Yesterday, February 4th, the largest popular mobilization of Colombians in that country's history took place. As pointed out in El Tiempo's special section titled "Asi se vivio la marcha contra las FARC" Colombians all over the world participated to collectively voice a round rejection of kidnapping, violence, lies, and most vociferously, the armed rebel group FARC. While the largest gathering was in Bogota, with more than a million marchers, there were public demonstrations of support in several cities in the US and elsewhere (I even saw photos of Colombians waving signs in Kurdistan -- impressive), including Washington. I was in attendance yesterday, albeit with mixed feelings. My feelings were mixed for several reasons, the most easily expressed being the following: I didn't/don't disagree with any of the official reasons for gathering - in fact I readily embrace a repudiation of kidnapping, the horrific violence perpetrated by the FARC, and the stranglehold that they have on Colombians ability to feel safe in their own country. That said, I feel strongly about several issues that seemed to be omitted from the platform yesterday, most importantly the rejection of ALL violence and kidnapping in Colombia, including those acts perpetrated by paramilitaries, the ELN, and state forces. I am not foolish enough to get into an argument with Colombians about who commits the greatest number, or most heinous atrocities, mostly because I sincerely feel that accurately apportioning blame should take a back seat to a much more important duty we all have of denouncing violence anywhere and in all it's forms.
It was a privilege to witness a truly grass roots mobilization of a people fed up with a senseless civil war and a country in which a vast majority is deprived of peace by a greedy and vicious minority...
update 2/10/08 : i meant to finish my post after class, did not get around to it, and now have some updates that affect what i was intending to write in my concluding thoughts. Tonight I received an invitation to participate in a March 6 march to voice a rejection of violence, kidnapping, and terror perpetrated by paramilitary forces, often times in collusion with the government. My hopes are that this march will be take place with similar levels of tolerance and without explicitly party political messages as characterized the anti-FARC march.....we'll see.
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It should be noted that while people around the world are out protesting FARC violence, President Chavez is mobilizing to have the FARC and ELN removed from the US and EU list of terrorist organizations. Chavez has argued that recognizing the FARC and ELN as legitimate armies would help in the negotiation process. But of course this would also serve the dual purpose of making his own "revolution" more legitimate in some eyes, and would annoy both Uribe and the US. You decide where Chavez's motivations rest.
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