Colombian People Charge U.S. Puppet Government with Mass Murder

by Adam Pedesclaux

Sign reads: “Here the only one who has sown violence is the government.”

On September 9, 2020, the Colombian police brutally murdered father and engineer Javier Ordonez on the street for violating a coronavirus curfew. They tased and beat him with clubs as he lay pinned on the ground, begging them to stop. At the hospital, Javier was pronounced dead.

Like the protests that erupted after the death of George Floyd, the people of Colombia had had enough. While the people were on the streets denouncing the fascist government of Ivan Duque Marquez, the police shot live rounds into the crowds, injuring many and killing several. The police continued to terrorize citizens throughout the month, shooting people down in the street, even going as far as to throw bombs at people and into open windows. At one point, the military killed a trans woman in a moving car, ignoring her lover begging for an explanation as to why they would do such a monstrous thing.

As dead protesters were being buried, spineless coward Ivan Duque commended the police for their work and even visited the police station.

For those unfamiliar with Colombia, such a story that parallels that of our own in America may come as a surprise. Being an Amerikkkan puppet state comes with all the racism, misogyny and homophobia that the U.S. has. The two governments work hand in hand to run the dehumanizing capitalist machine that has run people into the ground for short term gain for the wealthy in both countries, from massacring over a thousand striking banana harvesters to stealing land from working class people and having one of the largest disparities in land ownership between the rich and the poor. It only makes sense then that the people who get tired of the bullshit pick up rifles and fight against the enemy that kills them. Therefore, the people created guerrilla militias such as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the National Liberation Army (ELN), which would survive in the jungles while fighting the state.

After many years of fighting a desperate war against the state, the guerrillas were promised peace in a deal brokered by Hugo Chavez and Cuba. In 2016, the deal came with agreements for certain requirements to be met, such as honoring the victims of the war between factions as well as reparation. One of the major factors of the agreement, however, was the disarming of FARC. With this came an agreement of peace in Colombia and the promise of no more violence that both sides were supposed to adhere to.

Fast forward four years and the Colombian state is still enacting violence against working people. Thousands of former FARC members and activists, trade unionists, women’s and community group members have been killed by the government and government sponsored paramilitaries while the capitalist machine goes on. The recent rampage by the police left dozens of people dead.

It is up to the Colombian people to drive their struggle forward, but it is up to us in the U.S. to stop the boot that crushes all in its wake. As working people, we must stand up to all oppression if the death and despair is to stop.

U.S. Signals Aggression Against Venezuela

At the beginning of 2018, there were hopeful signs that Venezuela could be moving towards peace and stability. The socialist government and the counter-revolutionary opposition were making progress in negotiations that may have fulfilled the Venezuelan peoples’ desires for an end to violence and economic warfare. That is, until the U.S. stepped in with its puppets in Colombia to force the opposition, which they fund, to pull out of the negotiations. Since halt of the negotiations, the U.S. military and the Trump regime has made several statements that signal a move towards invasion. Venezuela is already surrounded by U.S. military bases and hostile governments like Colombia and Brazil, which has been increasing its military budget. Workers and progressives must prepare to fight the military industrial complex in the event of an invasion of one of the few independent governments in South America.