Plan Colombia, FTAA and Black Communities in the Process of Global Struggle

The US Congress has allocated $1.3 billion to the government of Colombia for a military intervention which was denominated Plan Colombia. The official purpose of this ‘Plan’ is to put an end to the illegal growing of coca by destroying illicit crops, to put an end to the guerilla and to stabilise Latin Americas ‘oldest democracy’. 84 % of the money will flow straight back into US economy as it is destined for military aid, primarily Huey and Black Hawk helicopters.

Anyone digging up just a bit more information about the situation in Colombia will immediately see that the drug war is nothing but a pretext and that the real motivation is to secure access to natural resources (especially oil) and to gain control over a geopolitical strategic region in order to continue the implementation of a neoliberal development model in the whole region and especially the planned FTAA (Free Trade Agreement of the Amerias) to be discussed in Quebec / Canada in April this year.

A closer look to the region shows us that Colombia is like a natural trade platform, having access to both the Pacific and the Atlantic ocean and being the natural connection between North and South America. The strategic role of this area was already recognised centuries ago by Spanish conquistadores who considered connecting both oceans through a canal. In order to secure the control over this area, the US orchestrated the separation of Panama from Colombia in 1903. The Panama canal is becoming too small to deal with the increasing flow of goods in times of economic globalisation between South East Asia , USA and Europe, especially considering China as an upcoming market. The infrastructure of the Canal is old and slow, so new interoceanic connections are being planned. But Colombia is not only attractive in terms of trade routes crossroad, it is also intended to become a major production place full of sweat shops. Several megaprojects like road infrastructure, dams, oil pipelines, monocultures and harbours in order to efficiently sap the resources are on their way.

On top of that, the oil resources in Colombia are enormous and they are even bigger in Venezuela: BP, Exxon, Shell (via Oxy Petroleum a sister TNC) have been granted generous concessions for oil drilling. In order to implement this neoliberal vision of development, Colombia has not only started reforming its constitution in order to make its laws FTAA compatible, but here we are assisting to an organised mass displacement and killing of the population, in particular the black communities, in order to go ahead with these megaprojects. Colombia has seen 3.000 murdered people in the last year and nearly 2 million people displaced by now. This is a social genocide and one of the cruellest forms of expression of capitalism.

Another important factor are the social movements of Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia, Brazil and Panama which are an obstacle for these neoliberal plans. Bolivia and Ecuador have seen huge indigenous uprisings. Peru’s government is collapsing and especially Venezuela’s external policy (role in OPEC making oil prices raise; contacts to Cuba and Iraq; and the building up of economic relations to other Latin American countries) is causing serious concern in the industrialised countries who’d like to see cheap oil prices, in particular the USA that has a highly energy inefficient economy. The 4 big oil multinationals also see their hegemony disturbed by Venezuela’s attitude. US Senator Coverdell said in an article in the Washington Post on April 10th 2000, that protecting the oil interests in Venezuela justified the US intervention in Colombia.

It isn’t wrong to state that Plan Colombia is like a remake of the Vietnam war and a kind of neocolonialism to get the region under control in order to implement the vision of the FTAA.

About 25-30 % of the Colombian population is black. Most live in cities but many communities are spread around the Pacific and Caribbean coast. The black communities perceive themselves as the outcome of centuries of struggle for freedom. Struggles against slavery, against colonialism and now economic globalisation. They have developed forms of living which have little or nothing to do with capitalism and that are in harmony with their environment, one of the places on Earth with the highest biodiversity. They struggle to defend their right to live, their constitutional right to autonomy, identity and space to live. Today they are approaching European and North American grassroots groups that have massively articulated around the anti- capitalist protests against the WTO, IMF, WB and that would like to join their struggle and continue the process of global convergence.

Since the protests in Prague against the IMF/WB summit, the contact between PCN (Black Communities Process) and European grassroots groups has been developing rapidly. The first exchanges have resulted in: 1) a call by PCN for support in building communication structures and skill capacity to improve communication within the communities and internationally 2) a proposal to consider the planning of a large international presence in ‘security zones’ in the black communities, which are precisely in the way of the planned megaprojects. 3) a call to European and North American grassroots realities to build up autonomous collective alternatives as a response to the economical, political and cultural power of capitalism. Alternatives which articulate along horizontal and participatory forms, which practically implement the right to be different, support selfmanagement capacity and develop structures independently from State structures.

The co-operation with the movements from this region that are directly approaching us, represent a chance for a new qualitative development in the global articulation of resistance, and a step to move from resistance towards an offensive in the arena of dreams, creation and conquer of the future.

More information about Colombia, PCN and Tours in Europe and North America is available at:
http://pages.hotbot.com/edu/stop.wto/Plan_Colombia.html

You will also find instructions about how to subscribe to different email lists.

Other sites:
http://colombia.indymedia.org
http://www3.gratisweb.com/ciclocrisis
(analyses by H. Mondragon)
http://www.derechos.org/nizkor/colombia
http://www.ecopetrol.com.co
(official site to oil exploitation in Colombia)

to contact PCN directly: pcnkolombia@hotmail.com [in Spanish]