Colombia's Rebels Face Possibility of Implosion--Chief Threat Not Deaths, but Desertion

[Mugu]

By Juan Forero

PEREIRA, Colombia -- Hungry, desperate and afraid for his life, Pedro Pablo Montoya shot the commander he was supposed to protect. He then severed the commander's right hand -- as proof he'd killed one of Colombia's most wanted men -- and deserted the once-powerful rebel group to which he had pledged allegiance.

The slaying this month of Manuel Jesús Muñoz, a member of the ruling directorate of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, was a dramatic signal that a rebel group known for its resilience is engulfed in an internal crisis that could lead to its implosion after four decades of armed struggle.

In a country where most people cannot remember a time of peace, Colombians are for the first time raising the possibility that a guerrilla group once thought invincible could be forced into peace negotiations or even defeated militarily.

Weakened by infiltrators and facing constant combat and aerial bombardment, the insurgency is losing members in record numbers. The FARC, as the group is known, lost 1,583 fighters in combat last year, its columns are plagued by command-and-control problems, and popular support is evaporating, the government of President Álvaro Uribe says.


Read complete article at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/21/AR2008032103536.html?hpid=topnews

[rockymountaindem]

1. Good news if true n/t

[Peace Patriot]

2. And we are to believe the Colombian government (and WaPo) because...? nt

[Peace Patriot]

3. Alternative information sources...

www.BoRev.net (hilarious AND informative)

"The Chainsaw Massacre" Is Not a Movie in Colombia: Witness
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines01/0419-04.htm

Blueprints for Wider Columbian War
http://www.freepress.org/columns.php?strFunc=display&strID=547&strYear=2001&strAuthor=2

The “Sixth Division”: Military-paramilitary Ties and U.S. Policy in Colombia
http://www.hrw.org/reports/2001/colombia/2.1.htm

Uribe tied to the Medellin Cartel
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=405x1991

Amnesty International report on Colombian security forces/paramilitaris murders and atrocities against union leaders
AI Index: AMR 23/001/2007
http://www.amnesty.org/en/alfresco_asset/26e626d7-a2c0-11dc-8d74-6f45f39984e5/amr230012007en.html

"...cases in which clear evidence of responsibility is available indicates that in 2005 around 49 per cent of human rights abuses against trade unionists were committed by (Colombian) paramilitaries and some 43 per cent directly by the (Colombian) security forces. Just over 2 per cent were attributable to guerrilla forces (primarily the FARC and ELN) and just over 4 per cent to criminally-motivated actions." --p.5

Another good source of info on what's happening in South America
www.venezuelanalysis.com

Chavez, freed FARC hostages call for political solution to Colombian conflict
http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news/3213


The two worst sources of information on South America--the most prone to Bushite/CIA pysops, lying, disinformation and just plain making shit up, are the Washington Post and the Associated Press. Best approach to WaPo and AP articles on South America: Don't believe a word, upfront. Vet it for what nuggets of fact that it might contain, and ask yourself why it is including that information and how it is twisting the info to serve war profiteers and global corporate predators.