The chairman of the Communist Party of Venezuela (PCV) on Monday said he had allowed a party-member to sell FARC-branded products like rum and cigarettes “out of solidarity with the struggle of the Colombian people.”
“We don’t have ties to the FARC … but we support the cause of the FARC, we support their cause and respect the struggles of the Colombian people,” chairman Yul Jabour told Venezuelan radio.
Members of the PCV sold products like home-made coffee, rum, and cigarettes branded with the logo of Colombia’s largest guerrilla group at a fair in the central Venezuelan city of Macay. According to Jabour, this was not against the will of the party, but “an act of the Communist Party.”
The communist leader said he did not know where the products came from or where the profit from their sale goes.
“We don’t know which organization exactly brought this, but they are who internationally support the struggle of the people. We did not distribute [the goods] and if we knew who did we wouldn’t say. This is being used like a show. We respect the struggle of peoples,” Jabour said.
The FARC are widely criticized for human rights violations and are considered a terrorist group by the Unites States and European Union.