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UNCLAS BOGOTA 010474 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PTER PGOV PREL MARR CO
SUBJECT: FARC PUBLISHES OPEN LETTER TO PROMINENT AMERICANS 
 
REF: BOGOTA 10337 
 
¶1.  On November 9, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia 
(FARC) posted a letter to prominent Americans on its website 
(www.farcep.org).  The letter, entitled, "Open Letter to the 
People of the United States,"  was addressed to academics 
James Petras and Noam Chomsky, political figures Jesse 
Jackson and Angela Davis, and media personalities Michel 
(sic) Moore, Oliver Stone, and Denzel Washington. 
 
¶2.  Begin informal Embassy translation of FARC letter: 
 
Open Letter to the People of the United States 
 
Mr. James Petras 
Mr. Noam Chomsky 
Mr. Jesse Jackson 
Ms. Angela Davis 
Mr. Michel Moore 
Mr. Oliver Stone 
Mr. Denzel Washington 
 
We turn to you, as representative intellectuals and symbols 
of respected thought of the country of George Washington, 
Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King, to address, through 
you, the people of the United States calling upon you to 
influence your rulers for the future of peace, justice and 
fraternity of all the people in the world. 
 
On February 2003, the combat intelligence airplane manned by 
U.S. citizens Thomas Howes, Keith Stansell and Mark 
Gonsalves, was shot down by FARC guerrillas on Colombian 
soil, on the folds of the eastern Mountain range that extends 
towards Caqueta.  The three were legitimately taken prisoner, 
while engaged in an act of war amidst an armed conflict in 
which the FARC-the People,s Army-and the Colombian State are 
fighting for power. 
 
Howes, Stansell and Gonsalves are alive in our custody, 
treated with respect and dignity in the jungle.  They are the 
only North American prisoners of war alive in the world. 
 
Washington has invested billions of dollars in the framework 
of the South Command (sic) Patriot Plan, attempting a 
dangerous and senseless military rescue.  That same attitude 
from President Uribe caused the recent and regrettable death 
of a former defense minister, a governor and 8 soldiers.  In 
fact, during these three long years the American prisoners 
have been subjected to unnecessary risks due to military 
operations seeking to free them through blood and fire.  For 
this reason we cannot include in this letter evidence of 
their survival that could bring, at least, a little peace of 
mind to their relatives, but we promise to do so in due time. 
 
To the people of the United States, we ask for your always 
generous solidarity, to pressure President Bush and his 
Government to change their attitude in favor of an exchange 
of prisoners of war in Colombia, or a humanitarian exchange 
as the Narino Palace prefers to call it.  We must win this 
battle of humanity that can also open paths for peace with 
social justice in this country. 
 
Unfortunately, the hot-headed way in which President Uribe 
has handled the situation has sown the road with obstacles. 
Today, when great expectations have arisen over the swap of 
prisoners in Colombia, Uribe has rushed to say that an 
eventual exchange could not include the guerrillas  "Simon 
Trinidad" and "Sonia" because they are in the hands of 
American justice. 
 
Simon Trinidad, the FARC,s political spokesman during peace 
talks with the Pastrana Government in the Caguan, was 
extradited to the United States under false charges and dirty 
lies from Colombian military intelligence and the Fiscalia 
(Prosecutor General's Office) that can never hide the 
retaliatory nature of that decision. 
 
On Sonia,s national ID card, noble country guerrilla, was 
stamped the fingerprint of a drug trafficker and they even 
changed her name in order to extradite her. 
 
When she arrived in the United States she was confined for 
six months in a dark punishment hole.  Simon has remained 
constantly chained and isolated and has been denied the right 
of legal defense before a foreign court that neither speaks 
his language nor has the right to try him. Even though he's 
not a member of the Supreme FARC Secretariat, the authorities 
treacherously present him as such in order to link him to an 
invented criminal conspiracy among which above all is 
terrorism. 
 
These actions intend to weaken the FARC's resistance to the 
policy of neo-liberal re-colonization and the dominance of 
the empire in Our America, that of the South.  Simon and 
Sonia were extradited to the United States in violation of 
the Constitional guarantee which prohibits permanently the 
extradition of Colombian citizens for political reasons. 
 
It is our heartfelt wish that this exchange can put an end to 
the long captivity of the prisoners under the control of the 
contending parties, including Simon, Sonia, Howes, Stansell 
and Gonsalves. Unless the governments of Colombia and the 
United States have another reasonable option regarding these 
prisoners to which the FARC agrees.  What is important is 
that all of them regain their freedom. 
 
To Noam Chomsky, to James Petras and to the people of the 
United States and Colombia, we invite you to raise this just 
banner of exchange and peace, that at the same time supports 
a political and diplomatic solution of the conflict.  As we 
have said in a recent public communication addressed to the 
Colombian military, "social programs, structural changes, 
peace agreements are more effective and powerful than bullets 
and operations." 
 
We would like to see a change of attitude in Washington,s 
government. Instead of characterizing the FARC as a terrorist 
organization, with the slimy purpose of delegitimizing a 
political organization and at the same time justifying its 
intervention in an internal conflict, think about the 
universal right of the people to rise up against unjust and 
oppressive regimes. Simon Bolivar the Liberator has taught us 
that "social individuals can conspire against any 
proscriptive law that has been twisted" and "when power is 
oppressive, virtue has the right to annihilate it". "The 
virtuous man rises against oppressive and unbearable 
authority in order to replace it with respected and kind 
authority." 
 
We have confidence in the actions of the thoughtful people 
who love peace that live beyond the Rio Bravo, who are 
seeking to resolve in a civilized way the conflicts of the 
world and the hemisphere taking into account the dignity of 
the people. 
 
Receive our best regards, 
 
Sincerely yours, 
 
FARC-EP, International Commission 
Raul  Reyes, member of the Secretariat 
The Colombian Mountains, October 2006 
 
End informal Embassy translation of FARC letter. 
 
WOOD