It has been said me many times that I preach the violent revolution; but it's interesting to know why the ruling class makes me to appear as defending of a violent revolution. You have realized that my positions are reduced to the fact that the majorities exercise the power, so that the governmental decisions will be in favor of the majorities and not of the minorities. And as all we know this is not easy, I have said that we should prepare us for the case that the minorities are opposed through violence to the fact that the majority classes exercise the power. And however you see the publications of the great press and even the reactions of the ecclesiastic hierarchy that has condemned me, they say, because I'm defending to the violent revolution. What's happening then with the ruling class?

It knows that who is going to define about the pacifism, this is, the fact that the revolution will be peaceful or the fact that the revolution will be violent, it's the same ruling class. The decision is not in the hands of the popular class but in hands of the ruling class. And as the popular class starts to organize valorously, with discipline, with decision, and as we aren't getting organized for elections then it hurries to say that we are getting organized for the violent revolution.

Then it's the demonstration of the fact that the minority ruling class has the intention of unleashing the violence against the majority class, that it's going to oppose by the violence to the fair reforms that demands the majority popular class.

But the violence is made with weapons, with grenades, with tanks, with a quantity of costly means of those which the popular classes don't have; by this reason, those who decide about violence are those who can finance it. A peasant will not sell a cow that gives milk to his children in order to buy a machine gun but in the extreme case that there are persons that are going to finish with the life of his children with other machine gun. So that if the peasant gets armed, why does he do it? Who's going to defend of?

Now we are organizing about some common ideas, we formed a great popular movement, we are going to take the power and the ruling class is ripping the vestments as the pharisees; because they are hypocritical, because after they have exercised the violence they don't have any right to accuse the majority classes of wanting to use the violence and much less when the majority classes have suffered it during sixteen years and they sincerely wish that it won't be resumed.

Then we must uncover these things in front of the eyes of the Colombians and show them why we must be decided to fight until the last consequences, not to take a step back; because the enemy, by which it has expressed, it's ready for everything and if we are not ready for everything, we are in inferiority conditions; that's why we'll take power. The minority class doesn't let us take the power - a fundamentally antidemocratic thing beacuse if we are going to to constitute a majority, if we are a majority and if we believe in the democracy, we deserve the power - if it arrives to profane the Colombian democracy exercising the violence, it is necessary that it knows that we are ready to answer to the strenght with the strenght.

Taken from "Vanguardia Sindical" (Bogotá), July 23th,1965.