As part of a worldwide mobilization against the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), Colombian citizens residing in the Boston area, organized a major rally in front of Boston City Hall today. An estimated 800 hundred protesters, according to the organizers, turned out for the event. Unsurprisingly, it went completely unnoticed by the local mainstream media: The Superbowl final and Super Tuesday were the headliners of the day.A few of us Venezuelans attended the rally in solidarity with our Colombian sisters and brothers who are fed up with the never ending cycle of violence perpetuated by a war between the Colombian government and a guerrilla group that has lost any credibility whatsoever in terms of their original socialist ideology and are basically just interested in running the very lucrative Colombian drug trade, resorting to kidnappings (they are currently holding over 700 people hostage) and assassinations to maintain their political bargaining power.
The spillover effect of this conflict into Venezuela should not be underestimated as reported by the Guardian yesterday in a chilling article, Revealed: Chávez role in the cocaine trail to Europe.
On a side note, today's worldwide rally was originally conceived by a Colombian citizen with no experience in politics who had the idea to use Facebook, a social networking site, to rally support for the cause and nearly 100,000 people in 165 cities around the world signed up.
So, in the spirit of Facebook and of all the virtual social networks out there, we would like to announce the creation of our very own Facebook page which you are cordially invited to visit and, hopefully, will be interested in joining as a friend.
Also, if you want to see more photos of today's rally, click here.
Tags:
marcha contra las FARC
