War Vocation in the “Peace Zone”

War Vocation in the "Peace Zone"

Cubanet, Miriam Celaya, Havana, 31 May 2017 — A brief note published by
the official Cuban press reports the meeting held by "General of the
Army Raúl Castro Ruz" with "the Chief of the Revolutionary Armed Forces
of Colombia-People's Army, Timoleón Jiménez" (FARC-EP), where the former
"ratified the willingness of the Cuban government to continue supporting
the Colombian peace process."

For an untrained reader, the aforementioned comment was just a note as
insubstantial as so many others that are so abundant in the Castro media
monopoly. However, the maculae are evident, even though their deeper
meaning remains hidden.

In fact, some aspects are provocative and some are incongruous. Let's
say, if the FARC is the "People's Army," who does the Colombian
constitutional army belong to? Isn't it the true and legitimate army of
all the citizens of that country?

Another interesting matter would be to understand why the Cuban leader,
who in this case presents himself with all his warlike attributes of
"Army General," despite having diplomatic relations with the
democratically elected government of Colombia, hosts, in the company of
his brand-new chancellor, Bruno Rodríguez, the individual who still
qualifies as "Head of the FARC," that is to say, the "Chief" of an
illegal "armed force" that supposedly is currently in the process of
disarmament under the Peace Accords signed in Havana specifically with
the legitimate government of Colombia.

As is often the case when scoundrels meet, something is afoot… and it
smells bad. Especially when Latin America is experiencing a period
marked by the loss of political power of the radical left in various
countries, allies of the Castro regime, and when the most irrational
(and important) pupil of the Castro regime, Nicolás Maduro, tries to
stay afloat on a piece of wood in a violent sea in the middle of the
biggest socioeconomic and political crisis that Venezuela has ever suffered.

All this leads us directly to question the usefulness of this regional
fiction called CELAC (Community of Latin American and Caribbean States),
one of whose most proclaimed "achievements" during its Second Summit,
held in Havana in January 2014, was declaring this a Peace Zone, in
order to promote cooperation and maintain peace and security at all
levels among its member countries.

Beyond the political intentions and the (always sterile) desire to
consolidate a regional alliance that confronts economic crises and
promotes development, CELAC has been characterized, since its creation
in February 2010, by a large package of intentions and declarations in
the face of a scant list of results.

In that sense, the declaration of "Peace Zone" is one of the most
illustrative examples of this organism's alienation, first because it
was a peace invoked in a conclave whose host country not only envelops
longest dictatorship in the hemisphere, which systematically violates
the human rights of its own people and applies violence against any sign
of political dissent or social discontent, but for decades has been
dedicated to sustaining and spurring numerous armed conflicts in the
region, through the training of guerrillas, and through logistical
support and the mobilization of armed troops in conflict zones.

The intrusion of the Palace of the Revolution into the internal problems
of several countries in the hemisphere is so common that it could be
said that the hand of the Castro regime has intervened to some extent in
each and every one of them, whether as a puppet of the Soviet Union and
as the spreader of the germs of that disease called "Marxism-Leninism"
that it futilely attempted to impose in Latin America and the Caribbean,
or more recently, as a survival strategy in the face of the failure of
the experiments of left-wing governments, allies of the Castro and
Chávez regimes.

A brief and incomplete account of the Cuban presence (interference) in
internal crises of this region's other nations shows that it covers an
immensely greater geographical extension of the territory in the
archipelago under the dominion of Castro, and includes ideologies of the
most diverse hues.

Suffice it to recall the Castro regime's imprint on the guerrillas in
Bolivia, Colombia, El Salvador, or Nicaragua; its participation in the
Chilean crisis that ended with the fall of President Salvador Allende;
the unusual support for the military junta headed by Leopoldo Galtieri
during the Las Malvinas Crisis (1982), settled with an overwhelming
defeat for Argentina and a high human and moral cost to that nation;
Grenada's brief and unsuccessful adventure under the Government of
Maurice Bishop; the close and suspicious relations with the former
Panamanian President Manuel Antonio Noriega, confessed drug trafficker
and great "friend of Cuba," whose name was not mentioned again in the
official Cuban media after his fall from grace, except to announce his
death this Tuesday, May 30. And, more recently, from the beginning of
the 21st century, the icing on the cake: Venezuela, where the Castros'
penetration has truly metastasized and today monitors and protects the
bloody repression of the regime of Nicolás Maduro against his people.

But, ignoring historical examples, the convulsive Latin American reality
is far from the much vaunted regional "peace." The ongoing conflict
between Bolivia and Chile, the endless Brazilian corruption scandal that
has sprinkled dozens of politicians in the region, the violence of drug
and human trafficking that sows uncertainty and crime at the borders and
among the population, tensions Between Venezuela and Colombia, the
persistence of the paramilitary in Colombia against the controversial
Peace Agreements between the government and the FARC, and the tensions
in Venezuela, where government repression against street demonstrations
provokes a decisive scenario where the survival of democracy or the
final consolidation of a dictatorship supported from Havana is resolved.

And, while this vertiginous whirlwind continues to spin in the "Peace
Zone," the Cuban General-President moves gently in his tropical oasis
while he manages the diplomatic lobbies that allow him to recognize the
civilized world and the secret warrior intrigues. The strategy of Raul's
regime now consists in wearing the chic suit of a democrat. Under it,
however, the green stitches of his old suit as heir-dictator of war
continue to tenaciously peek out.

Translated by Norma Whiting

Source: War Vocation in the "Peace Zone" – Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/war-vocation-in-the-peace-zone/