ISL Statement: We Denounce Serious Fascist Threats Against Student Organizations and Activists in Colombia

On March 2, the fascist organization Autodefensas Gaitanistas de Colombia issued a statement in the province of Antioquia threatening to “exterminate” a list of student organizations and activists, including comrades of our organization, in pursuit of their “commitment” to “free Colombia of the communist plague”. The statement warns that it has “identified” activists and lists a series of organizations and activists, threatening them: “don your uniform for war or die as civilians”. This very serious threat, the third one involving our comrades in the last year, is part of a policy of persecution and intimidation by paramilitary gangs and right-wing sectors against the student movement and the mobilized youth that comes from leading a year of struggles and a historic general strike in conjunction with the Colombian working class. These fascist gangs operate with the protection and encouragement of the repressive policy of Iván Duque´s neo-liberal government. These attacks are part of a “preventive” orientation of the bourgeoisie to try to weaken one of the most active sectors in Latin America and around the world against the IMF´s austerity plans and puppet governments: the youth.

We denounce this very serious threat; we stand in solidarity with the organizations and activists that have been threatened; we hold Duque´s government and the university authorities responsible for the safety of the threatened comrades; and we make the widest international call to all human rights organizations, trade unions and student organizations, left and democratic organizations and individuals to condemn this fascist threat and surround the Colombian comrades with solidarity.

March 3, 2020