COLOMBIAN GOVERNMENT DISCOVERS "COMMUNIST PLOT"
The government of Colombia announced discovery of a "Communist plot" August 2. Since these are being discovered by one dictatorial government after another in Latin America, to the great satisfaction of the Johnson administration which is bolstering these foul military regimes with guns and dollars, the news created little stir. The "plot" nevertheless did offer some novel features, testifying to the fertility of the brains that conceived it.
It was, of course, on a "nationwide scale," but instead of: being hatched in Moscow, it was "fomented by the pro-Chinese Colombian Communists,"
The plot involved attacking both buildings and officials in the three main cities of Bogotd, Popaydn and Barranquilla, The aim was to "create a climate of insecurity which would be superimposed on the delicate political climate and economic difficulties" current in Colombia such as unemployment, lack of basic necessities and a decline in imports due to lack of foreign exchange. Two new guer= rilla areas would also be opened in addition to those already troubling the government,
"This plan," said Major General Gerardo Ayerbe Chaux, “was hatched at Soacha, a town located 30 kilometers from Bogotd, and was conceived by pro-Chinese Communists, some members of the MOEC [Workers, Students and Peasants Movement] and the JMRL [Youth of the Revolutionary Liberal Movement]. To this should be added the pro=Chinese Communists of Ecuador, Chile, Peru and Venezuela. It envisaged creating an Army of National Liberation, 'spearhead' of the future movement, and the intensification of links and common action with the Venezuelan ALN [Army of National Liberation]..."
The funds to carry out the plot, said the general, were to come from China, Albania and likewise Algeria [1!].
As a result of the timely discovery of the "plot," said the general, twenty arrests had been made in Bogotd and Barranquilla and caches of arms had been discovered in the province of Antioquia, The names of the victims imprisoned by the political police were not revealed,
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ANGOLAN