Colombian rebel group FARC rules out peace talks “behind the country’s back” and promises to never give up the armed struggle against the Colombian state unless there is “social justice.”
The FARC, speaking in a message on the rebel website signed by the seven-man Secretariat, said Colombian president Santos was “desperate” to think the country’s oldest guerrilla group would want peace due to allegedly being weakened.
The rebels claimed the only way to reach a lasting end to the 48-year-old conflict would be to “solve the gravest of the social problems” and to “remove the oligarchy and its armed forces from power.”
“Santos is so elitist and arrogant in his oligarchic attitude that he tries to center the debate on whether or not the FARC commander can be a congressman,” said the FARC message, referring to the recent ‘legal mark of peace’ debate held in the Colombian senate.
“It is clear FARC-EP will not betray the heritage of our founders and martyrs. Nor will we turn the back on the poor people of our country who are feeling the effects of this arrogance day after day, the plundering and the terror on the behalf of the Colombian state. On one morning 48 years ago, the heroic peasants of Marquetalia decided to take up arms and dream of the people taking power. The fighters of today ratify once again we will never give up our dreams for an undignified surrender and disarmament. Only a profound transformation of our country’s living conditions could facilitate and guarantee peace,” the message continued.
The FARC message continued by claiming the Santos administration served the interests of the United States and the multinational companies.
“The intolerance of the regime corresponds to the hegemonic interests of transnational capital, forced upon our continent since the so-called Washington Consensus. Free trade, privatizations, labor flexibility, total openness to foreign direct investment, in other words, the purest neo-liberal orthodoxy in the field of economy, they demand for its absolute ideological and cultural domination in the field of politics.”
The FARC ratified its will to continue the armed struggle for as long as necessary.
“Today we assure a dialogue far away from and with the back against the country, like the one Santos strives for, will only end up intensifying the confrontation. Our feelings are concentrated on advancing the rebellion and the organization from below […] We will win together with [the people], that we promise,” concluded the FARC message.