Manuel Pérez
Manuel Pérez | |
|---|---|
 Portrait of Pérez. | |
| Born |
May 9, 1943 Alfamén, Spain, |
| Died |
February 14, 1998 Santander, Colombia |
| Cause of death | Hepatitis |
| Nationality |
Spanish Colombian |
| Ideology |
Marxism–Leninism Mao Zedong Thought Camilism Anti-revisionism |
| Political party |
ELN CGSB |
| Part of a series on |
| Maoism |
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Gregorio Manuel Pérez Martínez (May 9, 1943 – February 14, 1998), also known as Pérez the Priest or by his alias Chairman Poliarco was an Spanish Catholic Priest and Colombian communist revolutionary who lead the ELN for more than 2 decades. He was one of the main pioneers of Liberation Theology and Camilism , serving as ideologue and commander of the ELN, as well as Chairman of the CGSB from 1978 – 1998 and 1990 – 1994 respectively.
Biography
Early Life and Priesthood
Pérez was the eldest of two children born to Marcelino and Herminia, a humble farming couple. At the age of 12, he was sent to the minor seminary in Alcorisa, and in 1959 he transferred to the major seminary in Zaragoza , where he studied philosophy. It was here he remarked
"There were some professors who only talked about idealism, but others told us that it was worthwhile to study Marxism as well and gave us some texts. Around that time, I read through the Communist Manifesto."
In 1962, Pérez joined the Hispanic-American Priestly Cooperation Organization (OCSHA) and pursued his theological studies at a seminary in Madrid . He was later ordained by Pope Paul VI in Rome . Pérez admired the priest and sociologist Camilo Torres Restrepo , who inspired a multitude of clergymen to participate in the guerrilla struggle in Latin America . He also admired Che Guevara for the Cuban Revolution, and later his work in Bolivia, as well as Mao Zedong. Upon arriving in Colombia with fellow priests under pretext of missionary work, Pérez became involved in socialist political organizing in the impovershed town of Chambacú. For this, he and his fellow clergymen were thrown out of the country. Pérez returned 8 months later, in 1969, and alongside fathers Laín and Jiménez, joined the ELN.
Commander of the ELN
In 1973, Fabio Vásquez Castaño was removed from his leadership position over the then focoist group. In the following years, Pérez incited class struggle and internal revolution against the command of the organization, accusing them of being revisionist. Finally, Pérez was elected head military commander of the ELN in 1978 and remained so until his death in 1998.
In 1978, Pérez issued his Primary Public Communication, urging all people of Colombia to throw their support towards a Protracted People's War for the construction of New Democracy, which the ELN would direct for the next nearly 20 years. The organization was thus officially reorganized in 1983 under a more explicitly Maoist ideological formation and organization at the Anorí Meeting of Heroes and Martyrs. After regaining military and economic capacity through extortion of German and Italian multinational corporations, as well as attacks on the Caño Limón-Coveñas oil pipeline , Pérez gave the guerrilla group the name Unión Camilista - Ejército de Liberación Nacional (Camilista Union - National Liberation Army), in honor of Camilo Torres Restrepo, and formed the ELN Guerrilla Trilateral Alliance, along with the Marxist-Leninist-Maoist Revolutionary Workers' Party (PRT) and Revolutionary Integration Movement - Patria Libre (MIR-PL). As commander, he ordered increased operations in oil-producing areas and pressure on oil workers' unions. He declared multinational oil companies military targets and initiated the bombing of their pipelines as a part of his military strategy. In 1986 Pérez finalized his reorganization efforts and consolidated the ELN into a proper political party at the first national assembly, in which the Central Committee was formed, and the creation of "war fronts" was ordered, giving the organization a federal structure. In 1985, the ELN created the National Guerrilla Coordinating Committee, and in 1987, the Simón Bolívar Guerrilla Coordinating Committee (CGSB), which served as a united front of all like minded communist organizations under a central command. Pérez assumed Chairmanship of the CGSB of in 1990.
At one point in its history, it was reported by Colombian news that more combatants - deemed "Revisionists and Right opportunists" - are believed to have died from internal firing squads and in Struggle Sessions than in combat against the Colombian National Army. This report was supposedly in reference to when 2 reformist and capitulationist factions broke from the Central Committee, which were quickly brought down. Throughout the organization's history under Pérez, any form of ideological deviation or adventurism was harshly punished to keep a hardline, anti-revisionist position that upheld the line of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought as well as "Camilo Thought" (With Pérez the first to coin the term).
Death
Pérez died after contracting hepatitis C somewhere in the mountains of the Santander department, Colombia on February 14, 1998. Shortly following his death, Nicolás Rodríguez Bautista would assume command of the organization and would see it's subsequent decline into an adventurist group in the early 2000s.
Bibliography
The following are works by Manuel Pérez available on the Revolupedia library.