Cablegate: Farc Publishes Open Letter to Prominent Americans

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TAGS: PTER PGOV PREL MARR CO
SUBJECT: FARC PUBLISHES OPEN LETTER TO PROMINENT AMERICANS

REF: BOGOTA 10337

1. On November 9, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia
(FARC) posted a letter to prominent Americans on its website
(www.farcep.org). The letter, entitled, "Open Letter to the
People of the United States," was addressed to academics
James Petras and Noam Chomsky, political figures Jesse
Jackson and Angela Davis, and media personalities Michel
(sic) Moore, Oliver Stone, and Denzel Washington.

2. Begin informal Embassy translation of FARC letter:

Open Letter to the People of the United States

Mr. James Petras
Mr. Noam Chomsky
Mr. Jesse Jackson
Ms. Angela Davis
Mr. Michel Moore
Mr. Oliver Stone
Mr. Denzel Washington

We turn to you, as representative intellectuals and symbols
of respected thought of the country of George Washington,
Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King, to address, through
you, the people of the United States calling upon you to
influence your rulers for the future of peace, justice and
fraternity of all the people in the world.

On February 2003, the combat intelligence airplane manned by
U.S. citizens Thomas Howes, Keith Stansell and Mark
Gonsalves, was shot down by FARC guerrillas on Colombian
soil, on the folds of the eastern Mountain range that extends
towards Caqueta. The three were legitimately taken prisoner,
while engaged in an act of war amidst an armed conflict in
which the FARC-the People,s Army-and the Colombian State are
fighting for power.

Howes, Stansell and Gonsalves are alive in our custody,
treated with respect and dignity in the jungle. They are the
only North American prisoners of war alive in the world.

Washington has invested billions of dollars in the framework
of the South Command (sic) Patriot Plan, attempting a
dangerous and senseless military rescue. That same attitude
from President Uribe caused the recent and regrettable death
of a former defense minister, a governor and 8 soldiers. In
fact, during these three long years the American prisoners
have been subjected to unnecessary risks due to military
operations seeking to free them through blood and fire. For
this reason we cannot include in this letter evidence of
their survival that could bring, at least, a little peace of
mind to their relatives, but we promise to do so in due time.

To the people of the United States, we ask for your always
generous solidarity, to pressure President Bush and his
Government to change their attitude in favor of an exchange
of prisoners of war in Colombia, or a humanitarian exchange
as the Narino Palace prefers to call it. We must win this
battle of humanity that can also open paths for peace with
social justice in this country.

Unfortunately, the hot-headed way in which President Uribe
has handled the situation has sown the road with obstacles.
Today, when great expectations have arisen over the swap of
prisoners in Colombia, Uribe has rushed to say that an
eventual exchange could not include the guerrillas "Simon
Trinidad" and "Sonia" because they are in the hands of
American justice.

Simon Trinidad, the FARC,s political spokesman during peace
talks with the Pastrana Government in the Caguan, was
extradited to the United States under false charges and dirty
lies from Colombian military intelligence and the Fiscalia
(Prosecutor General's Office) that can never hide the
retaliatory nature of that decision.

On Sonia,s national ID card, noble country guerrilla, was
stamped the fingerprint of a drug trafficker and they even
changed her name in order to extradite her.

When she arrived in the United States she was confined for
six months in a dark punishment hole. Simon has remained
constantly chained and isolated and has been denied the right
of legal defense before a foreign court that neither speaks
his language nor has the right to try him. Even though he's
not a member of the Supreme FARC Secretariat, the authorities
treacherously present him as such in order to link him to an
invented criminal conspiracy among which above all is
terrorism.

These actions intend to weaken the FARC's resistance to the
policy of neo-liberal re-colonization and the dominance of
the empire in Our America, that of the South. Simon and
Sonia were extradited to the United States in violation of
the Constitional guarantee which prohibits permanently the
extradition of Colombian citizens for political reasons.

It is our heartfelt wish that this exchange can put an end to
the long captivity of the prisoners under the control of the
contending parties, including Simon, Sonia, Howes, Stansell
and Gonsalves. Unless the governments of Colombia and the
United States have another reasonable option regarding these
prisoners to which the FARC agrees. What is important is
that all of them regain their freedom.

To Noam Chomsky, to James Petras and to the people of the
United States and Colombia, we invite you to raise this just
banner of exchange and peace, that at the same time supports
a political and diplomatic solution of the conflict. As we
have said in a recent public communication addressed to the
Colombian military, "social programs, structural changes,
peace agreements are more effective and powerful than bullets
and operations."

We would like to see a change of attitude in Washington,s
government. Instead of characterizing the FARC as a terrorist
organization, with the slimy purpose of delegitimizing a
political organization and at the same time justifying its
intervention in an internal conflict, think about the
universal right of the people to rise up against unjust and
oppressive regimes. Simon Bolivar the Liberator has taught us
that "social individuals can conspire against any
proscriptive law that has been twisted" and "when power is
oppressive, virtue has the right to annihilate it". "The
virtuous man rises against oppressive and unbearable
authority in order to replace it with respected and kind
authority."

We have confidence in the actions of the thoughtful people
who love peace that live beyond the Rio Bravo, who are
seeking to resolve in a civilized way the conflicts of the
world and the hemisphere taking into account the dignity of
the people.

Receive our best regards,

Sincerely yours,

FARC-EP, International Commission
Raul Reyes, member of the Secretariat
The Colombian Mountains, October 2006

End informal Embassy translation of FARC letter.

WOOD

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