Title: Say No To Colombia Tourism Boycott
Tags: Colombia
Blog Entry: This is my response to an article by Haydn Coe on "Colombia is Passion" on which after correctly describing the Uribe regime as an opressive brutal state and the multi billion dollars military involment of Washington in Colombia. He ended up by effectively calling for a Boycott against the Colombian tourism industry as a means to protest from Europe against the regime and unmasked the fake image of a human rights concerned democracy. Whereas I share his diagnosis I disagree with his conclusion ans on the following letter set myself to explain why. Hi Haydn Many thanks for sharing your very good article Colombia is passion with me. I agree with your diagnosis of the Colombian regime and I appreciate that you are a well informed reader and commentator. However, I must clearly let you know that although I honestly believe your sincere motives, I would not only no support your call for a boycott against the Colombian tourist industry but I would oppose it unconditionally. We share the same dislike of the Colombian butcher state but I cant agree with your political conclusion. Fortunately you provide us with the basis of your illusions on your own article. After correctly describing the murderous machinery of the Colombian state and the role that US military aid plays on it you cite human rights concerns: “in relation to serious problems affecting not only human rights and the rule of law, but also U.S. interests in fighting drugs and terror. It's not true that the murderous campaign of the Colombia government against union, community, student and peasant leaders represents a concern in so-called: “US interest in fighting drugs and terror”. The killings that you rightly point out to, the 3 million displaced from the land that you inform us about; all of this is not a setback of imperialism’s “war on drugs /terror (or both)” but precisely the carrying out of such a war! You call for a boycott against Colombian tourist industry because you genuinely have illusions on US and UK imperialism (whose criminal role you forgot to mention), you honestly believe there is such a thing as a war on drugs and/or a war on terror being fought by US imperialism. US and UK military aid to Colombia has got the same purpose as when they give that kind of “aid” to any semi-colonial nation, they are simply looking after imperialism’s interest and the peasants and workers of these super exploited countries are on the way. The “war on terror” (or drugs take your pick) is a double edge sword, one edge is to bully terrorise and invade countries all over the world to bend them to their will; the other edge is the infringement of democratic rights here on the imperialist heartlands, in democratic UK is now perfectly legal for the police to throw anyone into a jail without any explanation legally required, all under the cover of the war on terror. The guys who filled the head of our unarmed Brazilian brother with bullets in Stockwell Station can now arrest anyone of us for 28 days if they only wish to do it without any charge being ever levied against you. And of course we still have the northern part of Ireland where the occupation forces have for so long gotten away with murder under the shield of the “war on terror”. Imperialism is not a force of good that fights evils like drugs and terror. Imperialism is the main source of terror around the world, by their centuries long of plundering the world, after daily insults to the national dignity of Arabs and other oppressed people around the world, with the historically barbaric treatment of the Palestinians for 6 decades now, after they massacre of the banana plantation in Colombia (3000 civilians according to some estimates) where trainloads of corpses where thrown into the Caribbean sea (Garcia Marques gives an excellent account of this) after the American company organised the cold-blooded butchery in a football stadium, we can never accept that any military effort of any imperialist army can ever be of any good whatsoever to humanity. Certainly no to that humanity in Latin-American who has suffered imperialism’s boot for so long. You say: “The U.S. has provided over $ 4 billion in aid to Colombia since 2000, over 80% of it channelled into the military and police. This makes Colombia the biggest recipient of U.S. aid outside the Middle East. But a government plan intended to launder the criminal records of paramilitary leaders and drug barons – whilst permitting them to retain their wealth and power – will represent an enormous setback for human rights and U.S. counter narcotics and counter error efforts alike.” You are right, the US heavily contributes to the Colombian murder machine, but actually the recycling of paramilitary forces doesn’t represent a setback for US counter narcotics and counter terror efforts. We already now the their so-called antiwar and antiterror efforts are only a cover for their real economic and political interests., is a code name for the war on working people the world over. This absolving of the murderous right-wing hordes the successful conclusion of the US plan on Colombia Allow me to go back to the roots of the conflicts, to the origins of the state right wing armies as an extension of the Colombian state. The Colombian countryside has suffered this murderous mob for nearly a century now. Since the 1920’s the state sponsor death squads on the countryside and used them against workers early attempts to form industrial unions. It has become a question of life or death for the Colombian peasant to arm himself against the private armies of the landlords, many of them also drug barons. Repression has been the traditional mode of government of the Colombian ruling class, these right-wing paramilitary armies are just an extension of the repressive machinery of the state (very much like the British sponsored loyalist in the northern part of Ireland). The terror escalated in the 30’s and blew into civil war in 1948-53 where 300.000 peasants were slaughtered in what is known as “la violencia”. Land in Colombia remains firmly at the hands of a few landowning families (very much like in the UK); this landowning class has not been able to pacify the countryside. The Colombian peasant is still up in arms; suffer decades of brutal terror (called “war on drugs/terror…etc,) campaigns against him he is still up in arms. The right wing hordes have been the illegal extension of the Colombian armed forces ever since the beginning and the participation of US and other imperialist powers is quite publicly known and proven. Israeli imperialism sent his brutal mercenary Yair Kleim to train the deadly drug baron’s private armies as part of their “war on drugs”! He very well trained them in massacring sleeping peasants, raping underage girls in the town square at full daylight and razed villages like the 80’s massacres by Yair mercenaries. The main leader of the Colombian paramilitaries Carlos Castaño (now dead) wrote on his book his deep admiration of the early Israeli paramilitary terror hordes that bathed in blood Palestinians towns in 1947 in preparation to the mass land thieving that lead to the creation of the Israeli state. In both cases the fight is about land and in both cases the reactionary forces help and admire each other inevitably. But the lack of centralisation and lack of discipline of these forces was getting on the way of settling down accounts with the Colombian countryside and finally disarm the Colombian peasant. US imperialism would very much preferred a purged (or “recycled” like you call it) paramilitary force that can be better controlled and subordinate to the central interest of Colombian capitalism. In conclusion the land dispossession of 3.000.000 peasants is no a setback but rather a triumph of US imperialist war on terror/drugs! If we start by having illusions on imperialism then inevitably we will look to the imperialist governments and agencies for the solution. My world perspective leads me to trust the only social agency capable of change and that in the modern world can only be the working class. Were the Colombian trade unions and social movements be in mass calling for a boycott against the tourist industry I would be the most excited supporter of such campaign. That will mean that we would be assisting our Colombian brothers and sisters in their campaign against the Uribe regime. But to artificially call for a boycott to the tourist industry disregarding Colombian working people will not only help nothing at all the lot of that south American nation but what is even worse it will be an obstacle for the much needed international collaboration between those wanting to make the world a better place. I very much respect your honesty when you say that: The “Colombia is Passion” campaign is flawed, favouring an emphasis on specific locations (eg. Cartagena or the Amazonas regions), or selling niche products like the “coffee trail.” Jenkins further believes western tourists should “visit Colombia and enjoy it”, to assuage their “narco-guilt”. Perhaps a better way of atoning for sub conscious guilt is to avoid Colombia altogether, pending the restoration of democratic principles and recognition of human rights by the Uribe government. Perhaps a better way of atoning for sub conscious guilt is to avoid Colombia altogether, pending the restoration of democratic principles and recognition of human rights by the Uribe government. You are right. If we are in the business of healing “narco-guilt” then perhaps not going to a country is good therapy, not having any clinical training I’m not prepared to argue against such treatment. But I’m not in the business of healing any sort of petty-bourgeois prejudice. When we talk about 3.000.000 displaced, scores of trade unionist and civilian’s murders day in and day out, the most dangerous place to be a trade unionist in the world, when we talk about these issues bigger things than narco-guilt are at stake. We must trust and march together with the trade union movement and the social movements of Colombia and be ready to support them on any hypothetical call for a boycott. In fact there is a lot we can learn from their experiences. To unilaterally and artificially call for such boycott from Britain is a reflection of the pervasive and old-ages instilled consciousness of the “white man burden”. I look forward to march together with you in other occasions, perhaps when the call out is something like: “Stop all UK and US military aid to Colombia” “Down with Plan Colombia” “US out of Guantanamo-Cuba now!” “Stop US blockade of Cuba” “Independence for Puerto Rico now!” “British Troops out of Ireland now!” “Imperialist Troops Out of Afghanistan” “Stop imperialist harassment of Iran and Korea” & nbsp; “Defend the right of sovereign nations to develop whatever technology they consider necessary including nuclear” “Disarm nuclear arsenals of UK, France, US and Israel” “Imperialist troops out of Iraq, Afghanistan, Sierra Leone” “Cancel the Third World Debt” Send massive, free and unconditional economic aid to developing nations to help close the breach between rich and poor. Comradely, Natan Es, 26 March 2007
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