Oliver Stone was left with the proverbial egg on face when a highly publicized “hostage release” of a two woman and a child, a son “conceived by one with a captor” were to be released into the waiting arms of Venezuela’s left wing president Chavez.
Whoops. Turns out the boy was a foster child in Bogata…and the FARC didn’t bother to mention that little fact.
But their lies don’t matter to true believers: Oliver Stone blames Bush, of course, for a war that started when Bush was fingerpainting in Kindergarten, and then insists:
Every Colombian that I spoke to was scared of the military in some way or another; they’re the most dangerous people, not the Farc.’
Hmm…wonder who he’s been talking to? The families of the 40 journalists killed for exposing the drug trade? The one million Colombians who protested FARC’s killing of innocent prisoners last year?
Or maybe he should talk to a feminist who would point out that a woman imprisoned cannot consent to sexual intercourse with her captors: Like having sex with a priest or one’s psychiatrist, there is a strong implication of coercion that makes consent void.
And of course, the fact that FARC is a major user of civilian killing land mines is fine with Stone.
Oh, but to the elitist Stone, kidnapping ordinary people don’t matter.
Farc is fighting back as best it can and grabbing hostages is the fashion in which they can finance themselves and try to achieve their goals, which are difficult. They’re a peasant army; I see them as a Zapata-like army. I think they are heroic to fight for what they believe in and die for it, as was Castro in the hills of Cuba.’
Ah, but Oliver: they kill hostages, don’t ya know? And now they are finding it hard to kidnap rich businessmen, they are going after low level civil servants and small businessmen…and they are starting to kidnap children.…2500 over the last 12 years, and 60 last year alone.
Drug money, robbery, and kidnapping have long fueled this insurgency. Peasants are killed by both sides, and often flee out of fear. But the main ones who suffered were the middle class.
Stone’s blindness to the criminal elements of these left wing groups suggest stupidity or delusion. Heck, even Chavez isn’t that stupid.
Chavez, a self proclaimed heir to Castro, helped FARC by ignoring their presence along his border, but now faces growing violence in that region. What better way to enhance his image (and lower his problems) than start a truce between FARC and the increasingly hard line Uribe government?
Chavez’ list probably went like this:
one:get a truce going,
two:rescue some hostages a la Jesse Jackson,
Three: have it filmed by an adoring leftist film director Oliver Stone and
four: voila: Revolutionay theatre, proclaiming him as savior.
The UK Guardian describes it this way:
If Farc was willing to make this gesture, many believed, it could pave the way for a broader agreement for the release of all 46 hostages, including French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt, three American defence contractors and dozens of local politicians and military and police officers.
But this is nonsense. It ignores the other 3000 plus hostages who are “below the radar” for those who write newspapers. It also ignores that there have been many truces and amnesties.
The last truce ended up with FARC getting their own mini state, and merely increasing their ability to regroup and train new recruits, paid for by the drug farms and factories in their safe zone. That’s why the president of Colombia says no to the latest demands.
And there is another factor in Uribe’s refusal to go along with a safe zone: Human nature.
Leftists in the US and Europe romanticize the “rebels” as hard core true believers, but most are just normal guys who joined to run around carrying guns and do something useful; with time, marriage, and kids, a lot prefer to settle down, which is why amnesties work. But leaving a revolution can be risky (as mass graves of those attempting to leave the NPA here in the Philippines show).
Safe zones mean you don’t have to chose between your family(and maybe getting shot as a traitor) and remaining in the rebellion, and anyway,guarding drug fields is an easier and more lucrative job than cutting sugar cane.
Without this murderous group, the economy of Colombia, with it’s growing middle class and numerous small independent farmers, could thrive.
There are atrocities on all sides, but for Stone and his ilk to ignore the murderous war of FARC against the middle class of Colombia ignores the reality of that civil war.
————————————-
Nancy Reyes is a retired physician living in the rural Philippines. Her website is Finest Kind Clinic and Fishmarket.
She has relatives in rural Colombia.
4 users commented in " Oliver Stone supports kidnapping and murder "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackThank you for your well thought out commentary. I am here in Colombia and will attest to the facts you have spoken of.
I’m from Colombia and you’re right on the money. If Stone spent less time talking to FARC sympathizers and Hugo Chavez, he would realize that most of Colombia condemns the FARC and praises the government’s ability to fight back against this terrorist group.
Oiver Stone’s assertion that Hugo Chavez is a man of law and a good leader are not only ignorant, but absurd. Chavez has curtailed freedom of speech and eliminated the judiciary’s independence. Venezuela now has the hemisphere’s highest inflation rate and due to Chavez’s imposed price controls, the country has food shortages on even the most basic foods such milk, meat, and sugar. Caracas, Venezulas’s capital, is now filled with crime – even garbage goes uncollected. If Chavez is the type of leader Oliver Stone wants, then maybe he should leave his cozy little mansion in California and move to caracas.
I am almost 100% sure that his real purpose is to “prepare” the American and European mass of moviegoers for a future film project that would for sure involve the “heroic” FARC leaders in a plot where they, ( the FARC) are saved by the leader of a neighboring country (read Chavez) that is forced to invade Colombia to help them against the “empire” (read USA/Colombia). A stupid movie based only in science fiction and taking advantage of the little or no real knowledge of our situation.
Stone has no right to use the blood of thousands of innocent Colombians for his commercial purposes.
It is sad that this group of Drug dealers and Terrorists can receive the support of a “President” like Chavez, but even more sad is that our dead brothers, killed by the land mines or bombs that the FARC uses, will now be the “stars” in a future movie. They will act for free. And even more will die if people like Stone keeps helping them.
Mr. Stone, your dollars are going to be tinted with our blood….
Oliver Stone is a really irresponsible and a ignorant person, how you can call FARC “farmers fighting a desperate battle against highly financed, American-supported forces” Are you Insane Mr?? maybe you still think we speak Colombian and we still live in trees right? As a Colombian I inform you that FARC kidnap children from 9 years old to force them into soldiers. Those are the “Farmers” fighting against a “regime” some of this children can escape after years or horror, some of them are captured and executed. “Yes Children being Executed by FARC” This is only one of the atrocities committed by FARC.
Please Mr, educate your self before making another film.
Leave A Reply