guerrillas!"
[The Ejército de Liberaci6n Nacional (National Liberation Army), the Colombian guerrilla force, issued a strong statement in support of Fidel Castro's stand urging revolutionists in Latin America to go ahead and make the revolution and not be dissuaded from it by those who want to follow a line of class collaboration or "peaceful coexistence."
(The text of the declaration issued by the Colombian guerrillas, as published in the April 2 English edition of Granma, the official organ of the Central Committee of the Cuban Communist party is as follows.]
* * *
With the exception of Cuba, every Latin-American country today presents the same picture of hunger, poverty and exploitation.
After more than a century of domination by the bourgeoisie, our peoples are still living at the lowest levels of civilization, with ignorance and backwardness
rampant. This landowning bourgeois class, incapable of creation, living off the dispossessed (almost enslaved ) masses, always tagging along in the wake of the European and United States bourgeoisie, turning us over lock, stock and barrel to the power of Yankee monopoly interests, today faces only decline. This Latin- American bourgeoisie can no longer continue deceiving the peoples as it did in the past when it paraded as the champion of freedom and democracy.
For awareness of what must be done has awakened the peoples of the Americas.
Millions of human beings have had their eyes opened. The picture is clear: Miserable wages, which leave the worker and his family starving; tumble-down, unsanitary shacks, places of suffering rather than shelter; backwardness, with no possibility of escape; in short, the absence of any chance for a decent future. These are the conditions offered by the bourgeoisie in exchange for the riches produced by the millions who face death from hunger or malnutrition, those millions of Latin America's sons, of our brothers throughout the Americas.
The small farmer of Latin America is doomed to perpetual misery. He ekes out only a starvation existence from his tiny parcel of land. He is condemned to waste away from disease, neglected conpletely by the grasping landowning class.
Along with the exploitation by the pourgeoisie, the tentacles of imperialism have been strangling Latin America, making the continent its captive, the easy, defenseless prey of the imperialist monopolies.
The enormous natural resources deposited in our earth, which could insure our economic development if placed in the hands of the people, are instead ruthlessly wrested from us without the slightest qualms. Chilean copper, Venezuelan iron and petroleum, Bolivian tin, and our own Colombian oil and platinum; all these riches of our continent are extracted from our soil at the cost of blood and sweat, benefiting the true owners of that wealth not at all, but rather causing them growing suffering and poverty.
When the products of the countryside such as coffee, sugar and bananas are not used to feed our own people, but placed in the hands of Yankee imperial-~ ists, they mean economic ruin and starvation. The Latin-American bourgeoisie and Yankee imperialism are growing rich off the hunger and poverty of the millions of people of the Americas. And they resort to any and all means to perpetuate this regime of exploitation: from sham assistance programs to the massacre of workers and farmers. And if all else fails, there is always the armed intervention of imperialisn.
First they trot out "economic assistance" programs, and when these are unmasked for what they are -- subtle means of economic domination -- something more refined but just as hypocritical is brought forth: the Alliance for Progress. And the Latin-American bourgeoisie bows shameless-— ly to the new commands from its imperialist masters. And since such fables serve this exploiting class as well, the bourgeoisie plots right along with the imperialists, proclaiming changes and reforms bedecked with democratic trappings.
But the situation does not improve; it grows worse for the peoples of Latin America. The crumbs which the imperialists offer in an attempt to quiet the peoples cannot hold back their discontent.
The most reactionary sectors of the oligarchies come to power, and military gorillas or new-style civilian strongmen appear in those countries where imperialism is attempting to oppress the people through force. Repression is on the increase and the constant threat of armed intervention hovers over such countries.
And this has unleashed a revolutionary wave. As oppression becomes more ruthless, the peoples become more revolutionary. And to fight in a revolutionary way does not consist in bending before Yankee might, but rather facing up to fighting and defeating it.
Even before this situation became quite as clear as it is today, the heroic Cuban people threw off the same yoke that weighs down upon the rest of America. The triumph of the Cuban Revolution, its example and historic significance, marked the beginning of a new stage in the strug-~ gle: this time the decisive stage. For the Cuban Revolution has brought new fighting methods to the revolutionary struggle in the Americas.
And the awakening of the peoples which began with the Cuban Revolution is now manifest in other nations.
In Colombia, a nation with a tradition of struggle going back many years, revolutionary experience has crystallized into revolutionary armed struggle.
This new concept has come to the fore as a burning need of the people: the need to organize themselves and destroy the power of the exploiters.
The National Liberation Army (ELN) came into being as a direct product of this need, as a force prepared to carry on revolutionary warfare until final victory. We believe this to be the correct path,
and therefore follow it and proclaim it to our people.
Our experience, our own growth, has confirmed our views.
In Guatemala, as a result of the conditions forced upon the people by the oligarchy and imperialism, the popular revolutionary forces have created the FAR (Rebel Armed Forces), which has successfully advanced the armed struggle and day by day continues to hit hard against the reactionary troops. . In Venezuela the FALN (Armed Forces of National Liberation), under the leadership of Comrade Douglas Bravo, and the MIR (Movement of the Revolutionary Left) have advanced greatly, basing themselves on a correct conception of revolutionary struggle, truly prepared to wage an armed struggle for the liberation of Venezuela.
And in other countries as well, revolutionary movements have shaken off temporary difficulties which hampered them and have today launched their revolutionary armed fight. ;
An entire continent is making ready for the great armed struggle of liberation, a battle to be waged against the exploitation of the oligarchies and imperialist domination.
Imperialism, of course, will not let itself be taken off guard. Preparations are being made to savagely suppress the people's liberation movement. The Inter-American Defense Council and the Inter-American Peace Force are instruments of aggression being prepared by the imperialists for use against the peoples of the Americas.
Revolutionaries must answer this campaign by uniting all truly revolutionary movements. But such unity must be sought on a solid basis, on the basis of the stand each takes against imperialisn.
And the only correct stand to take against the imperialists is that of being prepared to fight, to confront the eneny with arms.
We, of the ELN, who are fighting against the enemies of the people with weapons in our hands, and who are determined not to relinquish our weapons until final and decisive victory is ours, will always stand beside true revolutionaries, those who in Guatemala, Venezuela or any other country are making a positive contribution to the liberation of the Americas. We consider such men our true conrades-in-arms and we declare our most fervent solidarity with then.
The revolutionary situation in the continent is forcing the oligarchies into their final critical stage. The oligarchies seek a way out of this crisis by turning to groups which might possibly give them a democratic fagade, an appearance of independence from Yankee domination. In such maneuvers they have even asked for econonmic assistance from countries of the socialist camp.
We feel that any aid whatsoever from the socialist camp for countries such as Colombia -- where aid is projected for Lleras Restrepo's ruling oligarchy -- will only serve to give those in power more resources with which to crush the revolutionary struggle. This is hardly a consequent [consistent] way to help oppressed peoples win their liberation from the exploiting oligarchies and imperialist domination.
Consequent with our position and revolutionary concepts, we consider that the position adopted by the Revolutionary Government of Cuba, as expressed by Major Fidel Castro on March 13, to be correct and appropriate. Moreover, we consider those statements concerning revolutionary tactics and strategy, as well as the general position of Revolutionary Cuba in relation to revolutionary struggle in the Americas to be quite correct. We also believe that the Cuban Revolution has every right to unmask its detractors, as well as those who pass themselves off as a revolutionary party.