Colombia: Guerrilla Group's Peace Negotiation Rap Video

The Colombian government has accepted the start of peace talks with the longest lived guerrilla group in Latin America, FARC (Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces), and in response the group has released a musical rap video. [All links lead to Spanish sites unless otherwise stated]

In the video, two revolutionaries wearing Che Guevara shirts accompanied by other guerrilla members playing musical instruments, rap about going to Havana, Cuba, to negotiate with the government, but it will not be surrender or “rendition” . This is the first communication which has been released by FARC since the government's decision to go forth to the dialogue tables in Oslo and then Havana, to discuss the terms for peace.

The video, originally posted on the official FARC website, which has since been blocked, is accessible through the copy that Colombian radio channel La FM has uploaded. Lyrics can be found on the Uruguayan El Observador newspaper digital version, and Venezuelan media has also picked up the story, including a summary of FARC's history.

So far, not much can be found on Colombian mass media. Engolfados.com technology and information website wrote about the video in ‘FARC Video is all the rage on Internet':

La producción guerrillera fue posteada este lunes 3 de septiembre en el sitio web oficial de la guerrilla, justo una semana después de que se conocieran los acercamientos. No aparece en el cabezal de la página, ni en el recuadro superior derecho, donde suelen estar los partes de guerra o los comunicados. Hay que bajar casi hasta la mitad de la pantalla para encontrarlo. Lo titularon: Video por la paz.

The guerrilla's production was posted this Monday, September 3 on the guerrilla group's official website, just a week after the first steps towards peace talks. It doesn't show up on the page's header, nor in the upper righthand corner where the war reports or releases are usually placed. One has to go down almost to the middle of the screen to find it. It was called: Video for peace.

The lyrics from the El Observador Newspaper [es]:

Me voy para La Habana, esta vez a conversar
el burgués que nos buscabano nos pudo derrotar.
Me voy para La Habana, esta vez a conversar
con aquel que me acusaba de mentir sobre la paz.
Me voy para la Habana, supieran con qué emoción
me voy a conversar la suerte de mi nación.
A las FARC no nos vencieron porque hay un pueblo atrás.
Queremos que haya tierras para arar y ser normales.
Que se queden en la patria las riquezas naturales.
Poner freno al capital en su afán explotador.
Nuestros muertos van conmigo y el sentido del honor.
Ponte en pie mi pueblo amigo,
nunca habrá la rendición.

I'm going to Havana, this time to talk.
The bourgeoisie who was looking for us
was unable to defeat us.
I am going to Havana, this time to talk
with that one who acccused me of lying about peace.
I go to Havana, if you only knew my excitement.
I am going to discuss about the future of my nation.
FARC were not defeated because we have people behind us.
We want lands to farm and to be normal.
That the riches of the land stay inside our borders.
Stop the capital [city] in its exploring eagerness.
Our dead go with me and the sense of honor.
Stand up fellow friendly people,
there will never be surrender.

Comments on the video are rushing in. Many of them don't go beyond insults and critiques of the musical style, but others reflect a bit more. Some of those include this one by kamssun [es]:

Ese momento incómodo en el que te das cuenta que los guerrilleros, lejos de ser seres completamente malévolos, como nos los presentan los medios de comunicación, son más bien adolescentes despistados u.u

That uncomfortable moment when you realize that guerrilla members, far from being completely evil beings as the mass media shows them to us, are more like clueless teenagers. u.u

Jap0012 wrote as well [es], in response to violent reactions to the video and peace process:

que esten abriendo caminos para el dialogo demuestra que tienen intensiones [sic] para llegar a la paz, recuerde que esto es una guerra de colombianos contra colombianos y es algo terrible que aun despues de tanto tiempo tengamos tantas ganas de ver sangre.

That paths for dialogue are opening up shows that they have the intention of reaching peace, remember this is a war of Colombians against Colombians and it is terrible that even after all this time we are still so thirsty to see blood.

Kle0sify [es] said:

Es lo único que deberia hacer la guerrilla tratar de transmitir sus pensamientos de forma diferente, no matando,secuestrando,diciendo mentiras así hasta mas de uno acá sería guerrillero

It is the only thing the guerrillas should be doing, trying to transmit their thoughts in different ways, not by killing, kidnapping or telling lies so even people here would become guerrilla members
Colombian guerrillas sing rap inspired by forthcoming peace negotiations. Screencapture from video.

Colombian guerrillas sing rap inspired by forthcoming peace negotiations. Screencapture from video.

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