COLOMBIA a
ORE than sixteen thousand
Government troops supported by U.S. planes have failed to wipe out the Colombian guerrillas in Marquetalia. Marquetalia, which covers about 1,800 square miles in the mountainous areas in Tolima province, is a base built by peasant-guerrillas who withdrew there in 1951. The operation against Marquetalia which started on May 18th was commanded directly by the U.S. military mission. The U.S. provided 17 million dollars for the operation at the very beginning. But the people of Marquetalia fought courageously against the Government troops. Fortifying themselves with a network of trenches, bunkers and traps, the guerrillas often ambushed the enemy and inflicted heavy casualties on him. In August alone 222 Government troops were killed or wounded. The guerrillas hit a helicopter in mid-October, wounding the three officers aboard, including Colonel Hernando Correa Cubiees, who was commanding the operation against Marquetalia. The blows dealt at the Government troops had so shaken their morale that one of their detachments, after a period of rest and training in the rear, refused to return to Marquetalia to fight the guerrillas. The political work of the Marquetalia guerrillas has also made much headway. The guerrilla headquarters issued a statement on July 2oth calling for the: establishment of the broadest possible united front, the overthrow of the present Government and the forming of a democratic Government for national liberation. The land amme contained in the statement stipulates that all big estates and every piece of land seized by U.S. imperialism under any excuse should be confiscated and distributed free to the peasants, Six guerrilla movements of the southern group held a meeting from September 15th to 2oth and adopted a resolution which pointed out that the battle of Marquetalia had opened a new stage in the Colombian revolutionary struggle. The struggle of Marquetalia peasants has enjoyed the support of all Colombian people. Many “committees in defence of Marquetalia” have been established.