From: "el desaparecido" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
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A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C E
http://www.ainfos.ca/
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Plan Colombia, FTAA and Black Communities in the process of global
struggle.
The US Congress has allocated $1.3 billion to the government of Colombia
for a military intervention which was denominated Plan Colombia. The
official purpose of this ?Plan? is to put an end to the illegal growing of
coca by destroying illicit crops, to put an end to the guerilla and to
stabilise Latin Americas ?oldest democracy?. 84 % of the money will flow
straight back into US economy as it is destined for military aid,
primarily Huey and Black Hawk helicopters.
Anyone digging up just a bit more information about the situation in Colombia
will immediately see that the drug war is nothing but a pretext and that the
real motivation is to secure access to natural resources (especially oil) and
to gain control over a geopolitical strategic region in order to continue the
implementation of a neoliberal development model in the whole region and
especially the planned FTAA (Free Trade Agreement of the Amerias) to be
discussed in Quebec / Canada in April this year.
A closer look to the region shows us that Colombia is like a natural trade
platform, having access to both the Pacific and the Atlantic ocean and being
the natural connection between North and South America. The strategic role
of this area was already recognised centuries ago by Spanish
conquistadores who considered connecting both oceans through a canal. In
order to secure the control over this area, the US orchestrated the
separation
of Panama from Colombia in 1903. The Panama canal is becoming too small
to deal with the increasing flow of goods in times of economic globalisation
between South East Asia , USA and Europe, especially considering China
as an upcoming market. The infrastructure of the Canal is old and slow, so
new interoceanic connections are being planned. But Colombia is not only
attractive in terms of trade routes crossroad, it is also intended to
become a major production place full of sweat shops. Several megaprojects
like road infrastructure, dams, oil pipelines, monocultures and harbours
in order to efficiently sap the resources are on their way.
On top of that, the oil resources in Colombia are enormous and they are even
bigger in Venezuela: BP, Exxon, Shell (via Oxy Petroleum a sister TNC)
have been granted generous concessions for oil drilling. In order to
implement this neoliberal vision of development, Colombia has not only
started reforming its constitution in order to make its laws FTAA compatible,
but here we are assisting to an organised mass displacement and killing of
the population, in particular the black communities, in order to go ahead with
these megaprojects. Colombia has seen 3.000 murdered people in the last
year and nearly 2 mio people displaced by now. This is a social genocide
and one of the cruellest forms of expression of capitalism.
Another important factor are the social movements of Colombia, Ecuador,
Bolivia, Brazil and Panama which are an obstacle for these neoliberal plans.
Bolivia and Ecuador have seen huge indigenous uprisings. Peru?s government
is collapsing and especially Venezuela?s external policy (role in OPEC
making oil prices raise; contacts to Cuba and Iraq; and the building up of
economic relations to other Latin American countries) is causing serious
concern in the industrialised countries who?d like to see cheap oil
prices, in particular the USA that has a highly energy inefficient
economy. The 4 big oil multinationals also see their hegemony disturbed by
Venezuela?s attitude. US Senator Coverdell said in an article in the
Washington Post on April 10th 2000, that protecting the oil interests in
Venezuela justified the US intervention in Colombia.
It isn?t wrong to state that Plan Colombia is like a remake of the Vietnam
war and a kind of neocolonialism to get the region under control in order
to implement the vision of the FTAA.
About 25-30 % of the Colombian population is black. Most live in cities but
many communities are spread around the Pacific and Caribbean coast. The
black communities perceive themselves as the outcome of centuries of
struggle for freedom. Struggles against slavery, against colonialism and now
economic globalisation. They have developed forms of living which have
little
or nothing to do with capitalism and that are in harmony with their
environment, one of the places on Earth with the highest biodiversity. They
struggle to defend their right to live, their constitutional right to
autonomy,
identity and space to live. Today they are approaching European and North
American grassroots groups that have massively articulated around the anti-
capitalist protests against the WTO, IMF, WB and that would like to join
their struggle and continue the process of global convergence. Since the
protests in Prague against the IMF/WB summit, the contact between PCN
(Black Communities Process) and European grassroots groups has been
developing rapidly. The first exchanges have resulted in:
1) a call by PCN for support in building communication structures and skill
capacity to improve communication within the communities and
internationally
2) a proposal to consider the planning of a large international presence in
?security zones? in the black communities, which are precisely in the way
of the planned megaprojects.
3) a call to European and North American grassroots realities to build up
autonomous collective alternatives as a response to the economical, political
and cultural power of capitalism. Alternatives which articulate along
horizontal and participatory forms, which practically implement the right
to be
different, support selfmanagement capacity and develop structures
independently from State structures.
The co-operation with the movements from this region that are directly
approaching us, represent a chance for a new qualitative development in
the global articulation of resistance, and a step to move from resistance
towards an offensive in the arena of dreams, creation and conquer of the
future.
More information about Colombia, PCN and Tours in Europe and North
America is available at:
http://pages.hotbot.com/edu/stop.wto/Plan_Colombia.html
You will also find instructions about how to subscribe to different email
lists. Other sites: colombia.indymedia.org www3.gratisweb.com/ciclocrisis
(analyses by H. Mondragon)
www.derechos.org/nizkor/colombia
www.ecopetrol.com.co (official site to oil exploitation in Colombia)
to contact PCN directly: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [in Spanish]
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