Urban Guerilla Warfare in Colombia
Militante | 21.10.2002 07:39
While the corporate media turns a blind eye to Colombia's bloody civil war and growing U.S. intervention, there has been fighting in Colombia's second-largest city after a major operation by 'security forces' whose mission was to execute Marxist rebels and supporters from a slum district.
Residents of Medellin's Comuna 13 district began emerging from their homes after two days of street battles in which at least 11 people were killed by the 'security forces.'
A four-year-old girl was among civilians injured in the military operation.
Soldiers and police are still searching houses using hooded informants to point out suspected guerrilla supporters in the district which the authorities believe is a rebel stronghold.
Ordered by President Alvaro Uribe, who pledged to crack down on the popular insurgency when he was elected earlier this year, his right wing authoritarian regime has established a spy network believed to be working with U.S. intelligence operatives.
As a tense calm returned, one resident who spoke to the corporate media present warned them that the rebels will not leave.
The BBC reported that there is fear by the military that the rebels will resume control once the overstretched security forces are redeployed.
State Terror
Correspondents say the urban guerilla warfare marks a new phase in Colombia's 38-year-old civil war which has generally been confined to the countryside.
Uribe ordered the crackdown by more than 3,000 soldiers and police as part of his ongoing policy priority to destroy the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), Colombia's largest rebel organisation which aims to establish a socialist state.
President Uribe - who visited Medellin to assess the operation with his defence minister - said "the deaths were regrettable but unavoidable".
"This is madness. I believe this really brings home to us how Colombia needs to stop terrorism," he said.
Another reminder of the rebels' presence in the cities came when police in the capital, Bogota, seized more than 100 powerful explosive devices.
FARC support
Comuna 13 is home to about 100,000 people.
In recent years, Colombia's two main Marxist rebel groups - FARC and the National Liberation Army (ELN) - have been fighting right wing paramilitary special forces near the slum neighbourhoods of Medellin.
According to conservative estimates, between 300 and 400 people, mostly civilians, have been killed by paramilitaries in Medellin this year, a city of two million.
A four-year-old girl was among civilians injured in the military operation.
Soldiers and police are still searching houses using hooded informants to point out suspected guerrilla supporters in the district which the authorities believe is a rebel stronghold.
Ordered by President Alvaro Uribe, who pledged to crack down on the popular insurgency when he was elected earlier this year, his right wing authoritarian regime has established a spy network believed to be working with U.S. intelligence operatives.
As a tense calm returned, one resident who spoke to the corporate media present warned them that the rebels will not leave.
The BBC reported that there is fear by the military that the rebels will resume control once the overstretched security forces are redeployed.
State Terror
Correspondents say the urban guerilla warfare marks a new phase in Colombia's 38-year-old civil war which has generally been confined to the countryside.
Uribe ordered the crackdown by more than 3,000 soldiers and police as part of his ongoing policy priority to destroy the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), Colombia's largest rebel organisation which aims to establish a socialist state.
President Uribe - who visited Medellin to assess the operation with his defence minister - said "the deaths were regrettable but unavoidable".
"This is madness. I believe this really brings home to us how Colombia needs to stop terrorism," he said.
Another reminder of the rebels' presence in the cities came when police in the capital, Bogota, seized more than 100 powerful explosive devices.
FARC support
Comuna 13 is home to about 100,000 people.
In recent years, Colombia's two main Marxist rebel groups - FARC and the National Liberation Army (ELN) - have been fighting right wing paramilitary special forces near the slum neighbourhoods of Medellin.
According to conservative estimates, between 300 and 400 people, mostly civilians, have been killed by paramilitaries in Medellin this year, a city of two million.
Militante
Comments
Hide the following comment
ignorance
07.12.2005 22:26
I quote this, because I find outraging the level of ignorance in which the international community is, regarding Colombia’s civil war. It is unbelievable, how many people still think insurgent groups like FARC
are fighting for Marxists or communists ideals. This last, is a great lie. Today, Colombia’s rebel forces are not what they used to be. As a NEUTRAL Colombian citizen, I give to you the following information, you make up your mind:
Back in the days of M-19 and the "Llanos guerrillas", Rebel groups fought with the people and for the people. In matters regarding to: democratic participation, agricultural reforms, social security, corruption, etc. Nowadays, Insurgent groups like FARC, ELN and EPL have become corrupted by money and power. What in the past would have seemed incredible is now a Reality. The rebel commanders, are selling as merchandise their own men to serve protect Colombia’s drug lords crops, haciendas and trafficking routes. The economics of this fact are the following: 200 so called "people’s liberation army" soldiers are sold to drug lords for 3 million dollars. This is the reality Colombia faces.
As you read this, groups like FARC are recruiting teenage children to serve their Machiavellic cause. The reason for this, is that these children are looked as "doctrinable minds". Why?, a very simple reason. Many of them don’t have the privilege of accessing any type of education; the great majority of them are illiterate. In addition, they live in miserable conditions due to Colombia’s poor economy, an economy that is being bleeded due to the ambition of the rebel’s selfish ambitions. As a product of the mentioned, these children are very easily recruited, they enter the rebel groups because is the only exit to their misery (they have to rely on drug and blood tainted money to feed their families), and also, because they are convinced that they are serving a "greater cause"; as you read this, more than 3.000 people are being held captive by rebel groups, most of them have spent more than three years a way from their homes, in exchange for their release, Rebels contribute even more to the demise of Colombia’s economy by asking for sums that go from 500 thousand US dollars, to 2 million Dollars!. This takes place in a country where more than 80% of the people like with less than two dollars a day!
The list goes on..............
In conclusion, please people, OPEN YOUR EYES!!!. Colombia’s Guerrilla groups are not nice!, they are not serving a higher purpose, and their methods contradict almost every humanitarian standard (I’m not denying that Colombia’s Army security forces are not either, but they are only random cases, and also, the incidents have dramatically reduced in comparison to former governments). The only term that can accurately be used to describe these groups are: Murders, Killers and Terrorists, nothing more.
I write this as just another Colombian citizen. I do not favor nor approve Colombia’s war. I hate it, I want it to stop. Nevertheless, I find it important, to inform the international community what our reality is. Sow that people can have another concept of what is going on here, a perspective that only appeals to the truth instead of favoring any political ideology or regime.
Armando
e-mail:
don-armando@hotmail.com