THE AFROVENEZUELAN NETWORK AND THE PARAMILITARY MENACE

From its foundation in 2000, the Afrovenezuelan Network had systematically denounced first the threat from Plan Colombia, and second the so called Plan Patriotic as a threat to the stability of the Andean region, this plan is based on military aims with the goal of ending drug trafficking in the Region. Under the administration of President Uribe Vélez, the Plan Patriotic is implemented and started to deepen the military and terrorist character implemented against groups like the FARC and the ELN, whom for many years have been holding anti-imperialist and anti-oligarchical positions and had been recognized like belligerent political actors before governments like Venezuela and Mexico.

The results of the Plan Colombia and Patriotic Plan, is expressed in an increase of the Colombian troops in an almost half a million men, sophisticated weapons, creation of new military bases, with the support of the government of the United States, in different spaces from the Colombian territory and towards the border of Ecuador and Venezuela, with the effective cooperation of more than two thousand of American military that make stronger the Colombian Self-defense units, better known like paramilitary.

All this finalized in almost three million displaced Colombians, from which sixty percent were afrocolombians, 31,000 people disappeared, 1771 unionists assassinated, ten thousand victims in common graves. When a process just began to give back its belligerent character to the FARC, that could contribute to bring the peace in Colombia, in the significance of the humanitarian exchange, which leader was the afrocolombian woman Senator Piedad Cordova and President Chávez, the government of Uribe Velez, began to sabotage this process and the most recent thing was to violate the Democratic Chart of the Organization of American States specifically the article 21 about the non violation of the national territory of other country when Colombian armed forces trespassed the Ecuatorian border, killing 20 guerrilla FARC members and among them the commander Raul Reyes, who was the leader of the project of humanitarian Exchange.

The Afrovenezuelan Network strongly condemns the intrusion of Colombian soldiers into the territory of our Ecuatorian brothers. We demand the immediate closing of Military Base of Manta (in Ecuador), we condemned the policy of Uribe of took away the afrocolombians territory, after the constitutional approval of his right over this space more than fifteen years ago established in the “Law Seventy” of afrocolombians communities, we express our support to Senator Piedad Cordova in its brave managements to continue in the humanitarian exchange.