I took Ecuador

By
Rafael Rincón Patiño
(...)
President Uribe has managed to impose his war strategy in Colombia, as well as his medieval criminal policy. Thus, many achievements of his so-called democratic security doctrine are grounded upon alliances he has made with paramilitary organizations responsible for murdering from trade unionists, academics and human rights activists to guerrilla leaders. President Uribe´s Communitarian State regards supporting paramilitarism and violating human rights as the lesser of two evils. This is why Uribe will not march next March 6, in solidarity with the victims of the paramilitaries, or against State crimes, and this is why he only condemns the crimes that the FARC commit.

Many achievements of Uribe’s democratic security doctrine are grounded on the State’s illicit alliances with drug dealers and paramilitaries, as the Supreme Court of Justice and the Attorney General Office have ruled in court processes against nearly 60 parliament members, or in the trial against Jorge Noguera Cote, ex Director of the State’s security forces (Departamento Administrativo de Seguridad (DAS).

Colombia’s internal armed conflict has gotten out of the hands of the Colombian government, FARC, the OAS and the UN. It is a conflict that has ripened in 50 years while developing axis, sympathies and antipathies beyond national borders.

FARC seems to have conquered sympathies among the governments of Nicaragua, Venezuela and Ecuador. They are, in fact, recognized as a rebel force by some of those countries’ civil authorities, having had a territorial presence in their frontiers for many years now. FARC are the ‘phantom’ love of some politicians in neighboring countries. They have not only been granted rebel status in Venezuela, Ecuador and Nicaragua, but sympathy for them is growing in other Latin American countries.

FARC’s disdain for the peace initiatives of the country´s civil society has them condemned to ostracism in Colombia. Its military pragmatism (“to accept anything that yields profit and consult everything that doesn´t��?, the aegis of thought of founder Jacobo Arenas) has distanced the guerrilla from national politics. FARC promotes a libertarian discourse for foreigners, while it carries out deeds of indolence among the local population. They are a light on the street and a shadow behind closed doors. The group shows signs of atonement before President Chávez, and not a single humanitarian gesture to their own country. They behave like an occupation force, wasting no love on Colombia.

It is a pity that the FARC, instead of learning from the electoral democratization processes in Ecuador and Venezuela, are the ones seeking to dictate lessons to these two countries, on their stagnant revolution: a revolution that plants landmines on peasant roads and practices extortion against human dignity. How frustrating for those who have to read the contents of the FARC’s computers!
The Washington-Bogotá axis, under the pretext of a struggle against terrorism arbitrarily defined by them, and which they attempt to impose on other countries, seeks to impose its infamous capitalist hegemony throughout Latin America.
The Washington-Bogotá axis has lost political terrain in Brazil, Chile, Uruguay, Venezuela, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Cuba, Bolivia and Argentina. The ultimate goal of this axis, camouflaged behind the war against drugs first, and now behind the antiterrorist war, is to erode international human rights standards, just like George W. Bush has with his so-called water boarding, or torture by water.

In January, this year, the European Council´s Parliamentary Assembly of the European Council (ECPA) urged the United Nations Security Council and the European Union, (101 to 3 votes) to re-evaluate the arbitrary procedure through which ¨terrorist lists��? are compiled, since the current process clearly violate human rights (Dick Marty, Strasburg, January 23).

There is no doubt that, in the struggle against terrorism, the FARC will have to be judged and condemned for all its war crimes and crimes against humanity. But this struggle cannot justify taking steps backward in the protection of human rights, or in the respect due to the rights of other countries. The struggle against terrorism cannot be an excuse to commit tortures or violate the sovereignty of third nations (...)

The whole text here:

http://elyesquero.blogspot.com/2008/03/i-took-ecuador-por-rafael-rincn...

By buggy on May 3, 2008, 12:39 in Politics & the war.

fecherklyn says on May 3, 2008, 17:48:

Buggy,

Your contributions to this site are interpreted in many ways. Some people accept your presence whilst others deplore it. If it interests you, I read most of your comments as I receive them as the sincere views of a person who has rather extreme views that need to be taken into account if one is to have the broadest vision. That said, I do NOT concur with your support for revolutionary change.....to me this simply means "we shall FORCE our views to be enacted".

Having said this......what was your point in posting this article? For your information I find it reasonably supple in most areas and of interest. BUT YOU......what are you suggesting we may (should?) glean from it?

billyb says on May 3, 2008, 18:15:

Wow ferch, you are much deeper than I. I just read mon frere buggy's posts solely for their entertainment value.

Wastelandlive says on May 3, 2008, 18:19:

I'm not even sure how the author can hope to be taken seriously.

"In a rule-of-law State, which constitutionally forbids the death penalty, a State cannot just bomb, even the worst criminals, without being accused of power abuse or of a disproportionate use of its legitimate punitive role. In a rule-of-law State, the judicial police must give the proofs it collects to the investigating bodies, respecting the confidentiality of a case and not releasing the information out to the winds..."

He wants Colombia to deal with the guerilla soley on law enforcement terms? They can't simply be bombed, they must be arrested, tried and convicted in a civil court? Does that really merit a response?

Wierd. Holier than thou meets Alice in Wonderland.

Wasteland

fecherklyn says on May 3, 2008, 18:19:

billyb, but they entertain me (after a fashion) as well.

billyb says on May 3, 2008, 18:21:

jajaja, understood ferch, that is why I said you were deeper than I.

billyb says on May 3, 2008, 18:23:

"I took Ecuador"

Buggy, my friend, was there any doubt that you would?

vladimiro says on May 3, 2008, 20:08:

"He wants Colombia to deal with the guerilla soley on law enforcement terms? They can't simply be bombed, they must be arrested, tried and convicted in a civil court?"

Exactly. They can't simply be bombed. Otherwise, the Colombian military will end up like the American in Iraq and Afghanistan. If interested, see the counter insurgency manual below.

http://www.military.com/Opinions/0,,Lind_070705,00.html

Sam Salmon says on May 3, 2008, 20:13:

"his medieval criminal policy"

That's as far as I got.

Blogging of course is proof positive that even monkeys can be published in one form or another.

' a la orden!'

slguy says on May 3, 2008, 20:45:

"They can't simply be bombed. In fact bombing usually strengthens an insurgency "

i'm guessing raul reyes would beg to differ....

Before you throw me out, make sure I pay my bar tab

vladimiro says on May 3, 2008, 21:30:

As an example, the US military just bombed a hospital full of children (see link below).

They continue to strengthen the insurgency with actions like this to the extent that the target of these bombings (the Mahdi Army) are set to win upcoming elections by a landslide.

If the Colombian military behaves like the American the FARC will grow from 20K to 200K strong overnight.

The Americans are providing valuable lessons to Colombian Generals on how to lose a war badly.

Lets hope they are learning from the American arrogance and stupidity.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/04/world/middleeast/04iraq.html?ref=mid...

billyb says on May 3, 2008, 21:53:

"slguy says on Saturday May 3rd, 2008 20:45:

"They can't simply be bombed. In fact bombing usually strengthens an insurgency "

i'm guessing raul reyes would beg to differ....
"

Slguy, that kind of logic is simply not allowed on here.

slguy says on May 3, 2008, 22:52:

"If the Colombian military behaves like the American the FARC will grow from 20K to 200K strong overnight."

instead, uribe's "kick ass" strategy has FARC on the run, clearly. more guerrillas turning themselves in, every month.

nice bit of misdirecion, vlad, but that dog won't hunt.

where'd you say you're from, again?

Before you throw me out, make sure I pay my bar tab

billyb says on May 3, 2008, 23:00:

"where'd you say you're from, again?"

See, that's the rub Slguy, you can almost accept foreigners siding against Colombia, but it just makes you wonder when Colombians do it (that is assuming that they are colombian). I mean, although i don't agree, i can understand colombians being against Uribe ( as Juance does so eloquently, fairly and patriotically), but when they, like a few on here, gleefully take our enemies, like chavez and the little bitch correa's, side gainst their own country, well, I don't know. How can you explain self hate?

slguy says on May 3, 2008, 23:10:

i have no clue what vlad's nationality is, billy- and he ignores my repeated invitations to enlighten us.

but - i'd be fairly surprised if he's colomban.his sort of 100-year-old, discredited communism is usually eurotrash ideolgy...but i'd love to know the truth!

Before you throw me out, make sure I pay my bar tab

billyb says on May 3, 2008, 23:28:

I think you are right. It has become pretty apparent that, that incoherent hate against Colombia, almost without exemption comes from self rightious euros. because no Colombian would ever take the side of a foreign enemy, regardless of their reservations of their current government.

romy says on May 4, 2008, 01:43:

"Having said this......what was your point in posting this article?"
Just a couple of suggestions. I can't read buggy's mind:
maybe he's not FOR a FARC revolution... maybe there's people that recognize FARC is not the only 'evil' in Colombia...

Maybe people here should criticize the article rather than the person that posts it... I can see plenty of overgenerailizations in the article but you guys aren't interested in that. You want the end of FARC at any cost necessary and believe that will solve all of Colombia's problems... we'll see. But for the record, I disagree.

huskie says on May 4, 2008, 16:27:

votre avatar est une réflexion pure que vous êtes le nazi, pas Uribe
À la votre

"Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds-"

Dolfi says on May 5, 2008, 01:29:

Critizising Uribe doesn´t mean siding against Colombia, as well as critizising Bush and his government doesn´t mean sidng against the USA. More than 70% of americans do that actually.