Simon Trinidad Captured

[pchang]

For those who don't know, he was one of the top leaders of FARC in Columbia. In fact, he is the only one of their top leaders to have been captured.

[Spiffor]

FARC are scum, like all the other groups involved in the Colombian mess. Always good to see one of these scum groups weakened

[Ted Striker]

Another one of their leaders died last year.

FARC's days are numbered.

Nobody cares about Marxism any more.

[Pekka]

Good news!

[Dr Strangelove]

Is Marxism an excuse for building a drug trade empire, or is running a drug trade empire an excuse for espousing Marxism?

[Ted Striker]

good point

[JCG]

What a wonderful way to start the New Year....

[Sava]

I have an idea... let's legalize drugs AND CUT OFF THEIR SOURCE OF INCOME.

btw good catch

[JCG]

A photo of the "good citizen" in question, upon arrival in Colombia:

Originally posted by Sava
I have an idea... let's legalize drugs AND CUT OFF THEIR SOURCE OF INCOME.

That's certainly a good idea. Too bad it's one of those things that almost everyone believes to be so "obvious" yet few people (if any) with influence move a finger in order to really make it happen...

[Tripledoc]

Originally posted by Spiffor

FARC are scum, like all the other groups involved in the Colombian mess. Always good to see one of these scum groups weakened

Hmm. You would probably be very pleased to have your banana fields, and fishponds sprayed with lethal pesticides from government planes. The sorry excuse is that they are doing it to kill the coca industry, but what they are doing is really ruining and ejecting the small farmers so that the landlords can take over. Well in the name of progress and so forth. But what about having your family members murdered and raped by rightwing socalled 'paramilitaries'. I guess that is a price to pay to keep people in line and on course.

The easy way out is of course to take pleasure in the Western backed government having captured one of their leaders. And as you so succintly point out 'the other groups' are 'scum' too. Sadly they don't seem to be under quite the same heavy hand of justice, unless that retribution is from the FARC of course.

[JCG]

Plenty of "small farmers" have been ejected from their lands in the "usual way", by BOTH paramilitary and guerrilla "landlords", even before the fumigations (which, IMHO, are mostly a crappy short-term solution ) ever existed....but of course, for some it's "convenient" to forget/forgive equivalent atrocities when the ones responsible are so-called "leftists".

But what about having your family members murdered and raped by rightwing socalled 'paramilitaries'.

Just as bad as having your family members murdered and raped by leftwing socalled "guerrillas". Plenty of examples of that exist.

The easy way out is of course to take pleasure in the Western backed government having captured one of their leaders.

You say "their" as if you could actually consider a terrorist truly representative...I guess Osama Bin Laden is the Muslim "representative" and "one of their leaders" too.

It's actually very funny in the case of 'Simon', considering he was a spoiled rich kid/businessman for the vast majority of his life....a member of the "oligarchy".

****. You could even argue that he and the rest of the top FARC leaders live in equivalent luxury conditions right now, thanks to drug profits.

And as you so succintly point out 'the other groups' are 'scum' too.

Evidently.

Sadly they don't seem to be under quite the same heavy hand of justice,

Evidently the vast majority of counterinsurgency operations are targeted against the guerrillas, the largest formations that are actively trying to BRING DOWN the state and (what little there is) democracy, but it's also true that the international media almost never transmits any of the "positive" result against the paramilitaries, even if they are fewer, they do exist, a quick look at the weekly Spanish-speaking press can confirm it.... but of course, they can often be "conveniently" ignored, I guess, for the sake of argument.

Besides, at least the paramilitaries are talking of demobilization right now, and already ~900 of their members have abandoned their arms as part of that process...whether it actually amounts to anything else is up in the air.....it smells of Caguan-type fiasco and certainly has a lot of related problems....but only time will tell.

unless that retribution is from the FARC of course.

It's also funny that you would say that...considering that, for some people in Colombia, without being necessarily "landlords" nor "rich", the actions of the paramilitaries have also been a form of personal retribution against FARC abuses, because of the utter lack of state/police presence in their regions.

Both kinds of so-called "retribution" exist.

Doesn't make ANY of them any less "scum" though, from my point of view, in the end.

Does Colombia need a ton of social reforms, to put it extremely lightly? Yes.

Do those reforms have to come through murders, car-bombs, kidnappings, etc. culminating in the installation of a totalitarian regime? No.

There is always another way, and recent events in Colombian electoral history show that history doesn't have to forcefully repeat itself "ad infinitum" (if that were the case, then the Germans would still rather be ruled by Nazis or Communists right now, after the "failure" of the Weimar Republic), but that progress is being made, slowly (and prevented by the conflict itself from going any faster).

[Whoha]

No Sava, we need a total embargo, if people want to get stoned/high/whatever here, then they should have to buy American damnit!

[Tripledoc]

JCG.

If the columbian President gets captured by the FARC would it be in good order to say, 'well that was one scumbag less' ?

I don't think so. Because he after all represents the state. In fact your loyalty to that concept reveals your grotesque ideology. Everything the state does is, if not right, then somehow on the way to being fixed. I note you say Columbia 'needs a ton of reforms.' Yet don't you think that there is perhaps a reason why these reforms have not been made? It is as if this is due to some unfortunate accident, which can be fixed by the present government, and that the present policy of expropriating the poor for the benefit of the already filthy rich is in fact not a part of a very deliberate plan.
I think you underestimate your ideological allies. It must be some sort of deficient racism on your part, since after all they are only Indians, aren't they? Except the upper class.

Then you are horrified by the evidently stated goal of the FARC to bring down the state. This I don't understand. Of course it is. FARC is a revolutionary movement. In order to finance their arms purchases they are only doing what western Capitalist powers have done for ages. Controlling the drug trade. Why should FARC be more moral in their actions in achieving their aims? This would surely be self-defeating.

Then you heap on accusations, but no evidence, that the FARC is guilty of atrocites too, which no doubt they are. I would still say that if the poor man kills, steals and rapes this is an indefinately lesser crime than when the rich man does. This is because were the former is an act of desperation, the latter is based on greed and arrogance, which as you know is somewhat sinful, yet so dearly presented as virtuous in the corrupt societies of today.

Now if it was not because certain Western governments are actively involved in supporting the Columbian government, Columbia would evidently fairly soon turn Communist. One could ask if it would not make better sense to simply cut military support to Columbia and let the Columbians decide the issue for themselves?

[Spiffor]

Tripledoc:
I believe I said all groups involved in the Colombian mess are scum. The current government is one too. The only superiority the government has over its opponents is the democratic election of its leader: if the civil war ends, only the government has the potential to turn into a non-scum group.

[Tripledoc]

Democratically elected you say. That might be, and surely the AUC (fascist paramilitary group) must be satisified by this. Their numbers have risen exponentially the last two years, and as this article states they have even been promised amnesty for their crimes against human rights. President Bush agrees.

http://www.prensarural.org/ww20031002.htm