From: rexy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Tue, 27 Nov 2001 17:04:32 -0400 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Open Letter Open Letter Messrs. Andres Pastrana Arango President of the Republic Bogota, D.C. Carlos Armando Garcia Orjuela President of the Senate President of the House of Representatives President of the Supreme Court of Justice President of the Council of State President of the Constitutional Court Monsignor Alberto Giraldo Jaramillo President of the Colombian Episcopal Conference Sabas Pretels de la Vega President of the National Council of Business Associations E.S.M. Through this letter I greet you cordially and at the same time take the opportunity to put forward the following proposals of national interest, in the effort to save the Dialogue and Negotiation process which has gone into crisis because of the incomprehension and imposition of those governing, who until now have not managed to understand we are two parties sitting at the Table in order to pursue a civilized solution to the internal conflict. The negotiators from both parties have engaged in long months of analysis and discussion concerning the 10 point Political Platform presented by the FARC-EP to the Colombian people and the National Government, to have it discussed at the Table and to reach agreement on the Common Agenda. The Agenda is considered a great achievement and success of both parties in their political strategy of advancing the Dialogues and Negotiations in pursuit of a political solution to the social and armed conflict affecting the whole Colombian people institutionally, politically, economically, socially, culturally, environmentally, and with respect to sovereignty. All of this allows us to formulate the following questions: Since the Common Agenda is the most important agreement of the present process because it takes up the fundamental themes to be negotiated in order to thereby achieve peace with social justice in our country, we do not understand why repeated declarations by high officials of the Government and State affirm that none of the themes we list below is negotiable: 1. Plan Colombia, according to what the President and the Negotiators at the Table have stated. 2. The development plan, as high State officials have stated. 3. The eradication of illicit crops by aerial spraying, in spite of the Accords signed between President Andres Pastrana and Manuel Marulanda at Los Pozos to have it done manually and accompany it with social investment. 4. It is affirmed that the institutions of State cannot be changed, no matter that their moribund nature prevents the opening of space for democracy. 5. The international Agreements undertaken by the State concerning the economy, politics, the military and extradition. 6. The electoral calandar. 7. The exchange of soldiers and guerrillas held prisoner, because it violates the constitution and laws, the argument blandished by the State and the political parties. 8. The Government claims it takes action against paramilitarism and the social injustices out of conviction, and not because the guerrilla insurgency demands it, thus sustaining the Dialogue and Negotiation for three years. In this way it removes these subjects from the Table without solutions to these problems being visible. It is very difficult for an untutored Colombian to understand this part. 9. In view of the above, we request that you provided a comprehensive, clear and concrete explanation, via a great national gathering on January 15 at Los Pozos, so as to indicate what is negotiable with the State. And why is it that only the insurgency has to make peaceful gestures and not the State? You must understand that we rose up in arms because of the lack of guaranteed rights and because the doors were closed to us for political proselytism to elect and be elected by legal means. This is why the latest declarations of ministers, military commanders and other personalities labeling us as terrorists instead of revolutionaries, do not square with reality. In 1964, it was the State that turned to official violence against 48 people in Marquetalia (Tolima), using all the instruments the State had at its service: 16,000 soldiers, the air force, helicopter gun ships, money moved from other ministries to sustain the operations, more than 300 million pesos contributed by the United States to pay for agents, informers and infiltrators, the economic blockade, the confiscation of goods and property and their official provision to new owners, all for the purpose of annihilating us. Today the State is again repeating its strategy of attacking us with repressive laws, creation and training of new anti guerrilla brigades, purchase of sophisticated weapons of war, planes and helicopters, the launching of military operations, indiscriminate bombardment of vast zones, establishment of economic blockades of the campesinos, confiscation of goods and money, the burning of homes, limitation of inhabitants� freedom of movement and impeding and suppressing general strikes, accusing their leaders as terrorists. In view of this, the State cannot go on unilaterally demanding good conduct of the insurgency toward those who finance the war and State paramilitarism, or respect for the economic infrastructure that produces the money to finance actions of war in detriment of civil and democratic freedoms. As long as the Table does not identify what the State does not want to negotiate with the insurgency, the political, economic and social situation will always be complex and difficult to resolve for as long as it holds to the conception that might makes right, as has been shown here in this document and in others. Since this letter has no other purpose, I take leave of you, Attentively, Manuel Marulanda Velez Mountains of Colombia, November 20, 2001. _________________________________________________ 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] __________________________________________________
