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A Nation’s Rejection of Terrorism – Unnoticed?
by John Horvat II
The massive protest had everything
to grab the major headlines – drama, numbers, human
interest, and even an Internet hero-organizer. It was also
good news with a striking and timely anti-terrorist theme.
However, this smashing success story
simply did not seem to inspire much commentary or encouragement.
Although the wires carried the story, the full drama of
what took place or its consequences appear blunted.
The February 4 event was a worldwide protest
held by nearly 5 million Colombians. And the target of this
massive protest? The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia
or FARC as it is so infamously known.
Nowadays, FARC could hardly be considered
“armed forces” but rather the remnants of
a once-formidable Marxist guerrilla organization that
has terrorized this Andean nation for decades. It is the
military wing of the Colombian Communist Party.
As a “military” group, the
group has fallen on hard times. It holds no national territory
as its own. Its “tactics” consist of a gangster/terrorist
mix of bombings, murder, mortar attacks, drug-running,
kidnapping, extortion, hijacking, and ambushes of conventional
military forces.
By taking energetic measures against them,
the real Colombian Armed Forces have steadily reduced the
once powerful group to scattered ragtag groups of ruthless
outcasts. Suffering from increasing desertion, the group now
relies on narcotics and kidnapping ransoms to fund its ill-fated
Marxist experiment. Nearly 800 people, including three Americans,
are its only real trump card as they cruelly wallow in jungle
hideouts or safe houses where they are often used as human
shields.
The world-wide protest was the brainchild
of engineer Oscar Morales who hatched the idea to mobilize
a protest march using the popular Facebook social networking
Internet site. Nearly everyone in Colombia knows someone
who has been victimized by FARC. The idea spread like
wildfire. An estimated 4.8 million Colombians took to
the street – well over ten percent of the population
of this country of 44.3 million inhabitants. Nearly two
million jammed downtown Bogotá alone. Thousands
of other Colombians got together in 130 cities around
the world including communities in the United States.
Nothing could be clearer. What was organized
was a national repudiation of this notorious terrorist
group. Colombians are tired of the terrorist organization
that has made their lives miserable and kidnapped or killed
their loved ones. They favor the policies of President
Alvaro Uribe whose popularity is now at its zenith with
an enviable 81 percent approval rating. The overall message
was the same seen on many of the huge banners at the rallies:
No More FARC!
Such a public repudiation would usually
be enough to destroy the credibility of any normal organization.
The problem is that FARC is not a normal organization
– it is a Marxist guerrilla group that lives off
its Che Guevara mystique outside the country. As followers
of the discredited communist ideology, it still considers
itself as a national liberation army but with typical
Marxist savvy its leaders know that it gains much more
from its press releases than from its humiliating battlefield
defeats.
Thus, it is no surprise that many newspaper
stories that appeared about the rallies failed to notice
the unprecedented nationwide repudiation of FARC. Some
stories, for example, reported “thousands”
of protesters while others mention “millions”
– but not the nearly five million that appeared
worldwide.
As if unable to read the huge signs
at the protests, other stories characterized the rallies
as not against FARC but simply kidnapping, violence or
killing. The more leftist pro-FARC press even downplayed
the spontaneous Internet-generated marches as government-manipulated
while others echoed the sentiments of Colombia’s
leftist politicians who characterized the marches as expressions
of “hatred and racism” that would hinder “dialogue.”
When FARC loses on the battlefield of
Colombian public opinion, it must compensate on the world
stage. Instead of recognizing the group’s unpopularity,
pro-FARC supporters worldwide are doing everything possible
to pump up its sagging image.
Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, for
example, is calling for the international community to
recognize FARC as “armed forces” and asked
the European Union to take the group off its terrorist
list. Others are calling for negotiations exactly in the
moment when the movement's military defeats are becoming
more apparent.
FARC itself is orchestrating the emotionally-charged
release of three more hostages through the saving mediation
of Hugo Chavez. It is interesting to note that FARC garnered
support at last November’s School of the Americas
protest held at Fort Benning, Ga. The pro-FARC propaganda
machine still manages to function.
Meanwhile, the repudiation of
FARC by an entire nation should not go unnoticed. Five
million Colombians have spoken. It is time for the rest
of the world to join with them by repudiating FARC and
denying them their privileged place on the world stage.
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