Tag Archives: Latin America

Jul
20
2010
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Colombia Shows Proof of FARC Rebels in Venezuela; Chavez Scoffs

This article was originally posted by The Latin America Herald Tribune

Colombia is considering accusing Venezuela before international organizations over the alleged presence of rebel chiefs in Venezuelan soil, a presence Bogota says is proven by data it shared with media outlets but ordered them not to disseminate

BOGOTA – Colombia said on Friday it is considering accusing Venezuela before international organizations over the alleged presence of Colombian rebel chiefs in that neighboring country, a presence Bogota says is proven by data it shared with media outlets but ordered them not to disseminate.

“For six years the Colombian government sustained a patient dialogue with the Venezuelan government, on various occasions providing it information on the location of terrorists in that territory,” Colombian President Alvaro Uribe’s office said in a brief statement.

“All was for naught with respect to terrorist leaders. We must once again consider taking the matter to international authorities,” the text added.

It also said Bogota “has had information about the presence of terrorists in Venezuela” since the capture in late 2004 of FARC “foreign minister” Rodrigo Granda, who was snatched by bounty hunters on Venezuelan soil and subsequently taken across the border.

Granda was jailed in Colombia but subsequently released in 2007 as part of efforts to secure the release of hostages.

Colombia, the United States and the European Union have designated the FARC as a terrorist organization. The majority of Latin American nations are unwilling to hang that label on the guerrillas.

In March 2008, Colombian denounced before the United Nations and the Organization of American States alleged “accords” between the FARC and the governments of Ecuador and Venezuela.

The Uribe administration on Thursday presented the directors of several Colombian media outlets with evidence that allegedly proves that top leaders of the FARC and the smaller ELN group are hiding in Venezuela, but it said that for security reasons it did not authorize them to disseminate the information.

Defense Minister Gabriel Silva told a press conference that in his private meeting with the journalists he showed them photographs and video footage and provided co-ordinates that allegedly prove the “confirmed, clear and concrete (presence) of FARC and ELN terrorists in the neighboring country.”

Silva said that the government’s purpose in providing the information was to show “that the deterioration in relations between Colombia and Venezuela” was due to its neighbor’s “tolerance of the presence of those terrorists” in its territory.

The United States also chimed in, when US State Department Spokesman P.J. Crowley was asked about the reports.

“Well, we’ve – we are examining those reports,” said Crowley. “Some of this is not new in the sense that there have been concerns for some time of cross-border interaction involvement in insurgent activities or terrorist activities within Colombia. Venezuela is obliged, as a member of the United Nations, the OAS, and UNASUR, to deny terrorist groups the ability to operate within its territory. We’ve been concerned about this for some time and it’s one of the reasons why, since 2006, Venezuela has been judged not to be fully cooperating on antiterrorism efforts.”

In its initial public reaction, the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry said in a statement Friday that the charges represent a “new effort to destroy (bilateral) relations.”

“The pathetic media show on Thursday was a desperate attempt to damage a possible normalization of bilateral relations, in which the intrigue of the U.S. Embassy in Bogota, whose ambassador was consulted by the defense minister before offering his press conference, has not been absent,” the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry said.

Destroying bilateral relations has turned into a “sickly obsession” of Uribe, who will leave office next month after two four-year terms.

The ministry added that “every time that the Colombian government has provided information about the alleged presence of irregular Colombian groups in Venezuelan territory, the Venezuelan government has carried out the necessary verifications and systematically confirmed the falseness of such information.”

The statement also said that Venezuela, along with other neighboring countries, has consistently maintained that it “will strongly act with the full weight of the law and law-enforcement agencies if there is a possibility of irregular groups on the vast border with Colombia.”

The ministry said it hopes that the new government of President-elect Juan Manuel Santos, a conservative who previously served as Uribe’s defense minister, “gives high priority to a proposal of a peace plan for Colombia, which would allow South America to accompany the implementation of a solution that addresses the root causes of the armed conflict affecting our brother country.”

Shortly after the statement was issued, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro announced he ordered his country’s envoy to Colombia to return to Caracas for consultations.

“We’ve called Ambassador Gustavo Marquez for consultations in Caracas so he can join the evaluation of a series of political and diplomatic measures that will be taken in the coming hours (in response to) the Colombian government’s aggression,” he told a press conference.

The Colombian government’s decision not to publicly divulge the purported evidence of FARC and ELN presence in Venezuela – after announcing having shared the information with the media – surprised observers in Bogota.

Those analysts said Friday that the information is not new and questioned the government for re-divulging it at this time, amid efforts by President-elect Santos to improve relations with Colombia’s leftist-led neighbor.

A former president of Colombia, Ernesto Samper, told Caracol Radio that he is worried about attempts to “obstruct” the attempt to mend fences with Venezuela.

Relations between Colombia, the United States’ closest ally in Latin America, and socialist Venezuela have soured on several occasions in recent years.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez froze relations with Colombia a year ago over Bogota’s allegations that anti-tank weapons made in Sweden and sold to Venezuela in the 1980s had turned up in the hands of the FARC.

Tensions worsened with the signing in October 2009 of a military agreement that gave U.S. troops greater access to at least seven Colombian military bases.

 
 
Apr
8
2010
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Venezuela’s Strongman Splurges on Russian Weapons

Washington Post Editorial
April 8, 2010

RUSSIAN PRIME Minister Vladimir Putin boasted after returning from a visit to Venezuela on Monday that he had sold President Hugo Chávez another $5 billion in weapons — a huge sum for a Latin American country that is deep in recession and busy rationing its water, electricity and hard currency. Take it as one more sign of the political, economic and human rights meltdown underway in a major U.S. oil supplier — and where it may lead.

The last time we looked in on developments in Venezuela, in January, we pointed out that Mr. Chávez had reacted to the unraveling of his economy and his shrinking popularity by stepping up repression of the opposition. That continues: In the past couple of weeks, the government arrested and brought criminal charges against three more leading critics. One is a former state governor and presidential candidate who said in an interview that Venezuela has become a haven for drug traffickers and terrorists. A second is the owner of the last television network that dares to criticize Mr. Chávez; the third is a deputy in the National Assembly who had denounced corruption.

Mr. Chávez’s move against former governor Oswaldo Álvarez Paz came after a Spanish judge issued an indictment accusing the government and armed forces of facilitating contacts between Colombia’s left-wing FARC terrorists and those of the Basque group ETA, who were allegedly concocting plots to assassinate the Colombian president and other leading politicians. Mr. Paz’s “crime” was to talk about this development. The Spanish dossier is one of several demonstrating material support for terrorism by Mr. Chávez, who has made little secret of his preference for the FARC over Colombia’s democratic government.

That brings us to the latest round of arms purchases from Russia, which come on top of $4 billion in weapons that Mr. Chávez already ordered from Moscow. The arsenal includes T-72 tanks, Mi-17 helicopters and advanced fighter jets — weapons suitable for the conventional war with which Mr. Chávez has repeatedly threatened Colombia.

The Obama administration’s response has been to soft-pedal most of this. Political arrests are met with perfunctory-sounding statements of concern. About the flood of Russian weapons, aimed at intimidating one of the closest U.S. allies in Latin America, the State Department observed that “we’re hard-pressed to see what legitimate defense needs Venezuela has for this equipment . . . we can probably think of better things that could be invested on behalf of the Venezuelan people.” Colombians — and average Venezuelans — can only hope such nonchalance is justified.

 
Mar
3
2010
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Spain Charges Chávez With Fostering “Illicit Cooperation” Between Terrorist Groups ETA, FARC

A Spanish judge this week formally charged Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez and his government with aiding and abetting Basque separatist group ETA and Colombia’s guerrilla group, FARC, in a plot to assassinate top political leaders.

The 25-page indictment by Spanish National Court Judge Eloy Velasco orders 12 alleged members of ETA and FARC to stand trial for coercing to assassinate former Colombian President Andrés Pastrana, as well as Colombian President Alvaro Uribe and Vice President Francisco Santos during their respective visits to Spain.

“There is evidence…showing the cooperation of the Venezuelan government in the illegal collaboration between FARC and ETA,” according to the indictment.

A key figure in this case is Arturo Cubillas Fontán, who once served under Chávez as Venezuela’s Minister of Agriculture and is married to the Director General of the Ministry’s public affairs office.

According to the indictment, Mr. Fontán sought “military training for ETA members in the Colombian jungle, in exchange for ETA’s help in Spain, locating terrorist targets sought by FARC.”

The Venezuelan strongman reacted angrily to the charges, claiming it is “part of a campaign to discredit Venezuela.” During televised remarks, Mr. Chávez attacked the integrity of the Spanish government and President José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero. Chávez professed he has “absolutely nothing to explain to Zapatero or anybody else.”