflects the tragic reality of politics in Colombia, which holds the macabre record of the highest rate of killings of trade unionists in the world.
By 1984, Reyes was on the seven-member FARC secretariat and, as their chief international spokesperson, became the best-known face of the FARC.
The current armed conflict in Colombia dates back more than five decades, to "La Violencia", the 10-year civil war between the Conservative and Liberal parties of the Colombian oligarchy that caused at least 200,000 deaths from 1948-58.
Many workers and peasants fled the violence, creating independent "peace communities" in the country's south. When the government attacked these communities, residents formed self-defence organisations with the assistance of the communist party. Out of these groups, the FARC was formed in 1964.
Since John F. Kennedy's administration, the US government has funded and supported the Colombian government in its brutal counter-insurgency war and state repression against the Colombian people — more than half of whom live in abject poverty.
After a truce was negotiated in 1984, the FARC helped form the Patriotic Union (UP), which participated in elections and won a number of senators and hundreds of local councillors. A wave of terror was unleashed in the year following the elections that resulted in 4000 UP activists being murdered.
Faced with this mass slaughter, the FARC withdrew back to the jungle, where they now control around a third of Colombian territory.
In the late 1990s, the FARC took part in peace negotiations with President Andres Pastrana's government. They were again betrayed. Under the cover of a truce, the Colombian government prepared for an escalation of its war.
The US and Colombian governments devised Plan Colombia, whereby the US provides Colombia with around US$600 million in military aid each year.
Ostensibly part of the "war on drugs", Plan Colombia is actually focused on the part of the country controlled by the guerrillas, while ignoring areas controlled by the right-wing terrorist paramilitaries of the United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia (AUC).
Despite claims from the US and Colombian governments, the FARC denies it is involved in drug trafficking, insisting its involvement extends only as far as refusing to forcibly eradicate the coca plants that are the only source of income for impoverished peasants in territories that it control. The FARC calls for alternative crops to be provided for peasants to grow, and sustainable markets to build effective local economies.
A 2002 Colombian government report admitted that the FARC garners only 2.5% of the profits of the cocaine industry, through taxes imposed on the areas it controls. By contrast, the AUC (linked to the Colombian state) receives 40% of drug profits, and is connected to the large cocaine cartels.
Colombia's President Alvaro Uribe is himself linked to both the paramilitaries and the illicit drug trade. Uribe's father was a drug trafficker killed by the FARC in 1983 and Uribe himself was close friends with notorious drug lord Pablo Escobar of the Medellín Cartel, who was killed in a shoot-out in 1993. In fact, in 1991, the US Defense Intelligence Agency listed Uribe as one of Colombia's top 100 drug lord in his own right.
As governor of Antioquia province, Uribe was also an architect of the Convivirs, the immediate predecessors of the AUC. When the Convivirs were outlawed in 1997, they were simply transformed into the then-legal AUC. The AUC are responsible for the murder of over 800 people every year, including trade unionists, peasant leaders and peace activists, and claim to control 35% of the Colombia's Congress.
It was in the struggle against this system — of state-sponsored terror controlled by drug lords and corrupt politicians, and of terrible poverty and oppression — that Raul Reyes gave his life. At the time of his assassination, the FARC were again negotiating for prisoner exchanges with the Colombian government.
Reyes was centrally involved in these negotiations — which were torpedoed by Uribe in November. In particular, Reyes was the key negotiator with the French government over negotiations for the release of French-Colombian Ingrid Betancourt, who is being held by the FARC.
To the last, Reyes insisted that the FARC "is struggling for a new Colombia, hand in hand with the Colombian people. The FARC is part of the people. It is struggling for political power so that there are no exploiters or exploited, so that we can have a just society."
Uribe's brutal murder of Reyes and other FARC fighters was aimed at destroying this goal.
Friday, February 22, 2008
Cuba: Fidel declines to stand for president
On the morning of February 19, without fanfare, Cuban media released a
statement from President Fidel Castro stating that he would decline to
stand for re-election to the presidency.
On February 24, Cuba's newly elected 614-member National Assembly will convene and elect from among its deputies the Council of State, including the president and vice-president. All of these positions are recallable by popular plebiscite.
In declining nomination, the 81-year-old Fidel explained, "it would be a betrayal to my conscience to accept a responsibility requiring more mobility and dedication than I am physically able to offer".
Fidel had temporarily handed over power to the first vice-president, his brother Raul Castro, in July 2006 in order to undergo intestinal surgery. Fidel had been president of the small island since 1976, having led the revolution that overthrew US-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista in 1959, subsequently carrying out a socialist revolution that overturned capitalism.
The island had been dominated by US corporations and was the playground of the US rich.
To many in the West, the news marks the end of an era — the exit of the last "Cold Warrior". This obscures another reality — that Cuba remains a symbol of hope for much of the world's poor.
On February 24, Cuba's newly elected 614-member National Assembly will convene and elect from among its deputies the Council of State, including the president and vice-president. All of these positions are recallable by popular plebiscite.
In declining nomination, the 81-year-old Fidel explained, "it would be a betrayal to my conscience to accept a responsibility requiring more mobility and dedication than I am physically able to offer".
Fidel had temporarily handed over power to the first vice-president, his brother Raul Castro, in July 2006 in order to undergo intestinal surgery. Fidel had been president of the small island since 1976, having led the revolution that overthrew US-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista in 1959, subsequently carrying out a socialist revolution that overturned capitalism.
The island had been dominated by US corporations and was the playground of the US rich.
To many in the West, the news marks the end of an era — the exit of the last "Cold Warrior". This obscures another reality — that Cuba remains a symbol of hope for much of the world's poor.
Friday, January 19, 2007
Ecuador's Correa calls for socialist Latin America
On January 15, Ecuador's new president, Rafael Correa Delgado, was
sworn in, promising to build "socialism of the 21st century" to overcome
the poverty and instability of the small Andean country.
The previous day, Correa attended an indigenous inauguration ceremony in Zumbahua, the small Andean town where he did volunteer social work in his twenties. The presidents of Venezuela and Bolivia — Hugo Chavez and Evo Morales — were present as special guests.
Correa, a 43-year-old economist, used his inauguration to call for a "citizens' revolution", using wealth to meet social and environmental needs, rather than maintaining the current "perverse system" that has led to over 60% of Ecuador's 13 million people living in poverty and forced more than 3 million to emigrate in search of jobs.
"The long night of neoliberalism is coming to an end", said Correa, "A sovereign, dignified, just and socialist Latin America is beginning to rise."
The previous day, Correa attended an indigenous inauguration ceremony in Zumbahua, the small Andean town where he did volunteer social work in his twenties. The presidents of Venezuela and Bolivia — Hugo Chavez and Evo Morales — were present as special guests.
Correa, a 43-year-old economist, used his inauguration to call for a "citizens' revolution", using wealth to meet social and environmental needs, rather than maintaining the current "perverse system" that has led to over 60% of Ecuador's 13 million people living in poverty and forced more than 3 million to emigrate in search of jobs.
"The long night of neoliberalism is coming to an end", said Correa, "A sovereign, dignified, just and socialist Latin America is beginning to rise."
Wednesday, December 6, 2006
Leftist candidate wins Ecuador election
The Latin American left had its fifth electoral victory of the year
on November 26, when Rafael Correa, a supporter of Venezuelan socialist
President Hugo Chavez, won Ecuador's presidential run-off election with
the largest margin in almost 30 years.
Correa, a former finance minister and economics lecturer, received 57% of the vote, defeating Alvaro Noboa, Ecuador's richest man, a fierce anti-communist, banana-plantation owner and advocate of neoliberal economics, and despite a slander campaign and outright bribes (including hand-outs of cash, computers and wheelchairs).
The mass mobilisation against Noboa by numerous social movements, and accusations by the New York-based Human Rights Watch and other organisations that the billionaire used child labour and strike-busting gangs on his plantations also helped to turn what looked like a close race into a rout.
Against the right-wing Christian populism of Noboa (who claimed God had sent him to defeat the "communist", "terrorist" Correa), his 43-year-old leftist rival advocated a platform for radical change — a "citizens' revolution" that promises to fundamentally change the Ecuadorian political landscape.
Correa, a former finance minister and economics lecturer, received 57% of the vote, defeating Alvaro Noboa, Ecuador's richest man, a fierce anti-communist, banana-plantation owner and advocate of neoliberal economics, and despite a slander campaign and outright bribes (including hand-outs of cash, computers and wheelchairs).
The mass mobilisation against Noboa by numerous social movements, and accusations by the New York-based Human Rights Watch and other organisations that the billionaire used child labour and strike-busting gangs on his plantations also helped to turn what looked like a close race into a rout.
Against the right-wing Christian populism of Noboa (who claimed God had sent him to defeat the "communist", "terrorist" Correa), his 43-year-old leftist rival advocated a platform for radical change — a "citizens' revolution" that promises to fundamentally change the Ecuadorian political landscape.
Wednesday, March 22, 2006
Ecuador: Protests threaten - 'FTA signed, Palacio out'
Several weeks of turmoil have escalated as thousands of
workers, students and indigenous groups have taken to Ecuador's streets
and highways, bringing the country to a standstill, forcing the
resignation of the interior minister and demanding an end to
negotiations for a free trade agreement (FTA) with the US.
The latest round of protests were sparked on March 6 when 4000 contract oil workers in Orellana province took industrial action demanding back-pay and secure employment, and opposing environmental damage from the US-based oil company Occidental Petroleum.
Since then, the protests have broadened rapidly to reject the proposed FTA with the US and demand a new constitution and the removal of US troops from the Eloy Alfaro air base at Manta. Protesters have also demanded the expulsion of Occidental from Ecuador and the nationalisation of the country's oil.
In the capital Quito, protesters occupied the metropolitan cathedral and broke through a police cordon to blockade the presidential palace. In rural areas, highways were blockaded across the central highlands and throughout the Amazonian regions.
The latest round of protests were sparked on March 6 when 4000 contract oil workers in Orellana province took industrial action demanding back-pay and secure employment, and opposing environmental damage from the US-based oil company Occidental Petroleum.
Since then, the protests have broadened rapidly to reject the proposed FTA with the US and demand a new constitution and the removal of US troops from the Eloy Alfaro air base at Manta. Protesters have also demanded the expulsion of Occidental from Ecuador and the nationalisation of the country's oil.
In the capital Quito, protesters occupied the metropolitan cathedral and broke through a police cordon to blockade the presidential palace. In rural areas, highways were blockaded across the central highlands and throughout the Amazonian regions.
Wednesday, November 2, 2005
Ecuador's elite creates 'smokescreen' for FTAA entry
In the last couple of weeks, Ecuador's fragile democracy has
threatened once again to come apart at the seams. On October 20, the
Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) ruled that President Alfredo Palacio's
call to hold a referendum in December to elect a constituent assembly to
amend the country's constitution was illegal.
However, responding to massive public opposition to the ruling, Palacio has insisted on going ahead with both the referendum and constituent assembly, sparking calls from the hostile legislature for his resignation.
According to Prensa Latina news agency, on October 22 Palacio refused to back down, telling a meeting with representatives of popular organisations that the "proposed assembly is irreversible, inevitable, necessary and perfectible".
The convening of a constituent assembly was one of the demands that Palacio, a retired cardiologist and former vice-president, promised to carry out in the wake of the mass protests that led the Congress in April to remove from office President Lucio Gutierrez and replace him with then vice-president Palacio.
However, responding to massive public opposition to the ruling, Palacio has insisted on going ahead with both the referendum and constituent assembly, sparking calls from the hostile legislature for his resignation.
According to Prensa Latina news agency, on October 22 Palacio refused to back down, telling a meeting with representatives of popular organisations that the "proposed assembly is irreversible, inevitable, necessary and perfectible".
The convening of a constituent assembly was one of the demands that Palacio, a retired cardiologist and former vice-president, promised to carry out in the wake of the mass protests that led the Congress in April to remove from office President Lucio Gutierrez and replace him with then vice-president Palacio.
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