The Australia-Venezuela Solidarity Network (Melbourne) invites you to join a public forum to discuss US President Barrack Obama’s escalating military and political offensive in Latin America, the principle target of which is the Bolivarian revolution underway in Venezuela.Speakers:
Jesus Gonzalez – Peace & Justice for Colombia
Sean Seymour-Jones – Australia-Venezuela Solidarity Network
Other speakers to be confirmed.

2pm
Saturday, April 10
University Function Room, Building 8
RMIT University (near Kaleide Theatre)

All welcome.

For more info, phone Roberto 0425 182 994 or Trent 0407 070 841

Correo del Orinoco International

The Colombian Senator, herself and her daughter once hostages of right-wing paramilitary forces, has been leading peace efforts in the country for years. Despite sabotage by the Colombian government, Cordoba and her group, Colombians For Peace, were able to free two more hostages this week. The world kept up with the emotional developments via Twitter

UPDATE: BY THE TIME OF THIS POSTING, PABLO EMILIO MONCAYO HAS BEEN RELEASED TO FREEDOM AFTER 12 YEARS OF CAPTIVITY!

“They closed the helicopter doors, it’s still really loud, Colombia, give peace a chance!”, read one of Piedad Cordoba’s tweets early Sunday (@piedadcordoba) , as she boarded the helicopter that just hours later, brought Josue Calvo home. The Colombian Senator has been leading peace efforts for several years in her country, which has been plagued with a 60-year old civil war between right and left forces.

Colombia erupted in national violence after Jorge Gaitan’s assassination in 1948, which many believe was attributed to the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Gaitan was a charismatic leader, a leftist and a revolutionary, who was set to win the presidential elections before his assassination, during a time when Washington was overly eager to stop the spread of communism in the region. Ten years of non-stop violence followed in Colombia, later transforming into a civil war that has never ceased.

Though the armed leftist groups are classified as “terrorist” by Washington and the current Colombian government, the Armed Revolutionary Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the National Liberation Army (ELN), are still the remnants of the organizations that struggled against the imposition of the right-wing elite that has ruled the country since Gaitan’s death. Paramilitary groups – linked to the current Uribe government – were formed to combat the FARC and the ELN, and subsequently became involved in Colombia’s mass drug trade.

As the years and decades passed, kidnappings became a major tactic used by both sides to impose a state of fear and terror over civilian populations, and extort the other side for money and political and territorial gains.

Piedad Cordoba, Colombian Senator since 1994 and a controversial afro-Colombian and feminist figure, was kidnapped in 1999 by paramilitary forces led by Carlos Castano. She was held for several weeks and later forced into exile in Canada for over a year. Upon returning to Colombia, in 2002, she ran for Senate again and was elected with a landslide victory.  Her daughter was subsequently kidnapped and held for several years by paramilitary forces, and two assassination attempts were made against Cordoba, after her return.

Nevertheless, Cordoba has been fighting ever since for peace in Colombia, and currently heads the organization Colombians For Peace. In August 2007, President Alvaro Uribe agreed to appoint Cordoba as a mediator in the humanitarian exchange between the FARC and the government, which continues to hold approximately 500 members of the leftist guerrilla group.

Piedad Cordoba requested the help of President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela to mediate in the hostage release in late 2007. But in November 2007, President Uribe unilaterally suspended Chavez’s role in the mediation efforts and threatened to end the entire negotiation process. Appeals were made by family members of the hostages, along with Cordoba herself, to allow Chavez to continue. In early 2008, President Chavez and Senator Cordoba achieved the first liberations of two hostages held by the FARC for over six years, Clara Rojas and Consuelo Gonzalez.

Since then, Cordoba has continued her efforts for peace and hostage release in Colombia.

UNILATERAL PEACE EFFORT

On Sunday, the FARC unilaterally freed Josue Daniel Calvo, the first of two Colombian military officers that the group had promised to release as a gesture of peace. The liberation of the military officer took place in a jungle region of southeastern Colombia. A humanitarian mission led by Piedad Cordoba picked Calvo up in a helicopter and flew him to Villavicencio, where his father and sister were anxiously awaiting his arrival. The government of Brazil provided the helicopters for his rescue.

Calvo, dressed in a light blue shirt and sweatpants, walked on his own from the helicopter, despite a knee injury obtained during his year of captivity. More than 100 people belonging to Colombians For Peace, dressed in white shirts and holding white carnations, were waiting for Calvo, to welcome him home. “Humanitarian agreement, now”, they yelled, the majority of whom were family members of hostages or ex FARC prisoners.

Despite an agreement with the Colombian government to cease military operations in the region in order to allow for the hostage liberation, Cordoba denounced that the guerrilla group had detected army flyovers over the area designated as a no-fly zone. The Uribe government has sabotaged past efforts to free hostages held by the FARC by flooding the area with Colombian military presence, and hence preventing the liberations.

WE WILL NOT REGRESS

“We are very pleased. There is no possibility that the hostage liberations will be paralized despite everything the Colombian government is doing to sabotage them. Pablo Emilio Moncayo should be released this Tuesday”, affirmed Cordoba on Sunday afternoon. By the time of this printing, Moncayo will hopefully have been released.

Moncayo has been held by the FARC for more than 12 years. His father, Gustavo Moncayo, has led an effort for peace in Colombia during the past few years and, as part of his actions, marched from Bogota to Caracas two years ago. He has appealed to governments and social movements around the world to aid in peacemaking in Colombia. The release of his son Pablo, will be a huge achievement for this activist who has suffered the loss of his child during 12 years.

MINUTE BY MINUTE ON TWITTER

Cordoba used Twitter to inform followers around the world of the status of Calvo’s liberation. “For two years, this has been a lot of work for Colombians For Peace. Tomorrow at 7am we depart to achieve our result. We hope for peace”, she wrote on Saturday, after informing readers of her meetings with church and government representatives. “I have arrived to Villavicencio and am meeting with the High Commissioner for Peace and the Church to coordinate the operations”, also posting photographs of meetings and key events.

“In just minutes we will be landing with good news for peace in Colombia. Peace is possible. Josue Calvo is free!”, she wrote on Sunday afternoon from the helicopter where she flew together with the newly freed hostage. During the humanitarian mission, a “little girl with big black eyes” gave her a bird. “It’s quiet and scared”, tweeted Cordoba, later adding, “I will free the bird in Buenaventura when the humanitarian mission ends”.

The bird was released late Sunday, after Calvo was safe with his family and Cordoba was gearing up for Tuesday’s operation to rescue Pablo Moncaya after more than a decade of imprisonment.

Stop criminalisation of International Solidarity!

Stop State Terror in Colombia!

Saturday, March 6^th, 7:30pm

Garema Place, ACT Canberra

A documentary on the current struggles of the Colombian people will be screened, introduced by Colombia solidarity activists. Followed by the controversial documentary that Uribe does not want you to see.

At the time Colombian President Alvaro Uribe agrees to accept seven new US military bases and the US government reactivate its Fourth fleet, Colombian peasants, workers, indigenous, women and children continue to be displaced or even executed.

Internationally, all of those who denounce the criminal regime of Uribe, demand social justice or show any kind of solidarity with the Colombian people and workers, are immediately accused of supporting terrorism. In the US, Australia and other countries, activists, journalists and human rights advocates had been harassed or interrogated by the police. The Colombian government, supported by their Ambassadors and supporters around the world, is leading a campaign to suppress websites, ban films from being publicly screened and persecute political activists.

The Colombian people deserve the support of people around the world. International solidarity is not a criminal activity and all efforts to silence voices of dissent attempt against the basic civil liberties.

This night we will come together to:

• Demand justice for the victims of state terror in Colombia
• Denounce all initiatives to criminalise international solidarity
• Defend our civil rights and liberties to express our solidarity

Supported by: Revolutionary Socialist Party (Canberra), Communist Party of Australia (Victoria) and Socialist Alliance

Find the event on Facebook

BEIJING, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) — A U.S. deal on military bases in Colombia is pitting Bogota against many neighboring countries, which feared the bases would threaten their national security and heighten regional tension.

Venezuela, which borders Colombia to the north, is the most vehement opponent of the plan. Its president Hugo Chavez instructed the foreign ministry to get prepared to sever ties with Bogota.

Bolivian President Evo Morales proposed Wednesday that South Americans vote in a continent-wide referendum on the issue. Others,including Uruguay, Ecuador, Argentina and Brazil supported the Union of South American Nations (Unasur) to intervene in the case.

The Unasur has decided to meet [...] in Argentina to discuss the issue.

VENEZUELA PREPARED FOR POSSIBLE ARMED CONFLICT

Chavez said on Tuesday there is no possibility of repairing ties with the Colombian government and told Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro to “begin preparing for the rupture with Colombia.”

Chavez has frozen diplomatic ties with Colombia on July 28 after the deal ensuring Washington’s access to at least seven Colombian bases by the year 2019. In return, Bogota will get some 5 billion U.S. dollars in aid.

Venezuela began last week establishing 70 “peace bases” on its border with Colombia, and their construction would be finished around beginning of next month.

“Each Venezuelan has to be a soldier to defend Venezuela,” Francisco Arias Cardenas, Venezuelan Vice Foreign Minister, told a press conference, saying that Venezuela was seeking to take creative initiatives to prevent conflicts.

There are reports that Chavez will buy tanks when he visits Russia in September. “This trip has been planned since the beginning of the year, but now we have much more important reasons to step up cooperation,” Chavez was quoted as saying.

Venezuela also decided to end an agreement to provide fuel to Colombia. Venezuela’s Energy and Petroleum Minister, Rafael Ramirez, said they were implementing rigorous security measures to prevent fuel contraband to Colombia.

PREVAILING SENSE OF INSECURITY

Venezuela is not alone in being upset by the deal. “If the Colombian president wants his bases to be used, I say I want a referendum in South America so the people of Bolivia, Colombia, Peru, Venezuela, Brazil, Argentina — all 12 countries — can decide,” said Bolivia’s Morales.

Ecuador’s national assembly passed a resolution Tuesday saying the establishment of U.S. military bases in Colombia would undermine peace in the region.

Many urged the Unasur to intervene and discuss the case with Washington. In a phone conversation last Friday, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva told his U.S. counterpart Barack Obama that a meeting with the Unasur countries would help restore the confidence across the region. Obama replied that he would consider such a meeting.

[...] Uribe insists the agreement, which allows the presence of 800 U.S. soldiers and 600 civilian contractors of the Pentagon or U.S. security organizations for 10 years at Colombian bases, is aimed at combating drug trafficking and terrorism in South America.

(Original title: “Planned U.S. military bases in Colombia increase regional tensions”)

click here (available in Spanish only)

The announcement of the US occupation of more than 7 military bases in Colombia comes at a time when a dictatorship – supported, if tacitly by Washington – in Honduras is consolidating after almost a month and a half has passed since the violent coup d’etat forced Honduran President Manuel Zelaya from power. The increased US military presence in Latin America has been perceived by a majority of nations in this hemisphere as a threat to stability and peace in the region. How does the Obama administration justify increasing the Pentagon’s budget and investing almost $1 billion in its Latin American military operations this year?

Well, maybe by trying to blame Venezuelan President Hugh Chávez of supporting, funding and arming “terrorist” leftist groups in Colombia and “facilitating drug trafficking”. Both allegations have never been founded on solid evidence. In fact, yesterday, President Chávez gave a killer press conference to international media, deconstructing every accusation presented against his government by Colombia and Washington. The latest allegation involved Swedish missile launchers sold to Venezuela in the 1980s that apparently ended up in the hands of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). The Uribe government in Colombia, together with Washington, was trying to blame Chávez for selling the weapons to the FARC, therefore justifying its increasing aggression and military presence in the region, to combat “terrorist threats”. “You’re either with us or against us…”

Chávez revealed a document – given to him previously by the Colombian government – dated 1996 after a FARC attack had taken place on Venezuelan soil against Venezuelan armed forces and a quantity of weapons had been stolen. The 1996 document detailed the named Swedish missile launchers as having been taken during that attack, more than 2 years before Chávez won office and became involved in government.

“Dirty, dirty tactics”, said Chávez regarding Uribe’s accusations against him. The Colombian government knows very well that those weapons were in the hands of the FARC well before Chávez became president. So why blame him now for something he has nothing to do with?

Cowardly and pathetic Colombian President Uribe is desperately trying to justify turning his country into the launching pad for Washington’s war on Latin America – a war seeking to regain its domination and control over the region’s vast natural and strategic resources, and to take out any seed of “socialism” remaining in the hemisphere.

But the military bases in Colombia and the coup in Honduras evidence a dangerous and clear intent of Empire to also crush the vibrant people’s movements that have been surfacing all over Latin America during the past decade – revolutions seeking to build new models of social and economic justice.

Latin America is on high alert in response to this revived offensive emerging from Washington. Colombia, isolated in its efforts, is not backing down from opening its land to the vast and barbaric US military power. Where is the outcry inside the United States in response to hundreds of millions – billions – of dollars now directed towards waging war in Latin America? Don’t wait until it’s too late and another nation, like Panama 20 years ago, is bombed and invaded by US forces in order to secure Washington’s long-term control over the region’s strategic resources. Act now to resist and protest US military expansion in Latin America and US aggression against a humble people struggling for justice.

August 6, 2009