Tuesday, March 15, 2005

Brazil —Documents of the Brazilian Agency of intelligence (Abin) say that the Workers’ Party received 5 million dollars to be used by political campaign of candidates in 2002 from the Colombian communist armed group Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC-EP). The information was reported by the Brazilian magazine Veja that circulates this week in a headline story called “FARC’s tentacles in Brazil”.

According to the magazine, reporters had access to documents of Abin that described the liaisons between the Workers’ Party (PT) and the Colombian guerrilla movement FARC.

The Workers’ Party (PT) is the party of the Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. PT is one of the biggest left-wing parties in Latin America and at this moment the strongest and more organized party from Brazil. It is one of the political Brazilian parties that has the biggest and most active militancy.

Abin’s main document, number 0095/3100 of April 25, 2002, says that a meeting occurred on April 13, 2002, in a farm near Brasilia. The meeting lasted about 6 hours, there were approximately 30 persons, among them the father Olivério Medina, one of the representatives of the FARC in Brazil, and members of PT. A disguised Abin’s agent participated of this meeting and annoted everything.

According to the agent, during the meeting, father Medina announced that he would donate 5 million dollars for politicians’ electoral campaign of his choice.

Abin agency has six documents that describe the liaisons between PT and the FARC. Among the six documents, 3 of them say explicitly that 5 million dollars donation for PT’s candidates occurred. The money probably came from Trinidad and Tobago and went to 300 Brazilian businessmen who distributed the quantity among the party’s committees.

Another document says that the Brazilian Congress employee and former-militant of the Brazilian Communist Party (PCdoB), Maria das Graças organized the meetings with FARC members. She is considered a personal friend of the FARC commander knows as Mauricio. Maria said: “I know him [the commander Mauricio] off course, and so what? I did not organize any meeting.”

The militant Antonio Viana who was in the meeting said: “We have talked about everything, except money.”

The Colombian Radio Caracol says that, according to a research done by the Colombian government, the FARC invests next to 476 million pesos per years in activities in foreign countries. The official FARC representatives for this work are: [1] Luis Alberto Albán, Ovidio Salinas, Ricardo Morantes, Jairo Alfonso Lesmes, father Oliverio Medina, Jesús Carvajalino and Liliana López. Father Olivério Medina is the name of who would be responsible for the intermediation between members of political parties in Brazil and the FARC.

Sometime ago, the Brazilian Deputy Alberto Fraga (PTB) knew about the Abin’s investigation and denounced the scheme during a speech on the Brazilian Congress. In addition, he tried to open a commission to investigate the matter. Nevertheless he did not obtain support to open the commission. The PT deputy Luis Eduardo Grenhalg told him that he might be processed by government if he continued on commenting about the subject, says Fraga. Grenhalg says that he only suggested for Fraga not spreading informations that were not real.

The PSDB candidate José Serra tryed to talk about the FARC-PT liaison during the 2002 presidential campaign. However he was punished by the Electoral Court at that time.

The Workers’ Party (PT) released an official statement signed by the National President José Genoino repudiating the magazine’s article and denying all presented facts. Part of the note tells:

The party neither supports, in the neighboring country, any solution for the long situation of belligerence lived by Colombians who are not based on a democratic agreement, pacific and constitutional. The PT has historical position against the terrorism of State or armed groups. In addiction, there are several evidences that the PT politics is marked by respect to the self-determination of peoples and the sovereignty of nations, by a politic of not mediation in internal subjects of each country from any origin. Therefore, we would not accept, in any hypothesis, that our political life suffered the interference from foreign governments or groups of any origin.

The note says that the article is irresponsible, that it comments on facts without any sustentable evidence. It still says that the magazine denies itself when later in the text it affirms that it did not find any solid indication to proof that 5 million dollars were really sent to PT by the FARC.

The note affirms that this kind of insinuation is not new and the party was already a victim of it before. It says that during the 2002 presidential campaign the candidate José Serra (PSDB) was punished because his denunce was empty. The documents commented by the magazine date of April 25, 2002, epoch in which the Brazilian president was Fernando Henrique Cardoso. At that time there were many spies searching and collecting, like snakes, for situations that could prevent the free desire of the Brazilian people to vote for the changes.

Some members of the National Congress are trying to begin a official investigation.

This is the second time, this year, that a South American government is criticized for alleged supporting relations with the FARC. Last month, Colombia and Venezuela almost entered in a war because of the arrestment of the alleged FARC’s chancellor Rodrigo Granda. Colombia accused the government of Venezuela of giving protection and support to FARC’s guerrillas. Venezuela accused Colombia of hurting his sovereignty. The two countries only entered an agreement after the intervention of the president of Cuba Fidel Castro.

Also this is the second time, in less than a month, that a political party from South America is accused of implication with the FARC. On February, Paraguayan authorities discovered Cecilia Cubas Gusinky’s body, 31 years, daughter kidnapped of the former-president of Paraguay Raul Cubas in a hole, in Ñemby, 29 km from the capital Asuncion. Members of the party Pátria Livre were living in that place and they were considered to be the main suspects. Osmar Martínez, that belongs to the party, was arrested. According to the police, some time ago he had communicated by email with the FARC chancellor Rodrigo Granda. In a interview Martinez said that he supports a “brotherhood relation” with the FARC.