Library:First Public Communication

First Public Communication
Manuel Pérez, author.
Written by	Manuel Pérez
Written in	1979
Source	Memoirs - Manuel Pérez Martínez

First Public Communication

Manuel Pérez
1979

Message to the Colombian People.

From the Colombian mountains, I inform the people that the news that appeared in the mass media is false. I continue fighting with weapons in hand alongside my comrades and the people of Colombia. I follow the example of my brothers in the priesthood, Camilo Torres Restrepo, Domingo Laín, José Antonio Jiménez, and so many others who fell in Nicaragua, Guatemala, El Salvador; and of my working-class brothers, peasants, students, and professors who fell in the struggle for national liberation and the construction of socialism.

The news that I have invited the comrades of the Camilo Torres Restrepo Front to lay down their arms is false, a front to which I am proud to belong. Our Front, our Organization, remains, now more than ever, convinced of the justice and necessity of the process of Protracted People's War, which the people are beginning to develop.

I feel completely identified with the principles and objectives of the struggle of the National Liberation Army, and I share my life as a popular fighter with its combatants. It is true that we critically analyze the mistakes made as an Organization because we want to be more faithful, more effective for the people.

We are preparing to participate more effectively in the Protracted People's War. We promote the organization of the working class, the peasantry, students, honest intellectuals, and Christians, to wage the historical battles for our definitive liberation. We promote legal struggles and clandestine organization for better living conditions and for the seizure of power. We promote the construction of the revolutionary army of the people, starting from the armed organizations that are emerging in the countryside and cities and fighting honestly against the system of exploitation, hunger, and repression. The government and its information organs will not be able to deceive the people, even if we are priests, except through the force of a united and organized people who fight with weapons in hand and with combative mobilization for the conquest of their most deeply felt interests.

As a priest, I feel committed to the struggles of the people:

1. Because, following the Gospel that proclaims the equality of all men in the world, I have chosen the poor who fight to make this a reality.

2. Because I cannot live my faith among my people without sharing the destiny of the exploited to the very end.

3. Because sharing the destiny of the exploited means fighting against the capitalist system organized by the exploiters and working for the construction of a more just society, without exploiters or exploited.

4. Because I feel myself a member of a people who fight for bread, land, education, and liberation.

Fully aware of my responsibility as a man, a priest, and a revolutionary, I have made the commitment to be a member of the ELN, because revolutionary violence is the only path to building peace and equality among men. I make a special appeal to Christians to fight for their immediate objectives and to unite in the struggle of all the people for national liberation and for the construction of socialism.

NOT ONE STEP BACK, LIBERATION OR DEATH!

MANUEL PÉREZ MARTÍNEZ

NATIONAL LIBERATION ARMY (ELN)

June 1979.