A group of 20 dedicated activists shivered outside the Colombian consulate on Dundas St. on Friday, worried that Colombian students, union leaders and others are being repressed by US funds supposedly given to the country to fight drug production.
They say the United States’ Plan Colombia threatens current peace talks between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), which have threatened to break into a massive civil war in recent weeks.
The protest, organized by the Coalition Against War and Racism (CAWR), is one of many in the past few months. Open letters to Jean Chretien were distributed, asking “the Canadian government to maintain its posture of impartial mediator, using your good offices for whatever time might be necessary until peace has resumed in Colombia.”
The crux of the issue is that money sent by the American government through its Plan Colombia initiative to combat the illicit Colombian drug trade is in fact financing paramilitary groups used to suppress dissent towards the government. These groups include student organizations and unions.
Although FARC and the Colombian government have agreed to peace negotiations within a mutually designated non-violence zone, the increase in the Plan Colombia budget may place pressure on the Colombian government to reject the peace talks and resume an antagonistic stance towards FARC. Cristina Fernández, Latin American Solidarity Group member and one of the organizers of the event, discussed the importance of the peace talks in rebuilding a shattered Colombian society. She also stressed the differences between Colombian and Canadian society, saying Canadians need to avoid prejudice in examining the current Colombian situation.
“It’s important to remember that the people of Colombia have to turn to guns for their own self-reliance,” she said.
Another member of the Latin American Solidarity Group and the CAWR, Miguel Figueroa, praised the Canadian government’s role as one of the “Group of Ten” countries that successfully appealed to the Colombian government to continue negotiating with FARC, but remained skeptical about the actions of the Chretien government. He said, “The Chretien government has proven time and time again that when the chips are down, they have a tendency to defer to the wishes of the Pentagon.” Should the peace talks fail, “we could become witness to a grotesque human tragedy unfolding that will make what that has already happened in that region over the last decade, which is tragic enough, pale in comparison.”
