THE ARMED STOPPAGE AS A PARAMILITARY STRATEGY

SOURCE : http://derechodelpueblo.blogspot.com/2016/04/el-paro-armado-como-estrategia.html
(Translated by Eunice Gibson, CSN Volunteer Translator)
Saturday, April 2, 2016
This is a public denunciation of the reactivation of the paramilitary strategy in Colombia by a class-based faction: the bourgeoisie that are the most involved in mafia activities. This is the culminating moment of a violent offensive that has left a trail of death all over the country. You can see how widespread and systematic the actions are with the murders of the young communist Klaus Zapata in the outskirts of Bogotá and the campesino leader Marcela Tombe from Cauca. Both murders happened on the same day, February 28, hundreds of miles apart, and they functioned as the starting gun for this marathon of paramilitary violence. The following sets forth the most serious events, and calls for the competent authorities to take action, to carry out their duties, and to re-establish the levels of calm that had been accomplished during the current dialogues with the insurgents.

• Corinto, Cauca, Saturday, March 26, 2016. A paramilitary group carried out a massacre and injured a minor child, in an area that is full of soldiers and police and where there was an action alert reporting that there would be a paramilitary action. One of the civilians killed was a member of ASTRAZONAC, the Farm Workers Association of the Campesino Reserve Zone in the Municipality of Corinto. The group is an affiliate of the National Single Agricultural Trade Union Federation, FENSUAGRO – CUT, and is also a member of the Procedural Popular Unit of Southwest Colombia –PUPSOC and of the Social and Political Movement Marcha Patriotica for Cauca Province.
• Cauca, Monday, March 28, 2016. A paramilitary group that calls itself “Black Eagles” distributes accusations and death threats against the journalists, professors and social leaders of the Cauca Province Patriotic Committee of the Social and Political Movement, Marcha Patriotica, ASOINCA, ASPU,CIMA,ACIN, Women’s Path to Peace, ACIT, COCOCAUCA. Among them are some members of the Colombian Communist Party, the Patriotic Union, and the National Single Agricultural Trade Union Federation – FENSUAGRO – CUT.
• South Bolívar, Wednesday, March 30, 2016: Paramilitary groups that call themselves the “Gaitanista Self-Defense Forces” sent out threats in flyers handed out in the municipalities of Tiquisio, Norosí and Arenal, where the community complained that “there are places where the paramilitaries are going all around and the Army personnel that are there don’t do anything.” They also complain that “Two people have been murdered since the armed stoppage was announced, one in Mina Estrella in Norosí and another in El Coco, in the Tiquisio Municipality”.
• Bajo Cauca, Urabá and Sucre, Wednesday, March 30, 2016. Paramilitary groups calling themselves “Gaitanista Self-Defense Forces” carried out an armed stoppage that kept businesses closed and paralyzed transportation. There were cases where semitrailer trucks were burned in Tarazá and there were deadly attacks against the Police.
• Santander, Tuesday, March 29, 2016. Paramilitary groups calling themselves “Gaitanista Self-Defense Forces” distributed flyers containing threats in neighborhoods in Bucaramanga, something that had not happened in the city for several years. The appearance of flyers in Bucaramanga is extremely serious after the accusations that were made with the same paramilitary strategy against the organizers of the activities commemorating Camilo less than a month ago.
• Córdoba, Wednesday, March 30, 2016. Paramilitary groups handed out leaflets announcing the armed stoppage and threatening anyone that didn’t take part in the stoppage in Tierralta, Valencia, San Pelayo, San Bernardo del Viento, Moñitos, Los Córdobas, Puerto Escondido, in districts and towns, on the highways and in the neighborhoods of Montería, the provincial capital.
• Antioquia and Medellín. April 1, 2016. Paramilitary groups imposed the stoppage violently all over the province. They even burned a bus in the urban part of the capital.
• Chocó, April 1, 2016. The Agricultural Summit complained that a thousand paramilitaries landed in the northern part of the province.
• Magdalena Medio: Two police officers were killed by an armed attack of alleged paramilitaries in Puerto Berrío. The total number of deaths throughout the country is six people, at minimum.
• Quibdó, April 1, 2016. The former Senator and popular leader, Piedad Córdoba, complained of an attempt on her life. Developing story. She is unhurt physically.

What we can see in this paramilitary offensive is that they are trying to attack the negotiations with the insurgency, and trying to be seen as a political group to be part of negotiations. They are trying to weaken the class-conscious leadership of the left and to fortify their own mafia-type activities. The coincidence of the dates for the march called for by Uribe and his followers indicates that they support them and the leaders who are acting democratically should have called off their march.

Faced with the surge of fascist violence, we demand that the Colombian government put an end to the paramilitaries’ strategy and that it do that in the framework of a government under the Rule of Law, which this government supposedly is. The popular organizations and the public in general have been valiant in confronting the paramilitary strategy of the bourgeoisie mafia. However, efforts will have to be doubled in the near future, because more fascist violence affecting us is taking shape. But there can be no doubt that it will be defeated by a heroic public, fighting for its rights as Colombians.

COMMITTEE ON HUMAN RIGHTS, CONGRESS OF THE PEOPLES
CATATUMBO COMMITTEE ON SOCIAL INTEGRATION – CISCA
BROTHERHOOD AND SOLIDARITY NETWORK WITH COLOMBIA
PERIPHERY PRESS
FOUNDATION COMMITTEE FOR SOLIDARITY WITH POLITICAL PRISONERS-FCSPP
ANTIOQUIA AND TOLIMA REGIONS
WORKERS, CAMPESINOS AND COMMUNITIES OF CESAR PROVINCE
MTCC
JOEL SIERRA HUMAN RIGHTS FOUNDATION
PEOPLE’S LEGAL TEAM
POPULAR POWER AND UNITY – PUP
NATIONAL LABOR UNION INSTITUTE – CEDINS

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