Foro de São Paulo has ideological links with leftist guerrillas

The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) played a prominent role in the past and are still an official member of the Foro de São Paulo, the group that brings together more than 120 leftist parties in Latin America. Other guerrilla groups, such as Colombia’s National Liberation Army (ELN) and Chile’s Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR), receive political support from the entity, which holds its annual meeting this week in Brasilia.

Foro de São Paulo was founded by Cuban dictator Fidel Castro (1926-2016) in partnership with President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in the 1990s, shortly after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The official objective of the organization is to integrate peoples from Latin America and the Caribbean, but in practice it functions as a brotherhood of rulers, politicians and activist organizations in the name of a left-wing political project for the subcontinent.

When speaking at the opening of the São Paulo Forum meeting this Thursday (30), Lula reinforced the group’s orientation. “Being called a socialist or a communist makes us proud and, sometimes, we know that we deserve to be called that”, stated the president of Brazil.

The link between the Foro de São Paulo and the FARC was made official in the minutes of the 1997 annual meeting, held in Porto Alegre. In the document, the Marxist guerrilla group is described as a “nucleus of opposition against the imperialist ambitions” of the United States.

“The core of opposition to US imperialist ambitions is located in the countryside: in Brazil the Landless Movement, in Mexico, the Zapatistas in Chiapas, the EPR [guerrilha mexicana] in Guerrero [Estado do México] and peasant movements in Oaxaca [Estado do México]. The most important opposition, however, is found in Colombia with the FARC and its 20,000 guerrillas, with a presence and influence extended to more than 600 of the country’s 1,200 municipalities.

Foro de São Paulo also criticizes the fight made by the then Colombian president Ernesto Semper against the FARC and against Colombian drug trafficking. For the entity founded in São Paulo, the fight would be a North American plan to interfere in the relationship between the criminal organization and the coca producing peasants.

Farcs remain active and linked to drug trafficking, say analysts

The FARC made a peace deal with the Colombian government and became a political party called Comunes in 2016. According to government data, the conflict with the FARC resulted in 220,000 deaths in 52 years, before the alleged armistice.

However, a part of the guerrilla force was not part of the negotiation that earned the then president of Colombia, Juan Manuel Santos, the Nobel Peace Prize. One of the largest splinter groups today calls itself the “Central General Staff”.

“What is not said, but is clear in my opinion, is that an agreement was made ‘for the English to see’. Some weapons were delivered, usually the worst. At the same time, several armed groups did not sign the agreement, remaining active and controlling territories, being cynically called dissidents,” said military analyst Fernando Montenegro, an army reserve colonel and author of the book “Kid Preto – Irregular Warfare and the Historical Evolution of Special Operations in the Brazilian Army” (Ed. Ubook, 2021).

Analyzing the situation of the FARC, or Comuna, in Colombia, the coordinator of the Political Sciences course at the Catholic University of Pernambuco (Unicap), Thales Castro, commented on his experience in the country and the population’s perception of the peace agreement:

“I’ve been to Colombia a few times. The last time was in May 2018. At that moment, I was already listening to the academic world, I was both in the capital and in Cartagena, and everyone said that that agreement was not what it seemed. The weapons were not laid down and the FARC did not cease to act, even if indirectly.

“The FARC entered the political game and had important electoral victories. There was indeed some pro-armistice movement, return of occupied zones and return of prisoners. But the link with the narco economy remains. This has already been evidenced by international observers. The modus operandi has not changed. It is a group that cannot stay alive through political means alone,” he said.

“The FARC have existed since 1964. Initially they were a subversive organization with a communist ideological stamp and sponsored by communist countries. In the early 1990s, they lost economic support from the Soviet Union and began to guarantee their financing with money from illegal mining and drugs. The biggest impact was that they took over from the Colombian cartels in Cali and Medellin and became narcoguerrillas,” Montenegro said.

The reserve colonel stated that there is a strong ideological connection between the Foro de São Paulo and the FARC, but not direct support.

“The FARC predates the São Paulo Forum. I do not believe that the São Paulo Forum is directly responsible for the perpetuation of the FARC, but it contributes insofar as there is a synergy of all the tribes that worship Marxism, Leninism, Maoism, gramiscism and other aspects that preach the occupation of power by the left”, said Montenegro.

“Fidel Castro would be the Messiah adored by the São Paulo Forum. Hugo Chavez (1954-2013) would have been one of his apostles and the others want to be recognized in the same line. The Forum is a place where they monitor this project of power and help each other,” said the analyst.

Foro de São Paulo supported ELN and MIR guerrillas

Other guerrilla organizations have also gained support from the Foro de São Paulo in the past. They are the National Liberation Army of Colombia (ELN) and the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR) of Chile.

The ELN became known, as did the FARC, for its guerrilla activities against the Colombian government. Unlike the MIR, it is no longer part of the list of official members of the São Paulo Forum, but it gained extensive mention in the group’s documents. One of them was the fact that the organization classified the guerrilla movement as “democratic” on the occasion of the death of its commander Manuel Pérez Martínez in 1998.

Pérez was considered the greatest terrorist in the country’s history, being responsible for more than 500 attacks against oil infrastructure.

“The VIII Meeting of the Forum of São Paulo (1998), expresses its condolences to the comrades of the UCLN of Colombia, on the death of comrade Manuel Pérez, General Commander of that organization and historical figure of the revolution and democratic struggles in Colombia, during the last decades ”, says the minutes of the occasion.

In March 2023, the criminal organization killed nine Colombian Army soldiers. Eight other soldiers were injured.

The MIR was responsible for the kidnapping of businessman Abílio Diniz in December 1989. Among the 10 kidnappers were five Chileans, two Argentines, two Canadians and one Brazilian. The kidnapping lasted 36 hours and was led by the Argentine Humberto Paz and his brother Horácio. Both had links to various terrorist groups in Latin America.

They had previously carried out terrorist acts on behalf of groups such as the Argentine People’s Army (ERP), the Popular Forces for the Liberation of El Salvador (FPL), Peru’s Sendero Luminoso, and the Chilean branch of the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR). The five Chileans were Ulisses Gallardo Acevedo, Pedro Lembach, Héctor Ramón Tapia, Sérgio Olivares and Maria Marchi Badilla

In the same 1998 minutes, the Forum showed solidarity with the group and demanded that the Brazilian government recognize them as political prisoners.

The annual meeting of the São Paulo Forum takes place until Sunday (2) at a hotel in Brasília.