War and mass media in Colombia
ABN 10/07/2008

Caracas, Jul, 10 ABN (Jesus Inojosa).- The former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, who was captive by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) during more than six years, was 'rescued' through an operation carried out by the Colombian Army, led by its commander-in-chief, Alvaro Uribe Velez.

The freedom of the former candidate is an event that deserves to be celebrated because, as Fidel Castro and Hugo Chávez -great leaders of the Latin American left wing- have expressed, the freedom of any human being cannot be subjugated due to political or ideological causes.

In the opinion of these leaders -and of all of those who believe in revolution and socialism-, revolutionary people are driven by the spirit of freedom and love to humanity -in the best understanding of this concept- and there is nothing that might oppose to this socialist and revolutionary dogma, of love to human.

What is wrong?

Many people have criticized the FARC and most of the liberation movements that operated during the decades of the seventies and eighties in Latin America. All of this was fostered by the United States government, and behind it, the great media that represent it and the lackeys on each country of this region.

It is hardly surprising that, as a result of these media campaigns, Colombian citizens are submerged into an unreal world -as Venezuela's minister of Communication and Information, Andres Izarra, described it during his closing speech at the meeting of ministers of information of the Non Aligned Countries Movement (NAM)-. They are indifferent to the criminal performance of paramilitary members, but they focus their hate on the insurgent movement instead.

There is no media in Colombia judging the actuation of paramilitary forces -which still exist and in greater quantity-. On the contrary, everybody expresses with great special sections, reports, news columns, opinion articles, books, among other instruments of the mass media, against the guerrilla actuation, without giving importance to the causes that led to it.

Carlos Castaño (founder member of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, AUC), was interviewed in several opportunities by the great Colombian media, most of them driven by the emporium represented by the family of the current minister of Defense of the neighbor country, the aristocrat Juan Manuel Santos. During all these interviews -audiovisual and written- were not questioned, neither were criticized the actions of these groups of mercenaries financed by the Colombian bourgeoisie and the drug dealing.

But what does Ingrid has to do with all of this?

As well as those media have hidden the criminal action of the paramilitary forces and contribute to foment hatred to the guerrilla and its way of subsistence, in that same way they have encouraged the Colombian population to deify the image of the former presidential candidate, who is today observed in Colombia and the world as a great heroine who fought against the dark forces of the guerrilla arms.

It does not mean that I am not pleased about Ingrid's release; on the contrary, all of us should be excited about it. What I do not share is the fact of deifying her.

Up to three weeks ago, people talked about the physical and mental seriousness that overwhelmed the former candidate. Thus, in some media was stated the possibility of torture against her on behalf of her captors.

In different opportunities, the mass media in the world spread the image of an Ingrid Betancourt who, in the middle of the jungle, looked gaunt and malnourished, with strong features of autism.

Paris, the city of light

Ingrid Betancourt was 'rescued' on July 2nd in the midst of a great communication display that awaited on the airport the arrival of an emaciated 'kidnapped' and 'ill-treated' Ingrid. But it was not that way.

The former candidate arrived at the airport wearing the cloths her captors gave to her, and with a strength that Colombian peasants and displaced people do not have. So much so that that same night she appears on the greatest show of the media world, which could be named Uribe and his friends.

After calling all Colombians to support Uribe's war policy, she was seen going down from an airplane at the beautiful city of Paris, received by the French president Nicolas Sarkozy, where speaking on the language of this country, thanked the steps of the President and the support of the French people to achieve her freedom.

Ingrid's campaign

The mass media started a campaign in support of the release of the former presidential candidate. Up to her capture, the issue of kidnaps in Colombia had not been faced, despite there were people with more time in captivity than Mrs Betancourt. And far less was approached the kidnap of Colombian Senator Piedad Cordoba by the paramilitary forces.

The Ingrid phenomena took international scenery when Sarkozy assumed presidency -because he stated as one of his points of campaign the release of the French Colombian woman-, and so the mass media reached their climax on the scale of media meddling.

Through his mediation, Venezuela's President, Hugo Chávez Frías, achieved the release of seven FARC hostages. The media campaign based this time on discrediting the work of the Venezuelan President. As a result, he is today charged of paying 300 million dollars in exchange of the captives, according to the alleged documents of the great and indestructible computer of the murdered guerrilla commander Raul Reyes.

On the other hand, the Colombian government carried out an operation that risked the life of the hostages and the media has described it as the best military operation carried out in Colombia. It was already forgotten the rescue attempt of the Colombian Army in which died 11 deputies, because, in accordance with the former candidate, the military action implemented by Uribe is effective.

The Colombian and world media have decided to repeat incessantly the words of support to Uribe's policy and the formula for a third term in office, evading that the guerrilla still has a great number of Colombian civilian and military officers in captivity.

For the mass media in Colombia and the world, there is no Pablo Moncayo anymore, there is no Alan Jara, there does not exist the more than 600 captives who remain in the hands of the FARC, apart from the guerrilla members that the Colombian government maintain in subhuman conditions at their jails. As with Ingrid's release could be achieved Colombia's and its government's 'dignity', the media achieved to establish their heroine and, through her and her speech, they recovered the confidence on the bourgeoisie and Uribe's alienated.

The war speech and its incessant recurrence

We should not be surprised by Ingrid Betancourt's speech, so repeated by the media. It is the speech of the class she belongs to; the bourgeoisie that has dominated and rode roughshod over Colombians since the colony times, and which with airs of nobility 'invite' the guerrilla to negotiate, when in the dark of their interests of class, they just want to eliminate them in order to assure their control.

Ingrid's release was achieved through the military, but it will not diminish the fight of a peasant people that through the arms resist to a dictatorship established by the mechanisms result of the bourgeois democracy, which seeks to eliminate them and create a small empire subordinated to the falcons and the great transnational companies of the United States.

Negotiation and mass media

The negotiated way is the formula. However, I doubt that this process might be achieved with a government as Uribe's, and I express my complete certainty that with the media bourgeoisie in the Colombian nation it is impossible.

The way out of war in Colombia will be achieved only with the conscience of the inhabitants of the neighbor country. But, as long as they do not relieve their burden of alienation daily spread by the mass media, it will not be established the necessary pressure that allows to grant the life and the political exercise of insurgents.

Colombia lives under the fire of arms, while the people sleeps on the lethargy of the fantastic reality created by the media.

Translation by Felitza Nava