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Demonstration Opposes FARC

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By JOSE PATINO GIRONA, The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 2, 2008

Updated: 01/31/2008 06:11 pm

TAMPA - Bruno Giraldo and Carlos Castro met in January and formed a quick bond, connected by passion for their native Colombia and disgust for the rebels accused of terrorism and kidnappings there.

As part of a worldwide demonstration Monday against the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as FARC, Giraldo and Castro have organized a noon protest at the Cancer Survivors Plaza at the northeast corner of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Dale Mabry Highway.

"The goal is to demonstrate to the whole world and community that we are not with FARC," said Giraldo, 28, who is in the master's biomedical engineering program at the University of South Florida.

Both men said the campaign to create a unified voice was launched when Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez urged the Colombian government recently to accept FARC as legitimate. The leftist rebel group has opposed the government since the 1960s.

"That last drop was Chavez, when he said they are not terrorists," said Castro, a Riverview resident who owns Smart Moving, an Orlando-based residential and commercial moving business.

"Colombian people are more united than before," he said. "Colombian people are against the war, against the FARC."

Castro was sales manager for a Colombian airline from 1997 to 1999. FARC was putting a lot of pressure on the government and businesses. No one was investing, and foreign corporations were pulling out, he said. There was high unemployment, economic insecurity and increasing violence.

Castro came to the United States in 1999 and said he returns to Colombia two to three times a year. He said it has been getting safer under President Alvaro Uribe.

"When he came in power, we felt hope," Castro said.

With an estimated 10,000 guerrillas, FARC has taken more than 700 hostages, including three U.S. citizens whose plane crashed in 2003 as they performed anti-drug operations.

Giraldo, who has been in Tampa for eight years and earned a bachelor's in industrial engineering from USF, said the rebels made it difficult for his family to run their cattle farm from 1988 to 2001. His family had to abandon land because of threats by FARC and fears of kidnapping.

Giraldo and Castro hope FARC's days are numbered and that the demonstration energizes the people who oppose the rebels.

"We are tired of all the lies and all the atrocities," Giraldo said.

IF YOU GO

WHAT: local demonstration against the rebel group Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia; part of a protest in more than 150 cities worldwide.

WHEN: noon Monday

WHERE: Cancer Survivors Plaza, northeast corner of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Dale Mabry Highway; parking at Al Lopez Park, 4810 N. Himes Ave.

CONTACT: Carlos Castro at (813) 531-3512 or nomasfarc tampabay@gmail.com

WEB SITE: www.colombiasoy yo.org

Information from the Associated Press was used in this report. Reporter Jose Patino Girona can be reached at (813) 835-2110 or jpatino@tampatrib.com.

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