After 7 years of lies, who believes anything coming from this war-president's mouth. Hillary Clinton is the next one, she believes in war, I don't. It would be great for the USA to have LA countries fighting among each other so that the Empire can keep its citizens under poverty level, the indigenous people in reservations as it is in the USA, that "whiping them out" will be a credit to their murderous minds. The Empire takes LA natural resources by paying whatever they want and getting whatever they want from crook politicians, resulting in extreme poverty and lack of education, among other consequences. War in LA will mean selling arms to whomever they believe can oust Venezuelan President, and trust me, it is not going to happen, he is no terrorist. Watch Greg Palast's documentaries. It is the opposite, the only terrorist mentioned in LA countries is the USA Empire which under the B/A has climbed to such a height that the world hates them, to the point that a movement is popping up as to not have the USA in the OAS.

Why does Washington insist on supporting Colombia's Alvaro Uribe when it is a known fact that Uribe has been involved with drugs since the 1970s? It is also a known fact that the paramilitaries are funded by the Uribe family. But then, of course, Washington would also support Satan if it benefitted its plans.

Send this around to anyone you know, from Greg Palast. Simply amazing:

http://www.gregpalast.com/300-million-from-chavez-to-farc-a-fake/

Do you believe this?

This past weekend, Colombia invaded Ecuador, killed a guerrilla chief in the jungle, opened his laptop – and what did the Colombians find? A message to Hugo Chavez that he sent the FARC guerrillas $300 million – which they're using to obtain uranium to make a dirty bomb!

That's what George Bush tells us. And he got that from his buddy, the strange right-wing President of Colombia, Alvaro Uribe.

So: After the fact, Colombia justifies its attempt to provoke a border war as a way to stop the threat of WMDs! Uh, where have we heard that before?

The US press snorted up this line about Chavez' $300 million to "terrorists" quicker than the young Bush inhaling Colombia's powdered export.

What the US press did not do is look at the evidence, the email in the magic laptop. (Presumably, the FARC leader's last words were, "Listen, my password is ….")

I read them. (You can read them here) While you can read it all in español, here is, in translation, the one and only mention of the alleged $300 million from Chavez:

"… With relation to the 300, which from now on we will call "dossier," efforts are now going forward at the instructions of the boss to the cojo [slang term for 'cripple'], which I will explain in a separate note. Let's call the boss Ángel, and the cripple Ernesto."

Got that? Where is Hugo? Where's 300 million? And 300 what? Indeed, in context, the note is all about the hostage exchange with the FARC that Chavez was working on at the time (December 23, 2007) at the request of the Colombian government.

Indeed, the entire remainder of the email is all about the mechanism of the hostage exchange. Here's the next line:
"To receive the three freed ones, Chavez proposes three options: Plan A. Do it to via of a 'humanitarian caravan'; one that will involve Venezuela, France, the Vatican[?], Switzerland, European Union, democrats [civil society], Argentina, Red Cross, etc."

As to the 300, I must note that the FARC's previous prisoner exchange involved 300 prisoners. Is that what the '300' refers to? ¿Quien sabe? Unlike Uribe, Bush and the US press, I won't guess or make up a phastasmogoric story about Chavez mailing checks to the jungle.

To bolster their case, the Colombians claim, with no evidence whatsoever, that the mysterious "Angel" is the code name for Chavez. But in the memo, Chavez goes by the code name … Chavez.

1. The Colombian paramilitaries have been involved in numerous attempts on Chavez's life. One, in 2004, would be attempt was foiled. About 50 Colombian paramilitary troops were in Caracas and were set to try and assassinate Chavez. The paramilitaries and the Colombian armed forces have also gone over into Venezuela attacking people there, not just leftists guerrillas, and are funded by the same country who tried to install a dictatorship in Venezuela in 2002. I don't think that ANY country has the right to interfere in Colombia, including the US, it's funny though why you don't ask the same question of the US. I'm sorry but the US is the cause of the situation in Colombia. THEY set up the paramilitary network, they arm the network and they look the other way as the majority of violence is committed by that network & the majority of drugs comes out of that network & they don't border Colombia like Venezuela does. Colombia has been harmed by the US more than any country by a mile. If the US doesn't create the paramilitary network and doesn't arm it to the teath groups like the FARC wouldn't be created in respsonse to that violence.

2. That has yet to be determined. However, if you think that is a justification to bomb the country, is Cuba justified in bombing south Florida? Have any idea how many violent terrorists (people who've bombed planes, hotels, crops, etc), who've killed countless people and are responsible for helping put in power right wing dictatorships are living free in south Florida? Are Latin American countries justified in bombing the town where the School of Americas is? Is Haiti allowed to bomb the US, France & Canada for arming, financing and providing a haven for the worst killers in their country?

3a. If you want to ignore what the facts of what I said in 1, go ahead. I wonder what you would do if Mexico was being funded by China to do the same to the US government and the president here, if you think it would be justified to fight back, and use strong language. It's the US doing though, so you won't attempt to be objective.

3b. Colombia doesn't need to verbally threaten, they've acted and their funded and armed by the US, while being used as a proxy against Venezuela. It's a different dynamic here.

4a & 4b Chavez has a high popularity, Uribe higher. I address Uribe's bellow.

Let me ask YOU some questions.

1. Who, according to international organizations working in Colombia, commits the vast majority of atrocities? The paramilitary network set up by the Colombian right wing and the US or the FARC (both bad, violent groups to be sure)? Also, there have been numerous plots discovered by the Colombian paramilitary networks to kill Chavez, have any evidence the other way around?
2. Who, even according to the DEA, is involved with more drug activity, the FARC or the paramilitary networks (although the FARC have been increasing their activities)?
3. Who has more extensive, decades long and provable ties to drug cartels and paramilitary organizations, Chavez or Uribe? Keep in mind that Uribe's father was a drug dealer, his cousin & dozens in his political party are under arrest for ties to drug cartels, his former campaign manager was busted at a US airport with hundreds of pounds of drug making materials, he was number 82 on the State Departments list of worse drug offenders in Colombia in the early 1990's, has extensive ties to the Medellín (who he was accused of shielding as governor) drug cartel, amongst other things.
4. Did the FARC appear out of nowhere or were they created after years of attacks by what would become the paramilitary organizations? It isn't to make excuses for the FARC, it's just a question of why they exist (the violence, the economic and social situation within the country).
5. What happened to the left wing forces in Colombia when they were asked to take part in elections in the 1980's & 90's? Were they allowed to peacefully take part in the elections or were about 5,000 of their activists killed (including presidential candidates, mayors, lawyers, teachers, etc)?

Just a few facts you should think about. Only about a quarter of the Colombian population voted in the last election. In Venezuela about 80% of the public took part. Since Chavez took over, according to a poll done across the region (interviewing thousands of people in different countries), since Chavez took over Venezuelans have seen the largest increase in happiness with their democracy and are second happiest with their democratic system in the entire region. According to this report, Colombians have the LOWEST participation in the democratic process in the region. They also have some of the lowest opinions on the trustworthiness of their democracy. I don't doubt that Uribe has support from the country (which is a virtual police state because of the violence on both sides) but I also doubt that they're going into the jungles or the poorer regions of the country, where people have no phones to be asked, & getting their opinions.

http://www.globalexchange.org/countries/americas/venezuela/Latinobarometro.pdf

Do all you bleeding heart idiots supporting Chavez and knocking Colombia's ties to the US Govt. ( it hasn't just been Bush - so get it right ), EVER ASK YOURSELF WHY FARC HAS HOSTAGES??? How the $%## can you side with a group that takes hostages. If the countries whose territory is violated, provides haven for terrorists, then they deserve what they get!!

I saw this graffiti 20 years ago and it still applies:
"U.S. Out of Everywhere!"
Some things never change.

What's that smell?

Many of the comments are disturbingly bilateral, in that the reflect an "us and them" mentality with regard to the conflict. It is a problem to lump Chavez, Morales and Correa together, it is a problem (as in forextrader's comment) to root for the FARC simply because of the veracity of the US-Uribe connection and its corruption. It is very true that, in the wake of US focus on the middle-east, Latin America was able to go through a wave of pro-socialist and populist political changes, largely in reaction to the painful neo-liberal reforms and right-wing and corporate leaders supported by the US in the previos several decades. However, all of these movements are not the same. Additionally, the issue is not and should not be to support the FARC because US policy in the region is a travesty. The FARC has long since failed to be authentic representatives of pro-social political reform. In truth neither the FARC nor the government-supported paramilitaries are much more than power-hungry drug traffickers at this point, terrorizing the population under the guise of promoting popular interests. It's the blunt truth. The real issue here is the failure of the US to embrace potential allies in the region based on a massive strategic mis-reading of the political scene. The US policy, led by Condi Rice and others whose policy perspectives were minted in the Cold War, sees the Latin American drift to the left as a return to Soviet Socialist Dictatorships. The truth, however, is that while Chavez might reflect that analysis, not a single other leader, including Morales and Correa, are remotely tied into that ideology. Theirs is a forward thinking, not regressive, leftism. These are potential allies of the US, with more openness to international relationships and moderate social and economic policies than their Marxist predecesors. The US has failed miserably in understanding and taking advantage of this openness to promote an effective governance model in Latin America that both reflects local needs and encourages democracy, authentic justice systems, and regional participation. The primary result of these isolated (and often castigated) governments is to seek assistance from their only other alternative - Hugo Chavez. Chavez is by far the most extreme of the leaders. He has dropped any pretense of populism by rejecting all forms of authentivc democracy and press freedoms, among other important aspects of social participation. He has also embraced militarism by, among other things, inviting Russian weapons manufacturing into his country. There is little doubt that he is an ally of the FARC, as there is little doubt that Uribe is an ally of the right-wing death-squad paramilitaries in Colombia. We, as the US, are exacerbating the problem by forcing moderates to either give up their identity or choose to ally themselves with an extremist. It is precisely the same model we used to alienate all moderate Arab and Muslim populations and governments after 9-11, when they were all inclined to work with us. We see the results in Iran, where a moderate population reacted by returning to anti-Western views and electing a more extremist government after more than a decade of popular pressure to moderate their government. Our "us and them" policies in both of these regions have created a much more dangerous world, and I am distressed to see the same philosophy echoed here, albeit usually from the other side of the argument.

Yes, it's Colombia, but spelling is one thing, but let's get it right, the government is the one doing the dope pushing. The US mainstream horse hockey media should stop pushing this BS.

The Columbian government is a kill crazy, dope pushing tyranny which has slaughtered whole villages of its own people. If war comes, may Ecuador and Venezuela win a completely and before the US neo cons can do anything about it.

what made me "laugh" was when the US State Department said they dont see how this has anything to do with Venezuela.

The first thing to come to mind was the 1991 Gulf War. The USD's argument could have applied to us then. What did Iraq's invasion with Kuwait have to do with the US?

Shameless hypocrisy and pathetic spin...

I'd love to hear more from those in Colombia (please excuse my ignorance in my previous spelling - (I don't know it all?). I'd also like to hear more from others in Central and South America on this topic. It's so necessary to hear from those affected and involved on the ground. We in America are never as informed as we should be but I believe most of us on this site, genuinely want our global neighbors to be free from conflict and the undue influence of our government on their own lives.

The drug trade in Colombia as many conflict situations in many countries has much to do with demand in other countries who rather than work to reduce the demand that fuels conflict, instead seek to support corporations or organizations, legal or illegal, that exploit this demand for profit. Where profits are concerned, democracy, human rights, the environment and equity are all trampled for the enrichment and power of a few, including most importantly those in the banking sector who have long supported the illegal drug trade and are eager to launder money to redistibute for more exploitive investment.

Global capitalism is an immense disaster and must be dismantled to achieve an end to the violence, greed and corruption. Grassroots movements and self-sustaining communities must be pursued in all areas across the globe to bring about true equity, cooperation and democracy and bring an end to the terror, violence and abuse that occurs on a global scale.

Is there an alternative to Capitalism? I believe there is at least a good start in terms of sound economic, social and sustainable theory and vision with Michael Albert's Participatory Economics. Visit www.Zmag.org to find out more about this economic theory.

I feel the best way to start to bring about this kind of change is for each of us to start working in our own communities to create the infrastructure and relationships necessary to foster a more cooperative, self-sustaining, and self-sufficient lifestyle that promotes true caring for others over individual materialism and corporate profits.

FARC is no doubt a rather unsaavory group who have lost their political ligitimacy and are essentially rural gangsters rather than a politcal movement.

Having said that, exactly how bad is FARC compared to other violent actors in Colombia??? I do know these facts:

1. The National Labor School (Escuela Nacional Sindical), a prominent labor rights group in Colombia, has recorded more than 2,500 killings of trade unionists since 1986; 201 in 2001 alone, and most recently, two in November '07. Virtually none of thee killings were solved or even investigated.

2. Throughout the 1980's to a few years ago, human rights orgainzations have consistently assigned 80% of the violence in Colombia to the right-wing paramilitaries, not FARC.

3. Since 2003, the paramilitaries have largely disbanded, but have been given complete immunity from prosecution for their considerably more numerous crimes. Presumably most of them are now in the regular Colombian Armed Forces.

So, I repeat, considering these other crimes, why is so much of the focus only on FARC?

As far as the geography consider this: If you are anywhere in Venezuela, and travel straight east, you WILL end up in Colombia - especially from it's populated parts. But only in some parts of Venezuela will you end up in Colombia if you travel straight (over the mostly wild and roadless) south. You will just as likely end up in Brazil or even Guyana. Therefore, it is best to characterize Venezuela as lying to the East of Colombia.

"interesting, in the chaos that must have ensued in the killing of 21 guerillas, the leader's laptop miraculously survives…

Ridiculous."

And add to that the declaration that the colombians say they never crossed the border, just shot at the camp a mile away from helicopters inside colombian territory. I think colombians have a super-secret tractor beam technology that it used to get at the heavy duty laptop.

Farc said yesterday Colombia's raid gravely damaged chances of further releases of some of the 700 hostages it holds in jungle camps, including Íngrid Betancourt, the ailing Franco-Colombian politician who has become the public face of the captives' plight.

What the corporate media leaves out is that Betancourt was the Green Party canidate for President. The Green Party is never mentioned and the fact that it is the Green Party tells me she will die while being held captive. FARC and Bush share the same deadly contempt for ANYONE that is not on "their side".

Corporate media loves to wag the dog!

Who sold them the weapons that were used?
-----
Plain and simple, we are pushing lawlessness when we allow this along with Turkey using U.S. intelligence to attack the Kurds inside their country of Iraq. Oh yea, Israel and It's neighbor... with U.S. supplied weapons and blessings.

Disregard for the law that's the example we are setting by letting this happen. By ignoring the problem, (PNAC/Bush Admin.(past&present)) we allow things to get worse day by day.

NRA Freedom is a stupid party apparatchik who, like any good tool of western imperialism, mindlessly spewing propaganda all over the internet and ensnaring the foolish and naive with bogus lead stories!

He's just another "hired gun" to promote the Bushjunta's parochial world domination and oil goal

Colombia. Now they'll make me find it on a map.

ijdavis - 11:18pm
Please look at a map of South America. Now visualize Colombia and try to establish North, South, East and West borders. As you may not (and I'm sure you didn't) have noticed, Columbia is not a perfect square, but is rather, an somewhat irregular parallellogram. Once you realize this, you can assign areas that lie PREDOMINATELY at the four directions. Venezuela and the Carribean to the North; Brazil to the East; Ecuador and Peru to the South and The Pacific Ocean to the West.

True, a small tip of Columbia's land does poke just to the North of Venezuela, but the majority of its Northern Border lies South of Venzuela.

ijdavis, you are a nit-picker and certainly belong in the Bush, Cheney, Rice camp.

alimadrid March 6th, 2008 12:17 am

"If you read analysis of groups engaged in guerrilla warfare, they can only survive, particularly as long as FARC has survived, if they have the support of the population around them"

As about the survival of guerrillean groups in other countries, it's true that they need support from people, or they wouldnt be able to finantially support a war.
In the case of Colombian guerrilla, they have drug-cartel financiation, so they dont need peoples support. They can buy peoples help whenever they need it and poor people will be willing to sell their help.

Please again... if you're going to discuss about my country, show some respect and at least spell the name right. Its Colombia, not Columbia.

PaulK March 6th, 2008 9:27 am

"Also, FARC runs its own cocaine. They don't need $300 million from anyone"

Of course they do. FARC supports themselves economically from two different sources. The first one is drug production. The second one is money that people pay them to free their kidnapped familiars. Those $300 were supposedly payed by Chavez for the freedom of Clara Rojas and the two other people, to make the rest of the world belive he was succeeding in the negotiations with FARC.

First there were the WMD fabrications. The fabrication got us into a war against someone who hated and feared Al-Qaeda.

A month ago the United States military released an audio fabrication, and an obviously bad fabrication to boot, of an Iranian motorboat captain making death threats against an American naval destroyer.

Now, NPR reports the Columbian army claim that they were in hot pursuit against guerillas, which was their excuse for invasion. Other sources say that everyone (including the dead and wounded) were in their pajamas, which implies more of a surprise attack than hot pursuit. So the Columbian army made something up.

Next we notice that the Columbian army IMMEDIATELY came up with computer records on FARC computers showing that Hugo Chavez gave them $300 million dollars. This implies, first, that the FARC subcommander was too completely stupid to use an encryption program such as PGP for wildly sensitive data. Second, Columbian army intelligence knew exactly, precisely where to look on the computer for the incriminating evidence. Three, the Columbian army even found the laptop that fast in the middle of the night. When is the last time you heard the terms "Columbian army" and "computer literate" in the same article? I thought that anyone with intelligence had run for their lives from the Columbian drug lords, or allied with them. Could the Columbian army even lie as semi-effectively as the U.S. military?

This implies that the Columbian army had U.S. advisors running the whole thing.

Also, FARC runs its own cocaine. They don't need $300 million from anyone.

NRA, Check out the history of the US in South America. I know you won't. You are resolutely ignorant.

Lets see, AL-Queda, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, Kosovo, North Korea, Syria, various pipelines and the need to keep Russia and China in line. There will not be too much support militarily from the US other than hardware, and that is in short supply. The US military is occupied elsewhere, is in need of refurbishment, and a decade of rest and relaxation. The Neo-con thinking is overplaying the US military.

Of course the fascist Bush Administration supports the right-wing Columbian dictator. The US has always supported right-wing regimes and toppled or attempted to topple legitimately elected left-wing governments in Central and South America.

The US is the biggest rogue nation.

Save your breath, lizard.

Anyone who calls him/herself NRA Freedom ain't about to hear what you say or much less care.

This person sounds like one the DynCorp International press agents justifying poisoning the farmers in the South.

NRA: It wasn't a dispute, it was an attack on another nation's territory. That's a no no but you don't seem to grasp that. Ecuador wasn't harboring anybody. Venezuela sent troops to make a point, Colombia broke the law to make a point. Both presidents are popular. The press is free in Venezuela, not Colombia. This is all a show sponsored by George Bush. Chavez is a good guy, Uribe is not. The people of Colombia are desperate for an end to violence and have turned against the guerrilla, believing they don't stand for anything but pillaging. But is the perception correct, or a media creation?.

Again I remind you that this struggle in South America for independence from American hegemony is much more deeply rooted than a simple leftist socialist explanation. Unlike the U.S. Indigenous Peoples in South America make up a majority of people in many states. The recent passage of the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples highlights the efforts of the Indigenous to reclaim their sovereignty after five hundred years of Euro/American political and economic dominance in the region. The Indigenous world view is now again dominant in much of the region among the Indigenous Peoples. It forms the foundation of cooperative and not competitive lifeways whose roots go back over thirteen thousand years. If it could not be ended in five hundred years of genocide, it is not going to end. People there are not in the mood to take orders from Uncle Sam anymore and will fight to the death to defend and recover their historic rights to their land and culture. America is too ignorant and callous to care, and therein lies America's weakness. Bush is a pitiful president whose comprehension reaches no further than his Texas ego and bank account. He is a war monger and a war criminal in my opinion. It is the responsibility of the Indigenous nations to oppose Bush, Columbia, and the U.S. They take it very seriously.

If you read analysis of groups engaged in guerrilla warfare, they can only survive, particularly as long as FARC has survived, if they have the support of the population around them

Venezuela is to the East of Columbia. This sort of sloppy reporting is just the sort of reporting likely to alarm the Brazilians. And if one is to insist that one is north of the other then I'd say Columbia extends further north than Venezuela. So how Venezuela forces could be massing on Columbia's northern border is beyond me.

But I agree, FARC lost their ligitimacy a long time ago.

Just the same, these attacks constituted an extrajudicial execution. They could have been captured and tried.

And, considering delicate hostage release negations were underway by third countries was it a smart thing to do anyway?

As a leftist and labor union member, if I were a Colombian, I would be more afraid of my anti-union, capitalist bosses hit man than FARC.

Dear Colombians,

[Uribe] brought hope back to Colombia, he made people belive that there could be an end to this internal war… even if we had to do a lot of sacrifices in social and educational investment."

That's not why social and educational investment is being sacrificed! Social programs are being sacrificed on the altar of neoliberal capitalist privatization!

If Uribe is so good, has he solved any of the political-economic murders of those over 800 union organizers yet?

"it is him [Chavez] that keeps his citizens hungry, jobless, polarized, and divided in order to hold and stay in power. "

Isn't the capitalist bosses in Venezuela, with CIA help, who are creating the artificial food shortages, just like their phony PDVSA strike?

Isn't it the rich Venezuelan elites and their right wing media (with more CIA help, of course) that are the source of all the polarization and divisiveness?

And I guess the Caracazo food riots under the neoliberal IMF stooge Carlos Andres Perez were times of Venezuelan unity?

Buncha fucking freaks. They need to learn how to play nice. Or else we'll show em, won't we George? George?

You're right, but we cant. On the one hand we didn't have enough economic resources to kepp fighting against FARC. Uribe needed money in order to keep his commitment to the Colombians of fighting the Gurrilla.
USA gave him the money for that and in was called "Plan Colombia". We know the USA has other interests in Colombia besides fighting the drug-cartels, but the money and the support (i.e. guns, military training, weapons, etc) of the US is the only way to keep the fight against FARC and ELN. Many Colombians are against US politics, but many more are against FARC, so thats all people are thinking about right now.

Colombians are so tired of FARC and ELN, that they support a President who basically sold the country to the US, but anything sounds less bad than to continue with thin unending war.

It would be impossible to sustain this internal war without US help. The FARC and ELN do have financial suppor from drug-cartels and citizen paying them to free their kidnapped family members.
The government does not have any other way to financiate the war besides accepting US money.

We don't condone military action in Ecuador, but the Ecuatorian government knew about the guerrilla-camps in their territory and didnt do anything. Colombia apologyzed for the military invasion and offered to pay for the damage, but it cant be ignored that those were not poor people attacked during their sleep. They were guerrilla members that have killed, violated, kidnapped and abused thousands of Colombians. Chavez is trying to make them look like some kind of Che Guevara guerrilla which they are not.
They have no support from Colombians, except for those involved in drug cartels. They do not represent the interest of any civilian group. They just run a bussiness... an illegal one.

Venezuela and Ecuador have every right to defend their borders from military incursions, invasions etc. from Colombia or anyone else. Colombia is the regional troublemaker, not Chavez or Correa. Chavez and Correa are defending their regional sovereignty and their legitimate governance based on regional solidarity, anti-imperialism and social betterment for all, especially the poor.

I will stray from my left brothers on the question of FARC - I oppose violent resistance, especially one that has brewed 40 years of civil war. Nevertheless, FARC's crimes pale in comparison to Colombia's state-sanctioned murder of unionists, activists and leftist politicians.

Dump Uribe! He's an imperialist criminal!
Viva Chavez, viva Correa

angegarciamv March 5th, 2008 7:20 pm
I am Colombian, living in Colombia

Your argument makes sense but why is everyone condemning Chavez? Do you condone military action in other countries without the consent of those countries. If you guy's were smart you would tell the CIA and US miliary to leave and clean up the problem yourselves.

I wonder how much Venezuela paid to free all those Colombians? Now narc bites the hand that freeds it?

"I hope we can make it to Jan. 20th and either Obama or Clinton is sane enough to roll back the neo-con foreign policy of belligerence."

A forlorn hope, unfortunately.

As Chavez pointed out, the US is setting up Colombia to be the Israel of Latin America.

This analogy is even more exact if you recall that back in 1967 and 1972, the "threat" in the Middle East was a progressive, pan-Arab Socialist movement typified by Nasser in Egypt and the PFLP in Palestine. Islamism didn't exist, and only arose to fill the gap of despair when the Arab socialist aspirations were crushed.

Well if this all doesn't smell fishy....

This could be the beginning of the war-by-proxy against the rise of the South American Left. Bush, Sarkozy,Uribe et.al. linking Chavez, Morales, and Correa to Islamo-Fascists and Al-Quaeda. This could be the beginning of WWIII, "the beginning of the end of the beginning of the end et. cetera... et. cetera... so on and so forth." I hope we can make it to Jan. 20th and either Obama or Clinton is sane enough to roll back the neo-con foreign policy of belligerence.

I am sure Exxon and the big oil corporatocracy has nothing to do with this.

"However, Colombia's president, Álvaro Uribe, received strong support yesterday from President George Bush and hit back with a series of claims, including allegations of close collusion between Farc and the Ecuadorean and Venezuelan leaders".

The above of story of alleged clusion between Chavez and FARC sounds alot the Bush adminstation, stove calling the kettle black.
Read the following.

"The Gaza Bombshell"

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article19458.htm

Columbia is a puppet regime of American imperialism. It's not surprising that it would do what it did. Bush is looking for any excuse to go to war in South America against the progressive forces there. Hillary and Obama will support the Evil Empire which acts in the interests of the corporate elite. Where are the "progressives" lining up on this issue? They're debating amongst themselves whether Hillary or Obama should be supported. What a bunch of worthless idiots. It's no wonder that the rest of the world has to live with the cruelty of American Imperialism.

Has anyone else noticed that Sr. Reyes was sleeping in a tent out in the jungle, risking his life beside his men?

The US government says that FARC has become a cocaine cartel. They claim that the leaders are utterly amoral people motivated by pure greed, just like the Americans.

During the last seven years, we have all had ample opportunity to observe the behavior of billionare sociopaths, and this isn't typical of the breed.

I don't see Dick Cheney risking his tender skin along with his soldiers in Iraq, nor would I hold my breath waiting for him to do it!

Columbia has made threatening moves toward Venezueala including border incursions prior to this. This is indeed the old US lacky leadership versus the new progressive wave in South America. It comes at a bad time for the Imperialsists though as we've blown our wad in Iraq. The Empire is not in a position or underwrite war or to intervene militarily.

Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but don't count on moderation from Hillary and Obama. Here's how Hillary and Obama responded: http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/03/05/7482/

Hillary response is just as bad as the Bush Administration's. It's got neocon written all over it. She defended Uribe the murderer and accused Chavez of "terrorism". How is Hillary's foreign policy different than Bush's might I ask? Obama (while admittedly more restrained the Hillary) admonished Ecuador and Venezulea not to ratchet up tensions. He should tell that to Colombia. Oh I forgot, Uribe's our "ally". He can do anything he wants. Never mind that Ecuador's sovereignty was grossly violated. I hope FARC, Chavez, Morales, and Correa prevail.

Something worth noting is the reaction of the two Democratic contenders for the party's candidacy in the presidential election.

Read a comment on their responses by Robert Naiman at Huffington Post:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-naiman/obama-glosses-colombian-a_b_89836.html

I interpret Clinton's comments on the Equadorian incursion as knee jerk and catering to the expectations her assumed supporters. I expect that we'll experience greater confrontation with Iran in her presidency, a pardoning of the telcos, the continued use of presidential signing statements, continued internal spying in the US, and a solution to the sub-prime and soon to be prime mortgage crises which will exclusively benefit the lenders.

Reyes was the key to hostage release and to negotiation. This is more Bush foreign policy through surrogates. Expect more of the same in a Clinton White House. Most of the primary voters, Democrat, independent, or Republican wouldn't have a clue with respect to what I'm writing about. The general ignorance in matters of the world among the greater part of the population of the US will be the undoing of this nation's Constitution and of its social, economic and cultural orders.

A bad situation gets worse. I believe stronly in the government being set up by Hugo Chavez, but military might can never be an acceptable answer althought this clearly represents a defensive action rather than an offensive "pre-emptive" strategy.

It appears to be linked to a "free-trade" vote coming up in Congress as well as a manipulated propoganda campaign against the leftist movement in Latin America. I hope Chavez has the strenght to defend his borders without actually using military force and the wisdom to show the U.S. a better way to solve conflict.

Unfortunately, with the U.S. calling the shots in Columbia, the appeal to nationalism (fascism) advocated by Bush could indeed lead to a military incident but is most likely being used to advance a faulty UN resolution condemning Ecuador and Venezuela as states supporting terrorism in the hopes of undermining their truly democratically elected governments in favor of U.S. backed stooges.

We really need to bring down this paper empire!

'ZOZO is back

The group of elites controlling the US government is the planet's pre-eminent class war aggressor and supports every proxy it can find to help wage its class war against the rabble. Washington is the group's political center, neoliberal capitalism is its economic framework, and Clintok, O'Bama or Mkkkain will be its next royal puppet. Columbia is the group's proxy in Latin America. Chavez and Castro are two of its key targets because they are the most visible champions of the rabble. But the rabble is learning to make each individual a champion, which enables the rabble to non-violently defeat all groups of elites, the class war aggressors.

This should teach Chavez to tweak the US where it hurts.

You must admit, it has only taken a week to put another WMD scenario into action after Chavez made threats to shut down the oil to US.

For those who have not been following Uribe he is nothing more than the Western Hemisphere Saddam ( when he was our guy starting a war with Iran at our behest).

Now we have manufactured an excuse and backed another pre-emptive invasion of a sovereign state.

We are once again backing the fascist strong-arm leader against a democratically elected government.

I should not be surprised since this US policy started in this Hemisphere (google Smedley Butler).

We exported it to the Middle East, honed it and now are applying it again in its birthplace.

US and puppets against the world.

If we are lucky, the good people of Columbia will not tolerate their country becoming a US puppet. Most Columbians dislike the US as much as the rest of South America. Hopefully sanity will prevail.

"Plan Colombia."

http://www.serendipity.li/cia/bush-cheney-drugs.htm

spartacus,
You've made an excellent analysis, I believe what you say makes a lot of sense, thank you.

lwhunt330,
So far I have never met either a Colombian or Venezuelan who opposes the US. Maybe is because those I've met are not in their country of origin and feel superior than the poor people who support Chavez or Correa, who knows.
Anyway, I hope what you are saying is true and I hope Colombians get another president who is not a "puppy of the empire".

lwhunt330: "If we are lucky, the good people of Columbia will not tolerate their country becoming a US puppet. Most Columbians dislike the US as much as the rest of South America. Hopefully sanity will prevail."

In college, only a few years ago, I used to hang out with a group of Columbians and we talked politics quite a bit. Could be just my individual experience, but they had MUCH worse things to say about FARC than about their government, even as a puppet.

I echo your hope for sanity ...though this is made difficult when there's a guy with as big a mouth as that of Sr. Chavez. Where's the King of Spain when we need him?

This just provides more evidence that the future welfare of the human race, and probably even its very survival, depends on the collapse of the US empire.

Since Bush has been doing everything in his power to accelerate that collapse, is he really going to be damned by history? If the collapse does occur soon, will Bush be seen as a hapless and disturbed simpleton who inadvertently saved the human race through his imprudent ruthlessness?

Hope springs eternal.

This aggression by Colombia and the US is likely aimed at Ecuador's assertion of its sovereignty over its oil, not just its territory. The border region is vital to oil exploration and transport. See http://phillipbannowsky.com/Motherearth.htm for a prescient account of how oil lubricates all conflicts in Ecuador.

I've been saying since the beginning, and I'll say it again... YOU CAN'T COUNT ON OBAMA OR CLINTON TO CHANGE ANYTHING. They are in the pockets of the corporate masters and AIPAC JUST as much as the rest of the evil ruling class. There is no HOPE in Obama... no PEACE in CLINTON... face it, you're fucked either way. Nothing is going to change until the empire implodes into itself.

This ones got it all, oil, drugs (looks like Bush and Uribe have been sampling the goods). How ruthless can it get; when all the involved parties recently were engaged in successful negotiations to release hostages; a brutal provocation.

The u.s. governments policy is to prevent peace.

elmysterio March 5th, 2008 4:32 pm

These dem voters don't care about change. They care about the illusion of change. They need something to delude themselves for 4 years, possibly 8 - and what do you know, the same problems will exist.

It's the same attitude the republicans have had for the past 7-8 years. Though now they can't really ignore it. The economy is goin downhill, we're still bogged down occupying Iraq...But one thing they do selectively ignore is the whole larger government, expanded exec powers, spying etc.

From John Perkin's book "The Secret History of the American Empire" (2007), page 149:

"...as a result of [the book] Confessions [of an Economic Hit man]...several members of the U.S. armed forces approached me with accounts of maneuvers on Colombian soil aimed at a military invasion of Venezuela. Like Brett, they were deeply concerned about the course their country was taking: they did not dare go public but they wanted the American people to hear about their experiences.

Colombia is the glaring exception to the hemispheric anti-corporatocracy movements. It has maintained its position as Washington's surrogate. Shored up by massive taxpayer assistance and armies of corporate sponsored mercenaries, as well as formal U.S. military support, it has become the keystone in Washington's attempts to regain regional domination. Although official justification for U.S. involvement centers on drug wars, this is a subterfuge for protecting oil interests against grassroots opposition to foreign exploitation."

...[the U.S. soldiers asserted that the real reasons they have been stationed in Colombia were to establish a U.S. presence and to train Latin soldiers as part of a United States commanded Southern Unified Army (a term two of the three used)."

Get the book and read it. We're going back to war-by-proxy against the uppity Latin leaders. The U.S.-sponsored coup against Chavez failed, and now were seeing Bush's Plan B.

Well, one part of this is obvious BS.

Why would a laptop from a current FARC commander have any info about money going to Chavez in 1992? I kinda doubt the laptop is so old that it just has some old files about that laying around on it.

---------------------
Like with any country, it depends on who you talk to. Generally, the upper classes are going to be very opposed to a rebel movement like FARC. And generally, the students who have the money to study abroad are from the upper classes. So I'm not at all surprised they didn't have anything good to say about FARC.

Try going to Colombia and talking to the peasants in some remote village. You might get a different point of view.

-------------------
We've been training Latin American soldiers to be our proxy army for decades. The School of the Americas is another well-known part of that effort. We've been fighting a war by proxy in various ways in the region ever since JFK was pushing the idea of 'counter-insurgency'. Probably longer than that.

The Project for the New American Century (PNAC) makes clear that the US needs to control 4 countries to complete coverage of the whole world. These coiuntries are 2 central asian republics, Iraq, and Colombia. This was decided befoere 9-11. In fact, one could argue that 9-11 was the first phase of launching the project. With the acquisition of Colombia and Iraq the plan is now complete. Colombia now is headed by a US puppet government and Colombians will die to further US aims. The leaders of Colombia will receive their reward and be even richer while the poor of Colombia head toward death to sutain their wealth. The US continues its march toward world domination with the full acquiescence of its people. There is no visible end to the misery the US is intent on producing around the world.

Iraq
Afghanistan
Somalia
Serbia
Cuba

These are present victims of the US

Next up: Venezuela and Ecuador.

Care for some Sushi or shall we just order a pizza?

Chavez seizes oil assets in Venezuela from Conoco Phillips and Exxon Mobil. Chavez agrees to compensate the oil companies but wants Venezuelan control of Venezuelan oil.

The U.S. responds militarily through its agent Columbia and now has a "smoking gun" or "mushroom cloud" assertion against Chavez.

This stinks.

Lets see if the the Internet can prevent war or at least disseminate truth.

"Anyway, I hope what you are saying is true and I hope Colombians get another president who is not a "puppy of the empire"."

The history of Colombia is waves of assassinations and kidnapping and torture aimed at anyone trying to work politically for anything like this.

This is from memory, but I think I remember that in the 1980's the armed insurgents of that time agreed to lay down their arms and to participate in elections instead. Some 4000 got murdered for trying.

So, I'm not sure how the Colombians could possibly get a president who is not a 'puppy of the empire'. After all, we just murdered the rebel leader who was willing to sit down and participate in negotiations. Do you think his replacement will make the same mistake?

Interesting, in the chaos that must have ensued in the killing of 21 guerillas, the leader's laptop miraculously survives...

Ridiculous.

Uribe has the same type of approval ratings as the Decider did circa Sep. 11., as far as the civil war goes. Someone mentioned it previously, but I'll say it again for emphasis. Colombians dislike the FARC a tad bit more than the Army, and this cross border targeted assasination just puts more political capital into Urube's pocket.

I'm really hoping tensions don't rise to action. Ecuador is slowly crawling out of the shadow of IMF/WB policy. I'm too lazy to do research, but I believe Ecuador was spending six percent of it's oil revenue on social services. I think Correa is very close to paying of his nation's loans. After that, hello Bolivarian Revolution. I don't think the super-majors agreed with his policy, and this crisis is the beginning of the U.S., via Colombia, to start bringing democracy to the Andes.

I was thinking about going to Quito in August to study spanish at this cool little language academy downtown. I hope it's still an option 5 months from now.

I'm shocked Hugo is 'taking such bait' from DC...
And, Correa had better 'check any flights' he is taking, or he'll end-up like Torrijos, of Panama (or worse, like Noriega-Moreno!)

The other 'Correa' I am reminded of here was spelled Korea...prior to that 'proxy-war'.
Hugo had best CYA. We are building a base in Suriname now, and have-several on high-alert, already, in Columbia/Peru (where Bushes 'retirement-ranch' sits on a 'to be cleared of natives' 100,000 acres, over a nice aquifer)...
Hugo is the Castro for a neo-Century, and a 'hurricane' he is!

I am a Colombian national and I find very offensive the believe and commentaries of some contributors in portraying Chavez as a victim of some conspiracy while ignoring his continuous support to a guerrilla movement in order to maintain internal strife in Colombia to rankle the US. While I am a true progressive I deplore those that leave behind their consciences to aid Chavez forgetting that it is him that keeps his citizens hungry, jobless, polarized, and divided in order to hold and stay in power. Shame on you for being so blind.

It may be that Colombia's regime is a toady of the American government, that Bush would like to use this incident to topple the governments of Ecuador and Venezuela, that that the CIA or the NSA or the Pentagon helped plan Colombia's strike, that the FARC-Chavez connection is a red herring, etc. The question remains what a FARC unit was doing wandering around freely on Ecuadoran territory. If the Ecuadoran government didn't know they were there, Colombia should have notified them and requested their arrest. If the Ecuadorans knew they were there and took no action, Colombia probably acted appropriately. Harboring a rebel group waging war within another country is a violation of that country's sovereignty. Has everyone forgotten US support for the Contras at war with the Sandanista regime in Nicaragua? I believe they were operating out of Costa Rica and Guatemala. Leftists' ideological affinity with Chavez and the Ecuadoran government and dislike for US imperialism is irrelevant to the rights of Ecuador and Colombia as states.

I am Colombian, living in Colombia.

I was born inside the Colombian conflict with the FARC. My country has been fighting a war against this group for over 40 years.

I've worked with the Red Cross for over 10 years and had the opportunity to help and talk to victims of the conflict in lots of small abandoned villages (as someone in this discussion said).

Those who think the FARC are some kind of left-lead group are wrong. Maybe they were at some point but now they are nothing but a cocaine-producer group, that is not willing to negotiate, but keeps the lie they will, in order to mantain an excuse to run their bussiness.

Its not true Colombians don't support their government. President's reelection in Colombia was not possible and peolple voted to change the constitution in order to be able to reelect Uribe who had more support than any president ever had in our national history.

It doesnt have to do with Colombians liking or disliking the US. It has to do with a country tired of the Guerrilla, FARC, ELN, AUC, and the abuses of all this groups, the cruelty, the dead, missing and kidnapped people.

Colombians will support this government as long as it keeps promising that they will give an end to the FARC. Dont forget the over ten millions of Colombians that joined the walk against FARC and pro Uribe last Febuary.

It doesnt mean Colombians agree with all Uribe's politics, but people will support him for being the first president in 40 years who is actually doing something agains those "rebell" groups. We are tired of negotiations. We are tired of presidents like Pastrana who gave a big part of our territory to FARC...

Uribe may be wrong in a lot of things, but he brought hope back to Colombia, he made people belive that there could be an end to this internal war... even if we had to do a lot of sacrifices in social and educational investment.

As for what is happening with Ecuador, we all hope it doesnt come to action. We dont need a war against our neighbours when we already have one in our own Country. But you should have seen people in the streets celebrating Raul Reye's death. Its an asset to Uribe and Colombians see it that way.

(For those in the discussion who think they know a lot and say the others aren't informed: Its Colombia, not Columbia!)

I just had a flash. Bush and cronies have commanded their paid minions in Columbia to do provocative cross border attacks on neighboring states. If one of these states respond's, the corporate press is primed to go into overdrive, painting Ecuador and Venezuela as the agressor's. The confused US masses will swallow the B.S. line and fall into to place as scripted or at least we will be lead to believe they do by the corporate neo-con press. Your typical suck up to the rich everyready [red slate] chumps, phony religious hacks and Rush Limbaugh like pundit's will be foaming at the mouth.
This process is getting boring and costly. It has already ruined this place.