STOP U.S. INTERVENTION IN COLOMBIA!

September 8, 2000

Sisters and brothers,

Too many times in the past decade, we have had to come out into the streets against the brutal Pentagon war machine as its bombs and missiles are already doing their damage. In Panama, Somalia, Haiti, Iraq and Yugoslavia, our protests have exposed the crimes of U.S. imperialism and have shown the people of the world that there are progressive forces in the United States who stand in total opposition to this criminal government.

Unfortunately, our efforts have not been able to stay the hand of the hired guns of Wall Street. We have exposed and will continue to expose the crimes of imperialism in every corner of the globe. But we need to build a movement that can challenge its crimes of war and exploitation once and for all.

We have a chance to do that today. The U.S. is preparing a massive war drive in Colombia. It is time to prepare NOW to confront that war drive. While the U.S. dives into a new Vietnam war, we need to prepare for a massive solidarity movement like the one that swept the world during that imperialist adventure.

We are in front of the Colombian consulate today a week after Clinton traveled to Colombia to deliver $1.3 billion in military aid. Five hundred U.S. troops are headed to there as “advisers.” Combat helicopters are being sent to fight the revolutionary movements there.

Already the U.S. has helped to set up the paramilitary death squads that the Colombian government uses to terrorize the workers and campesinos in the country.

This is all part of the so-called “Plan Colombia.” It is the Pentagon’s plan to force IMF austerity policies on the Colombian people so that U.S. banks can continue to suck the profits out of that country and the entire region.

But the Colombian people—the millions of workers, peasants, students, Indigenous people and others who have taken up the struggle for social justice—are fighting back. They are taking up every form of struggle,  from strikes, demonstrations, and road blockades to the armed struggle in their efforts to address the brutal social inequalities that are at the root of Colombia’s civil war.

The FARC-EP and the ELN are not the drug traffickers in Colombia. They give voice to the legitimate interests of millions of Colombians who are not represented by the U.S.-backed regime that inhabits the government offices here or in Bogota.

The people of Colombia are waging a determined fight against U.S. imperialism and its globalization of death-squad capitalism.

Last week the IAC held demonstrations around the country as part of an international day of protest against Clinton’s trip and against Plan Colombia. We look forward to working with other anti-war and anti-imperialist forces in building a massive movement to confront what is shaping up to be the next Vietnam war. 

Stop U.S. intervention in Colombia! Long live the Colombian peoples struggle against U.S. imperialism!