---------- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Reply-To: "International" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Tue, 13 Feb 2001 15:25:43 -0500 To: "International" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: On the meeting between FARC-EP & Colombian government U. S. Out of Colombia Committee, A Project of the International Action Center Press Release: February 12, 2001 Press Contact: Gery Armsby 212.633.6646 U.S. OUT OF COLOMBIA COMMITTEE STATEMENT ON THE MEETING OF FARC-EP LEADER MANUEL MARULANDA AND PRESIDENT ANDRES PASTRANA IN COLOMBIA COMMITTEE DEMANDS THAT PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH REPEAL PLAN COLOMBIA IMMEDIATELY All the news services are currently focused on discussions between FARC-EP leader Manuel Marulanda and President Andres Pastrana of Colombia. In a statement issued February 10, 2001 the U.S. Out of Colombia Committee of the International Action Center demanded that President George W. Bush immediately drop all plans to intervene in Colombia and repeal Plan Colombia without delay. Teresa Gutierrez, Chairperson of the IAC�s U.S. Out of Colombia Committee stated: �All the news agencies this weekend are focusing on the outcome of the meetings between Pastrana and Marulanda that took place this past week. Our committee is also paying a great deal of attention to this meeting.� �The reality,� Gutierrez continued, �is that the U.S. government is the chief obstacle to genuine peace in Colombia. Its interventionist scheme called Plan Colombia is designed to accelerate U.S. support for the Colombian military and its para-military adjuncts. The U.S.�s Plan Colombia is the real problem in Colombia today. As long as the paramilitaries of Colombia are allowed to continue to operate in the manner they have been operating, an end to the conflict cannot be expected. As long as the Colombian and U.S. government utilize the death squads, the people of Colombia will find no real peace.� A number of human rights organizations, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have documented in detail that the death squads are behind the vast majority of the killings in Colombia. Yet they are allowed to operate in Colombia with impunity and function as an unofficial army fighting alongside the Colombian military. �All the demands to resolve the conflict in Colombia today are being made to the FARC and the ELN,� Gutierrez continued. �Yet it is right-wing paramilitaries like the AUC [Self Defense Units] that carry out the vast majority of the murders and tortures. Why doesn�t the U.S. and the Colombia impose a plan in Colombia that will put an end to the right-wing death squads?� The backdrop to the negotiations currently taking place in Colombia are social conditions that are becoming more critical each day. Colombia faces an unemployment rate of over 20%. Homelessness and hunger is common. Despite the fact that there is an abundance of wealth in the country, the Colombian government is doing nothing to resolve this situation. As long as the people of Colombia face these kinds of conditions, then real peace in society will not happen. Plan Colombia will only aggravate these social conditions. Plan Colombia will only draw the U.S. government and the Pentagon into another Vietnam. It must be stopped. -30- International Action Center 39 West 14th Street, Room 206 New York, NY 10011 email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] web: http://www.iacenter.org CHECK OUT SITE http://www.mumia2000.org phone: 212 633-6646 fax: 212 633-2889 *To make a tax-deductible donation, go to http://www.peoplesrightsfund.org _________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki Phone +358-40-7177941 Fax +358-9-7591081 http://www.kominf.pp.fi General class struggle news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe mails to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Geopolitical news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] __________________________________________________
