Category: Foreign Policy

Photo from Reuters/Yahoo

Colombia’s President Alvaro Uribe (R), Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega talk as Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez looks on after they agreed to resolve a territorial dispute.

We were all surprised, somewhat, Friday when Ecuador, Venezuela and Colombia stepped back from the heated rhetoric, suddenly all broke into grins and shook hands. It appeared that one side was scared and the other side was glad they were scared. The Devil’s Excrement posits the theory that Colombian President Uribe had much more information on the underhanded dealings of Venezuela’s Chavez and Ecuador’s Correa than he was showing;

My theory? Easy, Uribe a master politician, had only leaked earlier some of the information gathered at the guerrilla camp and there was much more than they had released to the press two days ago. Either the additional material was being passed on to the various Governments as Uribe spoke, or it was handed over at that point to Correa and Chavez. Chavez was simply too timid, talking about peace, religion, God, even calling for a mass (how cynical can he be?). My further guess is that the Colombian Government uncovered financial information compromising both Ecuador and Venezuela. In fact, Uribe read at one point a letter from a FARC leader mentioning a specific amount of aid to the FARC from the Ecuadorian Government.

It turns out that Miguel’s theory panned out, according to a Miami Herald article this morning;

Colombia’s FARC guerrillas discussed contributing up to $100,000 to the campaign of Rafael Correa six weeks before he was elected president of Ecuador in 2006, Colombia’s Semana magazine reported on Sunday, citing a document found on the laptop of slain rebel leader Raúl Reyes.

Another document reportedly found by Colombia’s National Police is a letter from 2000 that asks Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi for a $100 million loan so the guerrillas could buy weapons, including surface-to-air missiles. There’s no evidence that the deal went forward.

Mary Anatasia O’Grady, in the Wall Street Journal this morning, uncovers more evidence of FARC’s connections to the Chavez and Correa governments;

The FARC puts a lot of effort toward discrediting Mr. Uribe in the court of world opinion. A September letter from a rebel commander to “secretariat comrades” reads: “As to the manifesto, I suggest adding the border policy and making it public by all means possible to see if we can stop all the world from supporting uribismo [the agenda of Mr. Uribe] in the October elections.” He then proposes a “clandestine” meeting between one rebel and Mr. Chávez in Caracas to discuss “our political-military project.” Mr. Chávez, the rebels say in a later document, suggested that the FARC videotape any Colombian military strikes in the jungle for propaganda purposes.

In January, FARC leader Manuel Marulanda (aka “Sureshot”) wrote to Mr. Chávez: “You can imagine the happiness that you have awoken in all the leaders, guerrillas, the Bolivarian Movement of New Colombia [and] the Clandestine Communist Party with the plan you put forth . . . to ask for the analysis and approval of recognizing the FARC as a belligerent [therefore legitimate] force.”

The documents also show why it was a good idea for Colombia not to ask Ecuador for permission before moving against the FARC camp — even though in the past it had done so when tangling with the rebels at the border. A January memo reports on a FARC meeting with the Ecuadorean minister of security, who said that Mr. Correa is “interested in official relations with the FARC” and has decided not to aid Colombia against the rebels. “For [Ecuador] the FARC is an insurgent organization of the people, with social and political proposals that it understands,” the memo reads.

Even the Venezuelan people couldn’t find it to support Chavez’ “war”. The Miami Herald, in another article, describes the terror that frontier-dwelling Venezuelans suffer because of Colombian guerillas conducting cross-border operations with at least tacit approval of the Chavez government;

Dozens of people in this hilly, forested border region also have gone missing, and many here believe Colombian guerrillas are to blame. Despite the government’s pledge to crack down on groups terrorizing the border, few here think that will happen. ”The national government lies,” Davila said. Colombian police have even told him they suspected the National Liberation Army, one of three guerrilla groups believed to be operating here, was holding his father.

”Here, Colombian guerrilla groups are operating, sometimes with the complicity of police,” he said. “We live in a climate of terror fueled by the indifference of the state and the injustice of impunity.”

The Devils’ Excrement writes that the majority of Venezuelans were opposed to a war with Colombia;

Despites Chavez’ intention to raise nationalistic spirits with the crisis, polls indicate that this was not the case. At least two polls, one public, indicate 90% rejection levels for an armed conflict with Colombia, 70% rejection levels for the FARC, 70% rejection levels for closing the border with Colombia and one poll shows a 66% majority do not believe Chavez when he says the FARC holds no Venezuelan hostages.

The Wall Street Journal accuses US Democrats in Congress of supporting Chavez at the cost of losing Colombia as an ally;

Yet Democrats on Capitol Hill are doing their best to help Mr. Chávez prevail against Mr. Uribe. Even as Mr. Chávez was doing his war dance, Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus was warning the White House not to send the Colombia deal to the Hill for a vote without the permission of Democratic leaders. He was seconded by Ways and Means Chairman Charlie Rangel, who told Congress Daily that “they don’t have the votes for it, it’s not going to come on the floor,” adding that “what they [the White House] don’t understand it’s not the facts on the ground, it’s the politics that’s in the air.”

The editorial staff goes on to name names – including both Democrat Presidential candidates;

Connecticut Senator Chris Dodd’s early support helped the strongman consolidate his power. Former President Jimmy Carter blessed Mr. Chávez’s August 2004 recall victory, despite evidence of fraud. And then there are the many House Democrats, current and former, who have accepted discount oil from Venezuela and then distributed it in the U.S. to boost their own political fortunes. Joseph P. Kennedy II and Massachusetts Congressman Bill Delahunt have been especially cozy with Venezuela’s oil company. If Democrats spurn free trade with Colombia, these Democratic ties with Mr. Chávez will deserve more political scrutiny.

Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are both competing for union support. But if they wanted to demonstrate their own Presidential qualities, they’d be privately telling Ms. Pelosi to pass the Colombia pact while Mr. Bush is still in office. That would spare either one of them from having to spend political capital to pass it next year.

Instead, both say they oppose the deal on grounds that Mr. Uribe has not done more to protect “trade unionists.” In fact, Mr. Uribe has done more to reduce violence in Colombia than any modern leader in Bogotá. The real question for Democrats is whether they’re going to choose Colombia — or Hugo Chávez.

Chavez and Correa have made it increasingly apparent that their loyalties lie with the less desirable elements in Latin America. Letters on Reye’s computers bring to light ties that FARC had connections with Libya and North Korea and that Correa was interested in exploiting those ties for his own enrichment. Are the Democrats willing to ally themselves with the interests of FARC and, by extension, the whole rest of the evil that terrorizes in the world?

UPDATE: Noticias 24 confirms that there are indeed Colombian guerillas operating in Venezuela (my Calle J bar room Spanish translation);

La guerrilla colombiana está bien instalada en Venezuela. Un periodista del diario brasileño Folha de Sao Paulo corroboró la actuación de las FARC, el ELN y la guerrilla chavista en la zona fronteriza con Colombia. Infobae lo reseña hoy. También “El Mundo” publicó ayer un reportaje sobre Guasdalito.

Colombian guerillas are very well entreched inside Venezuela. A Brazilian daily newspaper, Folha de Sao Paulo, corroborates the accusations that FARC, ELN and chavista guerillas operate in the frontier zone with Colombia. Infobae reviewed the article today. Also “El Mundo” (Spain) published a news article on Guasdalito yesterday.

So let’s see Chavez wiggle free from this and blame it on the United States propaganda machine. If ever the US had enemies, it was in the Latin American prensa.