This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Category: Hugo Chavez

  • Chavez, are you with us or with the terrorists?

    More than three months ago, my new friends at Western Hemisphere Policy Watch (who seem to be bears of sorts since they’ve been in hibernation since Christmas Eve – maybe this link will shake them awake) recommended that the US State Department put Venezuela on the terror watch list.

    Since we are unwilling to recall our Ambassador, and it took a Spanish King (a Bourbon no less) to set HC straight, why not make this token gesture that will surely invigorate the youth that have rallied to this effort?

    According to the Miami Herald this morning, those wheels are in motion;

    The Bush administration has launched a preliminary inquiry that could land Venezuela on the U.S. list of nations that support terrorism because of its alleged close links to Colombian rebels, a senior government official has confirmed.

    The inquiry, by government lawyers, is the first step in a process that could see Venezuela join North Korea, Cuba, Sudan, Syria and Iran as countries designated by the State Department as supporters of terrorism.

    U.S. laws permit some leeway on the scope of sanctions, but experts say that adding Venezuela to the list could force U.S. and even foreign firms to sever or curtail links with one of the world’s leading oil producers and the owner of Citgo Petroleum.

    The inquiry comes after Colombia seized four computers belonging to a guerrilla leader in a March 1 raid into Ecuador. The documents suggest Venezuela, among other things, promised $300 million to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.

    The U.S. and Colombian governments and the European Union have officially designated the FARC as a terrorist organization, but Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez has said publicly that he considers it a legitimate insurgency.

    A senior U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the delicate nature of the subject, said government lawyers had been asked to clarify ”what goes into effect in terms of prohibitions, or prohibited activities” when a country is put on the U.S. list.

    After Chavez’ little drama play last week, feigning outrage at a violation of Ecuador’s sovereignty, it is clear that Chavez, and his poodle Correa, have a deeper interest in the success of FARC than they do in the success of the Colombia’s government and it’s people.

    Stockpiling weapons and instruments of war in a relatively peaceful corner of the world should have shaken the OAS awake, but it hasn’t, since they decided to side with Correa and FARC – despite the damning evidence that President Uribe presented to the council in Santo Domingo proving Chavez and Correa’s support of FARC and their nefarious activities.

    Chavez claims to have no need of trade with the US, let’s just see.

    Anyone interested in reading summation of the documents Colombia has culled from Raul Reyes’ computers, Colombian Semana has the most important parts of the evidence (in Spanish) .

  • Colombia vs. Chavez/US Democrats (UPDATED)

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    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.

  • Border incident between Colombians and Venezuela

    Noticias24 reports a border incident between Colombian civilians and the Venezuelan Army. My rough Spanish-as-a-second-language translation follows;

    In a confused incident, a unit of the DISIP (Venezuelan Security forces) has crossed the frontier and has penetrated into Colombian territory in Paraguachón. The inhabitants have surrounded the patrol and they have not allowed that the Venezuelan officials to recover the patrol.

    Apparently, the unit of the DISIP was recovering a vehicle. The group of citizens of Paraguachón has exchanged insults against the DISIP of Venezuela and, with their aggressive attitude, units of the National Guard have crossed the border to help them and to protect them.

    After minutes of tension, the situation returned to the calm but the vehicle of the DISIP still is in Colombian territory surrounded by the inhabitants of the locality. Colombian police units have approached the place.

    Well, when you move a bunch of pissed off people towards each other with just an invisible barrier between them, something is bound to happen.

  • Another FARCer in pieces

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    Photo from Reuter’s

    Manuel Marulanda (R), a top commander of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), welcomes Venezuelan Foreign Minister Luis Alfonzo Davila (L) as the FARC’s Ivan Rios (C) observes in Los Pozos, Caqueta province in this March 8, 2001 file photo.

    Kate at A Colombo-Americana’s Perspective reports another FARC tango rests in pieces, thanks to the Colombian Army;

    In the department of Caldas, Iván Ríos, a member of the FARC’s Secretariat was killed today. For those of you who don’t remember, he famously paraded around with Chávez and Colombian senator Piedad Córdoba last fall at Miraflores.

    The Spanish language Noticias24 article. From Reuter’s AlertNet;

    Rios, a member of the seven-member secretariat of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, died in combat with soldiers in the northwest coffee-producing part of the country.

    From the Associated Press;

    Colombian security forces carrying out an arrest warrant Friday for a top rebel leader killed a man in a shootout, and were trying to confirm his identity, an official in the chief prosecutor’s office said Friday.

    The raid targeted Ivan Rios, a member of the FARC guerrillas’ ruling junta. If the body is identified as his, it would be the second member of the ruling secretariat of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, to be killed in a week.

    That would be a huge blow to Latin America’s oldest and strongest insurgency, shaken by the death Saturday of spokesman Raul Reyes in a cross-border raid in Ecuador that has set off an international diplomatic crisis.

    It may be that Colombia’s cross-border gambit paid off. And this is happening while Uribe tears up the Correa government in Santo Domingo (Bloomberg link);

    Colombia’s President Alvaro Uribe tore into his Ecuadorean counterpart Rafael Correa during a regional summit, accusing the socialist leader of receiving campaign money from Colombian guerrillas.

    Uribe, speaking to 15 Latin American presidents during the Rio Group summit in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, said Ecuador isn’t an ally in the fight against terrorism and acknowledged he didn’t inform Correa in advance of a military operation in Ecuadorean territory last week that killed top rebel leader Raul Reyes.

    “I didn’t inform him of the operation because we have not received cooperation from his government in the fight against terrorism,” Uribe told the leaders.

    An unconventional war calls for unconventional methods. Since when do the criminals get to violate all of the rules while we just bleed. But Uribe was just warming up;

    Uribe, who has been mostly silent since the Organization of American States criticized his military’s violation of Ecuador’s sovereignty this week, saved no criticism of his neighbors’ alleged collaboration with the FARC rebel group.

    He said four laptop computers seized during the cross- border raid contained documents pointing to FARC financing of Correa’s 2006 presidential campaign. This week, Uribe alleged the same files show Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has been funding the FARC. Correa and Chavez have denied allegations they help the group.

    “One letter from Marulanda to Raul Reyes transferring $50,000 to help Correa win the second round in his election,” said Uribe, referring to septuagenarian FARC commander Manuel Marulanda.

    That’s going to leave a mark.

  • Chavez accuses US of cross-border raid (UPDATED)

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    Photo from AP/Ramon Espinosa

    Colombian President Uribe in Santo Domingo

    Still chewing his daily coca leaves, apparently, Chavez has decided that the best way to come out of the situation into which he’s cornered himself is to make up stuff according to the Associated Press (Washington Examiner link);

    On his arrival in Santo Domingo, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez made jibes at Colombia and the United States, which has supported the Andean nation with more than $4 billion in counterinsurgency and anti-drug aid since 2000.

    “The U.S. empire has taken over Colombia,” Chavez said.

    Chavez claimed the strike that killed Raul Reyes, a top leader of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, was “planned and directed” by the U.S. Later, he said he had information that “gringo soldiers” participated in the attack, but provided no evidence to back the claim.

    I can’t imagine the Defense Department taking the chance on losing US troops in a potential battle in a country where they’re not invited – I know that’s the stuff of Hollywood drama, but that’s not how it works.

    The Miami Herald reports that this dust-up is hurting Venezuelans more than it’s affecting Colombia;

    Before the restrictions, about 30,000 Colombians crossed the border in San Antonio every day to work in Venezuela, and Venezuelans went the other direction to shop.

    ”The situation is very grave on the border,” City Councilman Alejandro García said. “For a problem that’s between Ecuador and Colombia, we Venezuelans are paying the price.”

    He added that the fuel restrictions had forced a local jeans factory to close after it didn’t receive enough diesel oil to keep production going.

    And many Venezuelans suspect that Chavez has ulterior motives for throwing his troops into the frontier gaps;

    Many in San Antonio speculated that Chávez had sent troops to the region to protect guerrillas taking shelter there from Colombian attack. Many in the region said that extortion, kidnappings and executions at the hands of Colombian as well as Venezuelan guerrillas were regular occurrences.

    ”Of course there are Colombian guerrillas here, and the government knows where they are,” García said.

    Manuel at The Devil’s Excrement writes that the Venezuelan Army tried to block Argentine reporters from recording and interviewing protesters outside of Miraflores Presidential Palace in Caracas;

    And today a group of Argentinean reporters were detained and clashed with the Military Police as they deviated from the program and attempted to go and tape and interview protesters right outside the Miraflores Presidential Palace. According to the reports, the police got violent with them and actually blocked their path so that they could not get to the protesters. They also attempted to take away their equipment but were helped by other reporters.

    The Washington Times reports that the DEA aided Thai police in the capture of Victor Bout, international gun dealer buying weapons for FARC. I wondered yesterday if his arrest isn’t the result of the Colombian raid against Raul Reyes last weekend and some of the electronic evidence the Colombians gleaned from the equipment found among the pieces of Reyes.

    The Real Cuba writes that my ruminations about Victor Bout might prove to be correct;

    Viktor Bout, an international arms dealer dubbed the “Merchant of Death,” was arrested in Thailand and charged in New York on Thursday with trying to sell weapons to Colombian rebels, officials said.

    According to a report in Spanish newspaper El Pais, Bout was found thanks to information contained in the computer of Raul Reyes, the FARC leader who was killed by the Colombian army last week.

    Gateway Pundit writes that it was a phone call from Chavez that enabled Colombians to pinpoint assembled pieces of Raul Reyes right before they disassembled him;

    That was a big mistake.
    NOTE TO TERROR LEADERS: When Chavez calls- Don’t pick up.

    Jim also shows remarkably good taste by linking to my story yesterday – thanks.

    There’s more on the phone call at El Universal.

    UPDATE: After nearly a week of drama queen over-reaction, Hugo Chavez calls for calm (AP link);

    Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez called Friday for a cooling of tensions with Colombia and predicted a summit of Latin American presidents in this seaside capital “is going to be positive.”
    […]
    “People should go cool off a bit, chill out their nerves,” Chavez told journalists at his hotel before leaving for the summit at the foreign ministry of the Dominican Republic. “I think the meeting today is going to be positive, because it is going to help the debate. We have to debate, talk, and this is the first step toward finding the road.”

    That’s hilarious. After mobilizing his army, navy and air force to the Colombian frontier, even though the attack against Raul Reyes happened all the way across Colombia from Venezuela, Chavez is trying to act like the great peacemaker. Porque Chavez no se calla?

    An Ol’ Broad’s Ramblings says it before I thought of it;

    It’s possible the loony toon figured out his mouth was writing checks his ass couldn’t cash?

    But maybe the reason Chavez is calling for calm is this from Gaius at Blue Crab Boulevard about a Washington Post article on those documents Colombian officials found on Reyes’ computers;

    The correspondence appears to show that Venezuelan officials are eager to work with rebel commanders to isolate Colombian President Álvaro Uribe, an ally of the Bush administration. The documents also include letters to Chávez from FARC leader Manuel Marulanda.

    The Post article goes on to claim that Colombia is willing to allow external police organizations verify the origins of the documents;

    The chief of Colombia’s National Police, Brig. Gen. Óscar Naranjo, said the government has asked a team from Interpol to examine the laptops and hard drives to confirm that they belonged to FARC commanders. That multinational team is to work in Bogota on Tuesday.

    “We have nothing to hide,” Naranjo said by phone Thursday afternoon. “We’re entirely open to any technical review.”

    But back to the AP article; Danny Ortega of Nicaragua decided to break off relations with Colombia and no one noticed. I suppose that’s one less truckload of bananas for Colombians. But Colombia has at least one ally at the conference;

    One of the rare regional voices offering support for Colombia was Salvadoran President Tony Saca, who said the Colombian government should be able to defend its citizens.

    “We need to understand Colombia has the legitimate right to go after terrorists … wherever they may be, of course without harming the sovereignty of another country,” Saca said on arrival in Santo Domingo.

    Salvadorans probably remember their own struggle with communist guerillas who hid out in Guatemala and were supplied by Cuba and Nicaragua.

    In Ecuador, Security Minister Gustavo Larrea said the army captured five suspected FARC rebels on Thursday. The suspects were nabbed “a few meters from the Colombian border,” in the general area where the raid took place, Larrea said.

    Yeah, I’ll believe that when I see it.

  • Chavez’ bad luck continues

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    Photo from AFP

    A Colombian police officer keeps watch on the San Miguel international bridge linking Ecuador and Colombia.

    The comedy that is South American politics this week is continuing. Martha Colmenares, a Venezuelan blogger writes that files that the Colombian Government found on the computer belonging to the pieces of Raul Reyes indicate that the FARC supports the Obama campaign. (Translation from Gateway Pundit and Free Republic);

    6. The gringos will ask for an appointment with the minister to solicit him to communicate to us his interest in discussing these topics. They say that the new president of their country will be Obama and that they are interested in your compatriots. Obama will not support “Plan Colombia” nor will he sign the TLC (Colombian Free Trade agreement). Here we responded that we are interested in relations with all governments in equality of conditions and that in the case of the US it is required a public pronouncement expressing their interest in talking with the FARC given their eternal war against us.

    This on the heels of reports that Chavez has either promised or delivered $300 million to FARC recently(Gateway Pundit link).

    The slow-moving debating society called the Organization of American States which has trouble stepping on anyone’s toes can’t agree to the wording of a statement on the escalating conflict between Venezuela, Ecuador and Colombia, according to the Associated Press.

    In the meantime, Fausta’s Blog reports that Chavez cuts off his nose to spite his face by turning back food shipments to Venezuela from Colombia (Colombia is Venezuela’s largest importer of foodstuffs) which exasperates the severe food shortages already experienced in Venezuelan urban centers.

    Daniel at Venezuela News and Views reflects Venezuelan’s worry over this war;

    Because [this] is the real mood here, the real war, how to find ALL the basic food staples that you need and that are imported in increasing amounts. A couple of mines dropped by Colombia in front of Puerto Cabello and La Guaira and in a few weeks we are all starving.

    Quico at Caracas Chronicles mentions that Chavez’ mobilization ran into problems yesterday on the road to the frontier;

    Two days ago, President Chávez ordered 10 mechanized batallions to the border in preparation for who-knows-what…but the mobilizations from Caracas ended up getting delayed yesterday because taxi drivers in La Victoria blocked the strategically critical Central Regional Highway for seven hours as they protested the crime wave that grips their town.

    Meanwhile, Rafael Correa, president of Ecuador, is pestering other South American nations by jetting around on Burro One (AP link);

    Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa began a six-nation tour in Peru and Brazil, calling Colombian President Alvaro Uribe a liar who “wanted war.” Correa warned that if the attack goes unpunished, “the region will be in danger, because the next victim could be Peru, it could be Brazil, Venezuela, Bolivia, any one of our countries.”

    Not if they’re not providing a safe haven for terrorists – I doubt Colombia has any interest in any of those nations. Correa loses sight of his own malfeasance causing this dilemma in the first place.

    And that’s the whole problem – Chavez saw FARC as a way to keep the region unstable and to ensconce himself more firmly in power in Venezuela and in the community of South American nations. The Uribe government has drawn back the blinds and Chavez’ spate of bad luck continues.

    UPDATE: Babalu Blog links to a Brazilian blog’s (Wickets and Guayaba) report that Brazil is selling arms to Chavez – so Lula has chosen sides.

  • No Mas FARC (Updated 3x)

    The same folks who organized the “No Mas FARC” protest last month sent me an email yesterday asking that I get the word out that they ask everyone to step outside their homes tonight at 6 PM (Colombian time – apparently it’s also Eastern Time) and light a candle for “a Latin America without FARC” then post a picture if you can on your blog, in Facebook or some other electronic medium.

    UPDATE: There’s a spontaneous rally at 17th and Constitution (in front of the Organization of American States) in DC at 5:30 pm today.

    UPDATE: Kate sends a link to pictures of the rally at the OAS, 3-4-08, and a narrative at her blog.

    Kate at A Colombo-Americana’s Perspective has posted the Spanish language email, I just translated the gist of it for you, though.

    Speaking of FARC, Gateway Pundit writes that the computer that Colombia liberated from the pieces of Raul Reyes this last weekend shows evidence that FARC is in the process of making “dirty bomb”;

    Colombian officials on Tuesday said that FARC rebels are working on a radioactive bomb and that they had purchased 50 kilograms of uranium this month. The information was discovered after Colombian forces ambushed a FARC base and captured a top terrorist’s computer this weekend.
    Reuters reported:

    Colombia said on Tuesday that FARC rebels had been planning to make a “dirty bomb” with radioactive material, threatening the entire Latin American region.

    The charges by Vice-President Francisco Santos, at the United Nations-sponsored Conference on Disarmament, marked a dramatic turn in a regional crisis that has seen Venezuela and Ecuador cut diplomatic ties with Colombia.

    Bogota has already accused Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez of funding the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrillas, after Colombian forces crossed into Ecuador and killed a senior rebel commander on Saturday, sparking troop movements and warnings of war.

    I find it hard to believe that FARC can continue this facade of being an Army of Liberation when the news of this dirty bomb gets around. A dirty bomb is purely a weapon of mass casualties, there is virtually no strategic use for it – except to deny an enemy use of a couple of city blocks for a few hundred years.

    When the evidence of this gets out, Ortiz, Chavez and Correa have some explaining to do. I’ve noticed that Evo Morales, the Moe character of Los Tres Chiflados of South America, has kept out of it so far.

    UPDATE: Babalu Blog writes that Colombia’s President Uribe has decided to take Chavez to The Hague on charges of genocide. But OAS, weak sisters that they are, are busy deciding what to do about Colombia violating Ecuador’s sovereignty.

  • FARC/Venezuela/Equador connections proven

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    Photo from the Miami Herald/AP/Doris Ochoa

    An alleged rebel of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, FARC, center, is carried from an Ecuadorian Army helicopter as she arrives, after being evacuated from the combat area, at a military base in Lago Agrio, Ecuador, Sunday.

    Yesterday I wrote about the threats Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez made against the Colombian government for their cross-border attack in Ecuador to kill a top leader of the Armed Revolutionary Front of Colombia (FARC). Chavez called Colombia the “Israel of Latin America” and threatened to “liberate” the people of Colombia from the Uribe government while Chavez and Rafael Correa of Ecuador mobilized their forces to their respective frontiers with Colombia.

    Well, the Washington Times’ Martin Arostegui reports this morning that Chavez has good reason to bring his country to the brink of war – Colombian troops have discovered records of FARC links to the Chavez and Correa governments;

    Colombia’s government said yesterday documents found in a jungle camp in Ecuador where Colombia troops killed Mr. Reyes showed ties between the FARC rebels and Mr. Correa, including contacts with his government about political proposals.

    Police Cmdr. Gen. Oscar Naranjo said documents found in computers belonging to Mr. Reyes showed contacts between a top Correa government minister and the FARC commander to discuss political proposals and projects on the frontier.

    “The questions raised by these documents need concrete answers,” Gen. Naranjo said. “What is the state of relations between the Ecuadorean government and a terrorist group like the FARC.”

    Mr. Uribe has often accused the FARC of using Venezuelan and Ecuadorean territory as safe havens from military attacks.

    According to the Miami Herald, Chavez also called for a moment of silence to honor the passing of FARC’s second-in-command Raul Reyes who was killed in Colombia’s cross-border raid;

    Chávez also asked for a moment of silence to honor the slain FARC leader, killed along with 16 other guerrillas. ”We pay tribute to a true revolutionary, who was Raúl Reyes,” Chávez said, calling him a “good revolutionary.”

    Yeah, good revolutionary who has directed the murder of thousands of innocent Colombians. If there was a terrorist group attacking Venezuela the way FARC has for 40 years, I doubt Chavez would be as charitable.

    Chávez didn’t spare any words Sunday in his verbal assault on Uribe, calling him ”a criminal, a Mafia boss, a paramilitary-man” and saying that he directs a “narco-government.”

    If Colombian troops crossed into Venezuela to pursue the FARC, Chávez warned, ”I’ll send some Sukhois” — Russian warplanes recently purchased by Venezuela.

    The Colombian government did not reply to Chávez on Sunday but reinforced security at shopping malls and public meeting places to guard against a possible FARC reprisal. Uribe and the high military command attended the funeral of the lone Colombian soldier who died in the attack against the FARC.

    Katy at Caracas Chronicles writes;

    Let’s hope cool heads prevail and that the Colombian government continues to ignore Chávez. If there is a war, the losers will be the Venezuelan people, specially those who live close to the border, whose day-to-day problems once again take the backseat to Chávez’s obsession to see the FARC triumph in Colombia

    Daniel at Venezuela News and Views reports that he saw nor heard any troop movements in Venezuela yesterday, but Chavez’ reaction betrayed the truth about what he has denied in the past;

    This is of course a grievous mistake on his part because his subconscious betrayed him: there must be indeed reasons for Uribe to order police actions on the Venezuela borders. With this simple menace Chavez in fact admits that the Venezuelan border is nothing more than the rest area of the FARC guerrillas and that these ones roam around in Venezuela. We already knew that, of course, and for memory just the case of Granda should be mentioned. But Chavez yesterday implied that the FARC operates freely in Venezuela and that he is protecting them and that he supports these terrorists and drug traffickers enough to go to war for them.

    Tomas Sancio at Venezuelan Politics asks two important questions that Chavez himself needs to find the answer to before he commits himself to a war with Colombia;

    Two questions for us Venezuelans: a) would we be willing to die to defend the FARC? and b) could we stand a Colombian embargo of food and medicines? Chávez better leave this as a rant and send troops to the border to protect Venezuelans from being kidnapped from the FARC instead of defending these murderers.

    From another Venezuelan blog, The Devil’s Excrement;

    The fact is that in this case, Chavez really blew it in a very definitive manner. He is taking the side of the FARC in a more open fashion. Which is a product of his deeper affinities with the guerrilla and also, due to his tactical political needs, after his defeat in the December referendum and in the face of critical elections next November, in the middle of an economic situation that becomes each day more unmanageable. Chavez seems to be full of reasons to escalate his confrontation with Colombia.

    The Real Cuba (h/t Babalu Blog) reports on a press conference held by the Colombian government this morning;

    There are several documents signed by Reyes and one of Correa’s ministers.

    One of the documents revealed that Correa agreed to get rid of any chief of police who didn’t sympathize with the Colombian guerrillas.

    Colombia has asked the Ecuadorian government to explain its relationship with the terrorist group, saying that it compromises Colombia’s security.

    In a perfect world, Chavez would be asking Correa the same questions. Gateway Pundit has more news and photos from yesterday as well as a report that Correa has had a press conference in Quito on the subject this morning. CNN reports that Correa has withdrawn his diplomat from Bogota, as well.

    artcorreaafpgi.jpg

    Photo from APF/Getty/CNN

    AP reports from Correa’s news conference;

    “There is no justification,” Correa said Sunday night, snubbing an earlier announcement from Colombia that it would apologize for the military incursion.

    Chavez called the killing of rebel leader and spokesman Raul Reyes and 16 other guerrillas on Saturday an attack by a “terrorist state,” saying it shows Colombian President Alvaro Uribe is a “criminal.”

    Um, Hugo, a terrorist state shelters terrorists, not kills terrorists. The Colombian Defense Minister explained the situation that lead to Reyes’ death (AP/Washington Examiner link);

    Colombian Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos said military commandos, tracking Reyes through an informant, first bombed a camp on the Colombian side of the Ecuadorean border. He said the troops came under fire from across the border in Ecuador and encountered Reyes’ body when they overran that camp.

    So the Colombian troops were attacked from Ecuador – sounds like the restrictions the Democrats put on our troops during the Vietnam War when they were attacked from Cambodia and forbidden to defend themselves.