Ecuador: Colombia used U.S. weapons in attack on FARC camp

[bemildred]

Source: Xinhua

Colombia used U.S.-facilitated electronic weapons and technology in its attack on a Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) camp in Ecuadoran territory, Ecuadoran Defense Minister Wellington Sandoval said on TV Thursday.

Five U.S. "intelligent bombs" were used by Colombia in Saturday's attack, he said. The raid resulted in the deaths of 21 FARC rebels, including second-in-command Raul Reyes.

Sandoval said only the U.S. army possessed the kind of bombs used by Colombia in the attack, reiterating that no other military force in Latin America had comparable electronic equipment.

The highly precise intelligent bombs fell in a radius not bigger than 50 meters from the FARC base, located 1.5 km inside Ecuador an territory, the minister said, citing military experts who had inspected the attack site.


Read more: http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90777/90852/6368418.html

---

Sounds like JDAMs?

[bemildred]

1. Rice urges diplomacy for Colombia

Have another pickle.

BRUSSELS, Belgium — Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Thursday the United States wants to see a diplomatic solution to the tension in Latin America after the U.S.-backed government in Colombia attacked a rebel camp in neighboring Ecuador.

The commando raid last weekend killed a key rebel leader and 23 other guerrillas from Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia rebel group, also known as the FARC.

"I do hope there will be a diplomatic outcome to this," Rice said a news conference following a meeting of NATO foreign ministers.

"The situation shows that everyone needs to be vigilant about the use of border areas by terrorist organizations like the FARC," she said. "The FARC is a terrorist organization. It's essential that they not be allowed to continue their operations."

http://www.islandpacket.com/front/story/245873.html

[bemildred]

2. Colombia's Cornered President

Sadly, the operation on March 1 in which the Colombian Armed Forces shot and killed Luis Edgar Devia Silva, a.k.a. "Raúl Reyes," spokesman for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), along with sixteen other guerrillas in a camp across the Putumayo River in Ecuador, was yet another case of the oft-mentioned "death foretold" that characterizes the country's seemingly endless civil war.

Eerily, in a March 1 column, one of Colombia's most prescient political analysts, Alfredo Molano, predicted that a giant storm cloud was about to sweep across some portion of Colombia's borderlands. Molano described how President Álvaro Uribe had brought the war with the FARC to the Darien Gap joining Panama, the Catatumbo region of Northern Santander shared with Venezuela, and the frontiers of Pasto and Putumayo bordering Ecuador. In Molano's view, the fact that Uribe had been politically cornered at home and abroad made a widening war across national borders all but inevitable. As Justin Podur noted, domestic and foreign pressure for a negotiated peace-that is, a political solution to the armed conflict-has led to an escalation of the war by the stronger, more violent party, along Israeli lines.

Since the end of 2006, Uribe has been beset by the parapolítica scandal, in which some 77 political figures, including 14 congresspersons, nearly all of them staunch allies of the president, are under investigation for ties to rightwing paramilitaries. The scandal reveals how the president and the Casa de Nariño (presidential palace) in Bogotá are tied to the country's regions, where power and authority are delegated, hence most directly exercised. Indeed, most of the para-politicos investigated are local office holders-governors, mayors, legislators, etc. The bedrock of the paramilitary-politico alliance was sealed in 2001 with the "Pacto de Ralito" in Córdoba province. The pact led to the first and second election of Uribe with solid-indeed fervent-paramilitary support in congress and the regional state bureaucracies.

Parapolítica and the President

Politicians under investigation include Uribe's closest political ally and second cousin, Senator Mario Uribe, who fell under suspicion after former paramilitary chieftain Salvatore Mancuso testified to meetings he had with the president's cousin to map electoral strategy in Antioquia and Córdoba provinces. As Molano notes, what everyone knows and has long talked about in those provinces-relations between the Uribe family, land deals and landholding, rightwing politics, and paramilitarism-is but a step away from becoming a matter of public record. As early as 1987 and as recently as 2002, distinguished investigative journalists began looking into (and in some cases uncovering) these connections. Uribe has publicly lashed out at journalists digging into his past, forcing some to flee the country amid ensuing death threats. Now, it would seem, legal issues, and not merely personal honor, are at stake.

http://www.mathaba.net/rss/?x=584540

[Judi Lynn]

8. The only way Uribe is going to be outed for his narcotrafficker connections,

will have to be for Colombian journalists to go on a suicidal mission to get the truth out before the people and demand investigations. As the article you posted indicates, Colombian journalists have lived with the real threat of a devastating death hanging over their heads for years, as so many have fled, after many have been killed, and many remaining have gotten death threats.

I've posted material here concerning Colombian journalists admitting they "self-censor" simply for survival now. They write about everything under the sun which WON'T get them killed.

Uribe has even launched public attacks on human rights workers, time and time again. He has lashed out at them and accused them of having loyalties to the guerrillas. So almost anyone who even looks sternly at Uribe runs the risk of some heavy-duty retribution.

U.S. INTELLIGENCE LISTED COLOMBIAN PRESIDENT URIBE AMONG
"IMPORTANT COLOMBIAN NARCO-TRAFFICKERS" IN 1991

Then-Senator "Dedicated to Collaboration with the Medellín Cartel at High Government Levels"

Confidential DIA Report Had Uribe Alongside Pablo Escobar, Narco-Assassins

Uribe "Worked for the Medellín Cartel" and was a "Close Personal Friend of Pablo Escobar"

Washington, D.C., 1 August 2004 - Then-Senator and now President Álvaro Uribe Vélez of Colombia was a "close personal friend of Pablo Escobar" who was "dedicated to collaboration with the Medellín cartel at high government levels," according to a 1991 intelligence report from U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) officials in Colombia. The document was posted today on the website of the National Security Archive, a non-governmental research group based at George Washington University.
Uribe's inclusion on the list raises new questions about allegations that surfaced during Colombia's 2002 presidential campaign. Candidate Uribe bristled and abruptly terminated an interview in March 2002 when asked by Newsweek reporter Joseph Contreras about his alleged ties to Escobar and his associations with others involved in the drug trade. Uribe accused Contreras of trying to smear his reputation, saying that, "as a politician, I have been honorable and accountable."
The newly-declassified report, dated 23 September 1991, is a numbered list of "the more important Colombian narco-traffickers contracted by the Colombian narcotic cartels for security, transportation, distribution, collection and enforcement of narcotics operations." The document was released by DIA in May 2004 in response to a Freedom of Information Act request submitted by the Archive in August 2000.
The source of the report was removed by DIA censors, but the detailed, investigative nature of the report -- the list corresponds with a numbered set of photographs that were apparently provided with the original -- suggests it was probably obtained from Colombian or U.S. counternarcotics personnel. The document notes that some of the information in the report was verified "via interfaces with other agencies."
President Uribe -- now a key U.S. partner in the drug war -- "was linked to a business involved in narcotics activities in the United States" and "has worked for the Medellín cartel," the narcotics trafficking organization led by Escobar until he was killed by Colombian government forces in 1993. The report adds that Uribe participated in Escobar's parliamentary campaign and that as senator he had "attacked all forms of the extradition treaty" with the U.S.

http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB131/index.htm

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Narco-Candidate in Colombia
Uribe Velez, Favourite for President, and his narco-links

by Al Giordano
Narco News
March 20, 2002

A Narco News Investigative Report

In 1997 and 1998, alert U.S. Customs agents in California seized three suspicious Colombia-bound ships that, the agents discovered, were laden with 50,000 kilos of potassium permanganate, a key "precursor chemical" necessary for the manufacture of cocaine.

According to a document signed by then-DEA chief Donnie R. Marshall on August 3, 2001, the ships were each destined for Medellin, Colombia, to a company called GMP Productos Quimicos, S. A. (GMP Chemical Products).

The 50,000 kilos of the precursor chemical destined for GMP were enough to make half-a-million kilos of cocaine hydrochloride, with a street value of $15 billion U.S. dollars.

The owner of GMP Chemical Products, according to the 2001 DEA chief's report, is Pedro Juan Moreno Villa, the campaign manager, former chief of staff, and longtime right-hand-man for front-running Colombian presidential candidate Alvaro Uribe Velez.

Mr. Moreno was Uribe's political alter-ego before, during and after those nervous 1997 and 1998 months when he awaited those contraband shipments.

When Uribe was governor of the state of Antioquia from 1995 to 1997 - from its capitol of Medellin - Moreno was chief of staff in Governor Uribe's office. During those years, according to then-DEA chief Marshall, ""Between 1994 and 1998, GMP was the largest importer of potassium permanganate into Colombia."

More:
http://www.zmag.org/content/Colombia/giordano_uribe.cfm

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~There's a book written by Pablo Escobar's former mistress, Virginia Vallejo which discusses Escobar's relationship with Uribe:

‘That Blessed Lad’: Why Drug Lord Pablo Escobar Idolised the Colombian President
by Francesc Relea
October 17, 2007

The figure of the drug trafficker, Pablo Escobar, struck down 14 years ago, still buffets the Colombian political class. Virginia Vallejo of 57 years, lover and fiancée for five years of the head of the Medellín Cartel, the most powerful criminal organisation that has existed in Colombia, has broken a long silence to speak of the past and the present of her country. In the book, ‘Loving Pablo, Hating Escobar’ (Amando a Pablo, Odiando a Escobar), Vallejo attacks prominent political leaders, attributing to them intimate links with the drug lord. A refugee in the United States expecting to obtain political asylum, Virginia Vallejo gave El Pais a long interview, the first since leaving Colombia more than a year ago. Having disappeared from the scene for more than a decade, in which gossip and rumour of the worst kind proliferated, the television presenter, reporter, model and actress, returns to the arena as an inconvenient witness for the Colombian politicians. The President, Álvaro Uribe Vélez, has swiftly rejected the accusations in Vallejo’s book.

“The narco-State dreamt of by Pablo Escobar is today more relevant than ever in Colombia,” says the diva of the Eighties. “The narco-traffickers prospered in Colombia not because they were geniuses but because the presidents were very cheap,” says Vallejo, and mentions three names as narco-Presidents: Alfonso López Michelsen, Ernesto Samper and Álvaro Uribe. Of the current Colombian President, Álvaro Uribe, Vallejo says that the chief of the Medellin Cartel idolised him. She states that the (Colombian) leader, as director of civil aeronautics (1980-1982), “granted dozens of licences for landing strips and hundreds for aircraft and helicopters on which the drug trafficking infrastructure was built”. “Pablo used to say: ‘if it were not for that blessed lad, we’d have to be swimming till Miami to reach the drugs to the gringos. Now, with our own strips, nobody can stop us. Own strips, own aircraft, own helicopters…’ They reached the merchandise till Cayo Norman, in the Bahamas, operational headquarters of Carlos Lehder (co-founder of the Medellín Cartel), and from there to Miami without problems”. Vallejo is ready to defend publicly and through a lie detector everything written and stated.

“When I met Pablo I did not know he has so much money. I found out through Forbes and Fortune magazines that they put him as the seventh richest person in the world,” says Vallejo. Another episode that illustrates the supposed links between Uribe and Escobar is the death of Alberto Uribe Sierra, the President’s father, in 1983 at the hands of a FARC guerrilla squad. “Pablo loved dear Alvaro very much,” explains Escobar’s former fiancée. “When FARC killed Uribe’s father in a kidnap attempt, Pablo send them a helicopter to collect the remains. His brother Santiago was bleeding. He was in a farm far from Medellín, where there wasn’t any helicopter or aviation infrastructure of any sort. Pablo gave the order to send the helicopter. He told me this a few days later. He felt that death very much. He felt very sad. He told me: ‘Anyone who thinks that this is an easy business is very wrong. This is a trail of deaths. Every day we have to bury friends, partners and relatives.’ He told me that he too would be one of the dead and asked me if I was prepared to write his story”.

According to the National Security Archive, a group of non-governmental researchers based at the George Washington University, Álvaro Uribe was a close friend of Pablo Escobar who collaborated with the Medellín Cartel. The same group of researchers put out a list of the most important Colombian drug traffickers in 1991 produced by the U.S. intelligence services in which Escobar occupied the 79th place and Uribe 82nd.

More:
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?ItemID=14063

[bemildred]

3. Colombian rebel group has no base in Chile

SANTIAGO, March 6 (Xinhua) -- Chilean Interior Minister Edmundo Perez Yoma said Thursday that the Colombian rebel group FARC has no base in Chile.

Yoma said the Chilean government is concerned that some Chilean nationals may have received training from the FARC, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, but there's no possibility of finding an FARC camp in the country.

The minister pledged that Chile's police force would arrest any internationally-wanted suspects trying to enter the country.

The Colombian government said it has found a photo featuring two Chilean nationals and Raul Reyes, the No. 2 leader of the FARC who was killed Saturday by the Colombian government forces in a cross-border attack.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-03/07/content_7737958.htm

[PDJane]

4. FARC is a legitimate peasant uprising,

A group that wish a more equitable sharing of the wealth and resources.

It's that old freedom fighter/terrorist thing, and Rice is willing to kill innocents to maintain the status quo.

[ngant17]

10. FARC is being demonized because it has so much support

in the countryside where the majority of the poor peasants are living. Uribe wouldn't need to demonize FARC if his Colombian death squads could have been more successful in disappearing their members. The fact that they can't even fight them in their own jungles in Colombia makes me believe that FARC is much stronger in Colombia than what the official stories are suggesting.

The attack in Ecuador will play into the hands of the Pentagon. It will support the war criminal Uribe in terrorizing more victims.

Colombia has a $5 billion a year defense budget? That's almost twice the size of Venezuela's defense budget, which has lots of petro-dollars. It's not hard to guess where the money is coming from (US aid and narcotics).

[EFerrari]

39. Bingo. The spin on this operation may yet fail, though.

I hope so.

[Sweet Pea]

13. Wow!

You mean if I blow up nightclubs and kill 30 people or kidnap people and hold them for years and years or murder or stage mortar attacks or engage in narcotrafficking and extortion and hijackings, then I could lead a "legitimate peasant uprising"?

Give me a break. Being an apologist for FARC is in no way, shape or form accaptable under any circumstances unless you advocate pure terrorism as a legitimate means of change. I don't and most civilized people won't.

[atreides1]

18. Here's a clue

One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter, it just depends on which side you're on.

"Give me a break. Being an apologist for FARC is in no way, shape or form accaptable under any circumstances unless you advocate pure terrorism as a legitimate means of change. I don't and most civilized people won't."

What definition of "civilized people" are you using?

Is it civilized to drop bombs on a residential neighborhood killing dozens of innocent people because you're trying to kill one man?

Then I guess the USAF is either civilized or murderers, but that would depend on what side you're on!

FARC may be terrorists to some, but then again so was the Irgun. Like I said one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter.

[FalconsRule]

19. So because one side

kills and kidnaps innocents, it's ok for the other side to do it as well?

Just making sure I understand your logic.

[EFerrari]

37. Who are you referring to? FARC? The Colombian government?

Our government?

Because they ALL do that.

[Sweet Pea]

20. And I suppose Hamas is also another of your "Freedom Fighters"

Go ahead. Defend FARC. Defend their tactics. Tell me they are simply "peace loving peasants". Tell me they only engage in narcoterrorism because they want a bigger piece of the corporate pie. Tell me they kidnap and keep their victims for years because they just want peace.

Tell me all that then go screw yourself.

[EFerrari]

38. Narco trafficking is not terrorism.

They also trade arms and women. It's reprehensible but it's not terrorism, like say, the United States employed against its own citizens or against innocent sovereign nations.

People know what "terrorism" means. I could give you further examples but am not looking to get this thread moved to the dungeon.

/typo

[Bacchus39]

43. what about murder, land mines, bombs, and kidnapping?

are those terrorist activities?

[Malikshah]

53. Yup-- even when governments do it...

So, your point is?

[EFerrari]

40. If that is true, then you cannot possibly support the US government

or the Colombian government who both have a longer and deeper history of what you define as "terrorism".

Did we or did we not destroy several city blocks in Baghdad on a rumor that we were "targeting" Saddam? How many innocents do you think, in your greater wisdom, were murdered that night?

And, what about that march the other day in Bogota against Colombian government-backed death squads? The one Uribe denounced? Maybe those marchers just needed some air.

There's a beam in your eye:


Colombians march against violence

Demonstrators carried photos of murdered relatives
Thousands of Colombians have taken part in marches in the country's major cities to pay tribute to victims caught up in violence waged by paramilitaries.

"No more paramilitaries, no more massacres, no more impunity," read one of the banners carried through Bogota.

The main paramilitary group, the AUC, is accused of thousands of killings in its conflict with guerrilla forces.

The protests followed similar ones last month that saw thousands condemn Farc rebels for killings and kidnappings.

snip

Dozens of politicians, including allies of President Alvaro Uribe, have been jailed or are being investigated over dealings with paramilitary groups.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7282872.stm

[bemildred]

5. Obama Glosses Colombian Attack in Ecuador; Clinton Calls for Escalation Against Venezuela

The Clinton and Obama forces have asked us to consider who we want answering the phone at the White House at 3 AM. There is little need to speculate. We have a lot of evidence about how they will respond.

On Saturday, Colombia launched an attack on a FARC camp in Ecuador, with, Ecuador plausibly alleges, U.S. support. Colombia's President Uribe -- a close Bush ally -- lied to Ecuador's President Correa about the attack, claiming it was in "hot pursuit." Ecuador's soldiers, when they reached the scene and recovered the bodies of FARC members who had been killed, reported to Correa that they had been asleep when attacked. They were in their underwear. Correa called it a "massacre." Both Ecuador and Venezuela have moved troops to their borders with Colombia, warned Colombia about violating their sovereignty, and cut diplomatic relations with Colombia.

Colombia's attack was a flagrant violation of Ecuador's sovereignty. "Hot pursuit" was Colombia's only possible defense. There is no right in international law to engage in military attacks into another country with which you are not at war if it is not an immediate continuation of an engagement that began within your borders (unless your action is explicitly authorized by the UN Security Council.) If you say that international law doesn't matter, you're essentially saying that Colombia has special rights to violate international law because it's a U.S. ally. That may sell well inside the Beltway, but it's going to sell very poorly, in general, from the Rio Grande to Tierra del Fuego.

While no-one should dispute that the tactics of the FARC have caused tremendous suffering -- as have the tactics of the U.S.-backed Colombian government -- it's important to consider the likely motivations of the Colombian government for carrying out this operation. Raul Reyes, the top leader in the FARC who was killed, led negotiations that resulted in the FARC releasing six political hostages to Venezuela, including four a week ago. This is a pattern for the Bush-backed Colombian government -- to meet the "threat" of successful diplomacy with military escalation. The Colombian government, with vigorous U.S. support, is taking actions whose probable consequence is to reduce the likelihood that FARC hostages will be released -- including three American captives.

http://www.zcommunications.org/znet/viewArticle/16802

[EFerrari]

6. Separated at birth. n/t

[Voltaire99]

14. Will Hillary or Obama start the next US war?

Depends, apparently, on the will of the super delegates.

[Mojorabbit]

7. I shudder to think

of us getting into a war in south america.

[bluerum]

9. This has been on simmer since the Regan adminsitration. I see Chainees

dark hand behind this.

[Hugabear]

12. They've been trying to find an excuse for us to get involved

We can't just go in guns blazing, we have to manipulate the situation where a South American country "asks" us to help them. That way, it looks like we're just coming to the aid of one of our allies.

Don't think this hasn't been their long-term strategy. They had to get a puppet government down there first.

[Hugabear]

11. Venezuela and Ecuador should launch an attack on the US

Well, that is if you use Bushlogic. They somehow seem to think that Palestinians or Iraqi "insurgents" using Iranian weapons means that Iran is directly involved, ergo Iran should be attacked. If that is the case, then it stands to reason that the United States should be attacked because we are supplying weapons to Colombia to use against FARC, Ecuador, and Venezuela.

[Freddie Stubbs]

15. Has Ecuador explained why they allowed a FARC camp in its territory?

:shrug:

[EFerrari]

16. That's like asking why the United States allows

undocumented immigrants to cross their border.

Have you seen that border? Why doesn't Colombia contain their problem on their side? :shrug:

[FalconsRule]

17. I wonder what airplanes

the Colombians have that can carry and deliver US Smart bombs?

[MaryCeleste]

22. Just about anything can lauch LGBs

It could also have been artiliery or even sappers. No evidence it was a "smart bomb"

The stories that are out there are so diverse that they can not all be true

[FalconsRule]

27. Agree

I was just going by the reports of "smart bombs," supplied by the US, knowing full well the answer!

[Tempest]

21. The same reason the PKK attacks Turkey using bases in Iraq

Because no border can be 100% protected or defended.

It should be obvious considering the number of illegals who enter the U.S. from the Mexican border.

[MaryCeleste]

23. Eribe made claims yesterday that Ecuador ignored requests and leaked info to FARC

So Colombia had to act independently. Thats his story, and he is sticking to it. Such claims won't make settling things any easier either.

[EFerrari]

36. They also claim that their "target" moved 30 minutes before

a planned operation inside Colombia. Which is it? It can't be both.

[MaryCeleste]

42. That validates my point about that with everything that is being said

its hard to tell what really happened. Typical in this kind of mess

[EFerrari]

44. Agreed. I ask myself, who benefits?

All sides stand to benefit from this drama except the poor hostages, especially Betancourt who is reportedly very ill. Isn't that the way it goes.

[Peace Patriot]

55. Do you believe the government whose military and paramilitaries...

funded by our tax dollars, through Bushite fingers, have tortured, slaughtered and 'disappeared' thousands of union leaders, community organizers, political leftists, small peasant farmers, human rights workers and journalists...?

..or do you believe the governments who don't kill thousands of innocent people--who don't kill or harm anybody--and who, instead, use their country's resources to benefit the poor?

Do you believe the government that gets billions of our tax dollars in military aid, through Bushite fingers, for the failed, corrupt, murderous "war on drugs," and whose president is closely tied to the Medellin Cartel, and the rightwing death squads...

..or do you believe the government whose new president pledged to throw the U.S. military base out of his country (Ecuador), when its lease comes up in 2009, and who, when asked about Hugo Chavez's remark to the UN that Bush is "the Devil," replied that it was "an insult to the Devil"?

Do you believe the governments that hold internationally monitored, and highly transparent elections (elections that put our own to shame), and who positively encourage citizen participation in government and politics...

...or the government whose paramilitaries murder leftist politicians (30 recently in Colombia, 400 in the 1980s, and many more in between) and murder their supporters and voters as well (many thousands)?

Difficult choice. Not.

So, when Rafael Correa or Hugo Chavez speaks, I know I'm reading or hearing an accountable individual who doesn't run his government like a mobland empire, and whom--having followed them over the years--I have never known to lie. And when Alvaro Uribe speaks--given what I know about him and his government--I know I'm reading/hearing a close Bush buddy who lies for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and goes to sleep at night and lies in his dreams, just like Bush.

It is NOT difficult to know the facts of this situation. They are as Rafael Correa and Hugo Chavez and their governments have stated. Correa, Chavez and the Presidents of France, Argentina and other countries, were trying to negotiate further FARC hostage releases, after Chavez got six freed this year--a humanitarian effort that held out hope for a peaceful political settlement of Colombia's 40+ year civil war. The hostages that Chavez got released had just held a press conference calling for such a settlement.* Correa and the other government leaders were in particular working on the release of Ingrid Betancourt and 12 others. Correa stated that these negotiations were "very advanced." Bush bus boy, Alvaro Uribe, then--using sophisticated U.S. surveillance and U.S. ordinance--bombed the FARC jungle camp site a mile or so inside Ecuador, where they knew the chief FARC hostage negotiator, Raul Reyes, and 20-some other people, were sleeping, killed most of them, and then sent Colombian soldiers over the border into Ecuador to finish off the survivors, shooting some of them in the back, as they scrambled around in their underwear trying to escape death.

Alvaro Uribe (the go-to guy for the Medelin Cartel in his early career) then accused Chavez of being a narco-trafficker, and Chavez and Correa of aiding and abetting "terrorists." Upfront, I don't believe Uribe, just like, upfront, I don't believe George Bush. Uribe, Bush, and our corrupt corporate news monopolies count on us being ignorant of the past, and of even forgetting what happened yesterday, or last year. I am not that kind of American citizen. I take the trouble to be informed and to remember what I read/see.

Do I believe our lying war profiteering corporate news monopolies--among my sources of information--or do I believe, say, Greg Palast, who deconstructs Uribe's lies about Chavez and Correa--examining the actual evidence, here...

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

The only people who could possibly be "confused" about what the Colombian government just did are people who tend to believe George Bush and our scumbag corporate media--or people who are in their employ, whose job it is to "confuse" the American public.


-------------------------------------

*Here's what these leaders and the released hostages said only days before Uribe and the Bushites went out of their way to murder the chief FARC hostage negotiator in his sleep....

---------------

Chavez, freed FARC hostages call for political solution to Colombian conflict
February 29th 2008, by Kiraz Janicke - Venezuelanalysis.com
Luis Eladio Pérez and Gloria Polanco speaking at the press conference in Caracas (Reuters)

Caracas, March 1, 2008 (venezuelanalysis.com) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has called for international mediation group to negotiate a humanitarian accord in neighboring Colombia, after a successful Venezuelan led humanitarian mission secured the release of four former legislators held by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), on Wednesday.

During a telephone call to state owned VTV Thursday, Chavez indicated that France, Ecuador, Brazil and Argentina as well as the Organization of American States support such a move. It is "essential" that Venezuela is part of any international mediation group, because "the FARC have demonstrated that they don't believe in anyone else," he added.

In a communiqué, released minutes after the hostage handover the FARC said this would be the last unilateral hostage release. The FARC reiterated their longstanding call for a military free zone as a precondition for any further negotiations for a humanitarian exchange of 40 remaining high profile hostages for 500 imprisoned guerrillas. However, the Colombian government immediately rejected this proposal.

Chavez said the desire for peace by the majority of Colombians and that the pressure of world opinion would force Uribe to change his position.

"President Uribe is going to have to change his position. Everybody is in agreement except for Uribe, " he declared.

Speaking at a press conference in Caracas on Thursday night, the former Colombian legislators, Luis Eladio Pérez, Jorge Gechem, Orlando Beltrán and Gloria Polanco, also spoke out in favor of a military free zone to facilitate a humanitarian exchange.

"I publicly challenge President Alvaro Uribe to demonstrate the success of his policy of democratic security and clear the military from the municipalities of Pradera and Florida and after 45 days the Armed Forces can recuperate this territory," Perez said after his liberation. "The solution is political, Mr. President Uribe," he repeated twice during the press conference.

"If you persist in the foolishness of insisting on a military rescue you are going to receive, Mr President Uribe, 40 or 50 corpses. It is absurd to think of a military rescue with the conditions that we had in captivity. There would be a massacre," Pérez stressed.

He revealed that the four recently liberated ex legislators have a proposal to present "to President Uribe, the President (of France Nicholas) Sarkozy and, of course, to President (of Venezuela, Hugo) Chavez." This proposal would only be made public after the three heads of state had been informed, he said.

Pérez who classified the FARC as a "political military group who use terrorist practices" also referred to former Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, captured by the guerrillas in 2001, who he said is in a "very bad state of health."

In a message released in 2003 demonstrating Betancourt's proof of life, the former presidential candidate indicated that she was opposed any form of military rescue, as she feared a repeat of the tragedy that occurred in May that year when ex governor of Antioquia, Gilberto Echeverri, and the del ex Defense Minister, Guillermo Gaviria, died during a botched military rescue ordered by Uribe.

Betancourt maintains this position Perez said, however she is also conscious "of the high risk and lack of commitment of the President of the Republic."

In contrast Betancourt calls for a political solution to the conflict based on the Geneva Convention and believes that "fundamentally President Uribe has to recognize the political status of the FARC guerrillas," Perez said.

Pérez also affirmed that after an attempted escape, Betancourt, "remained chained up during the night," and her captors, "humiliated her, obliged her to walk barefoot, tied her to trees and rationed her food."

Ex congressman Orlando Beltrán condemned "all terrorist acts, wherever they come from. I condemn the terrorism of the FARC, of the paramilitaries and the terrorism of the State." He pointed out that Colombia "is the only country in the world that has disappeared an entire political movement, more than six thousand leaders of Unión Patriótica were disappeared, to speak only of this case."

Under a previous peace accord in the 1980's the FARC demobilized and formed Unión Patriótica, however after they laid down their arms thousands of former guerrillas were hunted down by paramilitaries, backed by the Colombian state, and massacred, forcing them back into the armed struggle.

Beltrán added that the Colombian State "has to assume responsibility and understand that they must create the conditions to achieve a humanitarian accord. I don't understand why, when make these handovers in a unilateral manner, they say they are not going to clear the military from a centimeter of the national territory."

Gloria Polanco asserted, "It is necessary to reach the heart of President Uribe, to speak to him, to explain, because he has to understand that if he does not clear the military from Pradera and Florida, which is what the FARC ask, our comrades will die in captivity."

"I am asking for a humanitarian accord, because they have to place value on life, not on a piece of land, not on a piece of territory," she said.

All four ex-legislators confirmed that they would participate in an international day of action organized by human rights organizations on March 6 in protest against paramilitary violence in Colombia. Uribe has condemned the protest scheduled to take place in some 150 cities around the world, claiming it is organized by the FARC.

(emphasis added)
http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news/3213
(Note: Venezuela Analysis is a Fair Use web site.)

[Judi Lynn]

56. Former FARC hostage, Luis Eladio Pérez's comments are thought-provoking for normal people.

Obviously there are some who can't be bothered to acquaint themselves with the facts when you put them right before their beady little eyes.

There is the choice they have to become aware of the information, or not. What former hostage Luis Eladio Pérez and his collegues has to say SHOULD be examined, examined closely, and kept in mind.



Luis Eladio Pérez' photo appears on this page. He's #6:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/low/in_pictures/7121728.stm

[bemildred]

25. It appears they were negotiating the release of more hostages. nt

[EFerrari]

48. Which were scheduled to take place shortly.

The timing of this incident says a lot.

[bemildred]

24. $300 Mllion from Chavez to FARC a Fake

---

Well, our President may have gotten the facts ass-backward, but he Bush knows what he’s doing: shoring up his last, faltering ally in South America, Uribe, a desperate man in deep political trouble.

Uribe’s claims he is going to bring charges against Chavez before the International Criminal Court. If Uribe goes there in person, I suggest he take a toothbrush: it was just discovered that right-wing death squads held murder-planning sessions at Uribe’s ranch. Uribe’s associates have been called before the nation’s Supreme Court and may face prison.

In other words, it’s a good time for a desperate Uribe to use that old politico’s wheeze, the threat of war, to drown out accusations of his own criminality. Furthermore, Uribe’s attack literally killed negotiations with FARC by killing FARC’s negotiator, Raul Reyes. Reyes was in talks with both Ecuador and Chavez about another prisoner exchange. Uribe authorized the negotiations, however, he knew, should those talks have succeeded in obtaining the release of those kidnapped by the FARC, credit would have been heaped on Ecuador and Chavez, and discredit heaped on Uribe.

Luckily for a hemisphere the verge of flames, the President of Ecuador, Raphael Correa, is one of the most level-headed, thoughtful men I’ve ever encountered.

http://www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/300-mllion-chavez-farc-fake

[Javaman]

26. So why was Victor Bout really arrested?

The man provides weapons to Iraq via Halliburton, but the U.S. and everyone else looks the other way.

However, when it's found out that he was providing weapons to the FARC, he gets arrested.

nope, no coincidences here. Move along nothing to see.

[bemildred]

28. Chavez calls for cooling of tensions with Colombia

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic – 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."

---

The summit was to have focused on energy and other issues, but the diplomatic crisis in the Andes now has centre stage. It was triggered by a deadly Colombian cross-border raid into Ecuador on Saturday that killed a senior Colombian rebel.

"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.''

Chavez has ordered thousands of troops and tanks to Venezuela's border with Colombia and threatened to slash trade and nationalize Colombian-owned businesses. Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa has also sent troops to the border, although Uribe has said he won't do the same.

http://www.thestar.com/News/World/article/310512

[bemildred]

29. Colombian president says rebels helped campaign of current Ecuadorean president

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic - Colombian President Alvaro Uribe said today that Colombian rebels helped Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa get elected, citing as evidence a rebel’s letter seized during a cross-border raid that has sparked an international crisis.

---

Uribe said his forces seized a letter during their raid Saturday on a rebel camp just across the border with Ecuador in which Raul Reyes — the rebel leader killed in the raid — told the guerrillas’ top commander about "aid delivered to Rafael Correa, as instructed."

---

Correa, who has broken off relations with Colombia and sent troops to the border over the raid, denounced the accusation and proposed an international peacekeeping force to guard the Colombian-Ecuadorean border.

"I reject this infamy that the government of Rafael Correa has collaborated with the FARC," Correa bellowed into the microphone as he accused Uribe of lying. His comments drew loud applause from other leaders, who met Uribe’s speech with silence.

http://www.bostonherald.com/news/international/americas/view.bg?articleid=1078536

[Judi Lynn]

30. He's desperate, isn't he? Thank god Correa is fighting back. There's no way he should allow

that slimey, pasty little mutant to launch such fantastic tales without a complete public repudiation.

It makes what Greg Palast said, in your post #24 that much more memorable by reinforcing his assertions Uribe has to throw attention away from the heavy times ahead for him and his corrupt record of service to the narcotraffickers in Colombia since before his days as a senator.

Once the oligarchy in Colombia finally recognizes the trouble Uribe is going to bring them, and that he's definitely a liability from now on, they will cut him loose, and allow the legal system to do the work it was meant to do.

[bemildred]

31. Yeah. That was my take.

Most of the stuff he is "accusing" people of is stuff they have every right to do. E.g. Mr Correa has every right to talk to FARC, since Uribe is unable to manage the problem himself, and it spills over into Mr Correa's country all the time. One suspects we will have a hard time selling the idea that he can bomb where he chooses to very many of these leaders too.

[EFerrari]

33. Since Uribe must get some of his talking points from the State Department

the rules of BushCo Projection apply.

Someone is collaborating with terrorits - Uribe is.

Someone is being funded by terrorists - Uribe is.

And, etc.

[EFerrari]

32. The Colombian Ambassador that was on CSPAN this a..m.

is as mendacious as Uribe. She sounded like Donald Rumsfeld in drag.

Has anyone asked this criminal why he's killing people instead of capturing and trying them?

[bemildred]

34. EXTRA: Member of FARC leadership killed by Colombian forces

Bogota - Colombian government forces on Friday killed Ivan Rios, a member of the leadership of the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), in fighting in central Colombia, the military announced. Less than a week earlier, FARC's second-ranking leader Raul Reyes and 23 other rebels were killed in a cross-border airstrike into Ecuador by the Colombian military.

Rios, who was considered close to Reyes, died in combat in a rural area of the municipality of Samana in the central Colombian province of Caldas.

FARC is the largest rebel group in Colombia with some 10,000 fighters. It has been waging a guerilla war in Colombia for more than 40 years and is currently believed to be holding more than 700 hostages, including former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt.

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/190842,extra-member-of-farc-leadership-killed-by-colombian-forces.html

[Bacchus39]

45. sounds like Colombia has some intelligence info and going on the offensive

my sympathies to Chavez and Correa for the loss.

[muriel_volestrangler]

49. or "killed by his own men"? This story sounds bizarre

The Colombian government says another senior commander of the Farc rebel group has been killed.

Defence Minister Juan Manuel Santos said Ivan Rios had been killed by his own men. Earlier the army had claimed he had died in combat with its troops.
...
He is said to have been killed in a mountainous area of the western province of Caldas.

Mr Santos said the Farc's chief of security gave Colombian troops the leader's severed hand as proof of his death. It is unclear why he was killed.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7284222.stm

I'm not saying it's a trustworthy story - but it's there.

[bemildred]

51. Agreed. I'm sure they will get the story straight soon though. nt

[kineneb]

35. Colombia: a wholly-owned subsidiary of the CIA

and has been since the Regan admin. The Company must be not making enough on arms sales and drug running for their black-ops.

Nutin' new...

We need to stay out of S. America and let them do their own thing. But like Iraq, it is all about controlling resources.

[Judi Lynn]

41. Correa asks the Rio Group to condemn Colombian attack

Caracas, Friday March 07 , 2008
Correa asks the Rio Group to condemn Colombian attack

Ecuadorian President Rafael Rafael Correa Friday in Santo Domingo asked the 20th Rio Group Summit to "provide enough satisfactions to Ecuador for Colombian attack and violation of its sovereignty."

Upon his arrival in the place where the summit is taking place, Correa claimed that the Rio Group was created to deal with this kind of situations, and hoped "the warmonger behaviors to be uprooted," Efe reported.

Meanwhile, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, who last Thursday broke his relations with Colombia, Friday in Santo Domingo asked for "a condemnation" against Colombia for the attack against Ecuador.

http://english.eluniversal.com/2008/03/07/en_colcd_art_correa-asks-the-rio_07A1416879.shtml
Opposition newspaper

[crimsonblue]

46. I doubt the government themselves gave out these weapons..

It was far more likely an arms dealer, such as Victor Bout (the guy who was the inspiration for "Lord of War"). The US has been supporting this guy and others through black markets and shell companies. There is not doubt in my mind that someone in the US government knew about this, and did nothing... What do you call the people that supply terrorists with weapons?

[EFerrari]

47. The Pentagon?

[Judi Lynn]

50. That sounds about right!

[Peace Patriot]

57. "The Smart Way to Beat Tyrants Like Chávez," by Donald Rumsfeld, 12/1/07

"The Smart Way to Beat Tyrants Like Chávez," by Donald Rumsfeld, 12/1/07
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/30/AR2007113001800.html

Among other things, he urges "swift" U.S. "action" in support of "friends and allies" in South America. Whatever does he mean?

And note the date of this Rumsfeld op-ed. It was the weekend on which the first hostage release, negotiated by President Chavez, was scheduled to occur. The two hostages, who were finally released a few weeks later, have since reported that--despite assurances of safe passage from Uribe/Colombia--they came under such intense fire from the Colombian security forces, they had to walk back through the jungle to safety (and FARC got them out later). In the op-ed, Rumsfeld says that Chavez's mediation was "not welcome" in Colombia, but fails to say that Uribe initially invited Chavez to negotiate for hostage releases.

This lie is very telling. And what it tells me of is Bushite arm-twisting of Uribe after he gave Chavez the go-ahead. When the negotiation began to look successful, they ordered him to sabotage it. He abruptly withdrew the invitation, giving a lame excuse, and bombed the hostage party in transit.

Utter treachery and bad faith, in other words. And the rest of the story bears this out. In fact, I have begun to suspect that Uribe's initial invitation to Chavez to negotiate hostage releases was a trap set by Rumsfeld & co. from the beginning. And, based on an incident that had occurred some months before, I think they had rehearsed it--how to kill hostages in a crossfire situation and create a bloody disaster, to blame on Chavez. That weekend--the weekend of Rumsfeld's op-ed--was ALSO the weekend of the constitutional referendum in Venezuela that would have given Chavez more power in emergencies (to stop coup attempts) and the right to run for election again (among other provisions, including gay/women's equality rights, and a shorter work week). The Bushites had intended a hostage disaster as a campaign ploy. They are, after all, funding the rightwing opposition in Venezuela (multi-millions in USAID-NED funds and other of our tax dollars). Why not give them a Chavez "mess" to use as anti-referendum propaganda? As it is, they successfully prevented Chavez from having a hostage release victory just before that vote (on 12/2/07). Chavez lost the constitutional referendum in a very close vote (50.7% vs. 49.3%), with the Catholic Church opposing gay/women's rights (it was an up or down vote on all amendments). A hostage release victory could well have made the difference.

I do think that there is more to Rumsfeld's skulduggery than merely embarrassing Chavez, or defeating him in a vote. That was the immediate object. The bigger goal is regaining corporate predator control of the Andes oil fields (lots of oil especially in Venezuela and Ecuador--both members of OPEC). When Chavez then rallied other leaders--the Presidents of France, Argentina, Ecuador and others--to pressure Uribe, and began actually getting hostages released (the first two under fire from the Colombian military), they had to stop him. The last thing in the world they want is peace. Peace interferes with major drug and weapons trafficking, and, of course, allows the people of countries sitting on lots of oil a breather in which to create democracy and elect leaders who attend to their interests. Peace is bad. War is good. Oil War II-South America is under way. We have just seen its opening shot, with this U.S.-Colombian incursion into Ecuador. (Also Exxon Mobil's near simultaneous effort to freeze $12 billion in Venezuela's assets, over a dispute about Venezuela's 60% share in its own oil--a deal that Norway's Statoil, France's Total, British BP and even Chevron have agreed to. Gratuitous economic warfare by Exxon Mobil, in concert with Rumsfeld, Bush and Uribe.)

Venezuela's and Ecuador's response to Colombia's incursion was exactly right--sending military battalions to the border areas with Colombia. There won't likely be a head-on war between the U.S./Colombia and these countries, because U.S./Colombia would lose. Venezuela and Ecuador are too strong--as to their leadership and its popular support--and they have too many allies--the continent now has many leftist governments, all of whom immediately knew who was at fault in this incident. Rumsfeld's war is likely to proceed through the back door--through Chavez/Correa ally Bolivia, where a rightwing separatist movement (with murderous paramilitaries and 'brownshirts'), stoked by the Bush Junta, is trying to split the gas/oil rich provinces off from the central government of Evo Morales (the first indigenous president of Bolivia). That's where I expect to actually see U.S. boots on the ground this year (at the "request" of the rightwing separatists who declare their "independence" from Bolivia). Then I think all hell may break loose, just in time for the November election here--a live hand grenade thrown in the lap of the Democratic nominee.

And then Rumsfeld & co. will have DIVIDED the concerns and attentions of Venezuela, Ecuador, Argentina and other Morales/Bolivia allies BETWEEN trouble spot Colombia and trouble spot Bolivia. (Brazil would likely be drawn in as well--it borders Bolivia and the separatist provinces. Brazil has a leftist government, and its president is a Chavez friend and strong supporter.) Weaken, destabilize, divide, erode/attack international laws and treaties, turn a local civil war into the "war on terra", fund fascist militias and death squads so there is fear everywhere, force militarism on peaceful countries, makes lots of money in illicit markets as well as over the counter weapons, and grab the oil. It is the Rumsfeld "chaos and opportunity" M.O. I think this is his "retirement" project: ruin South America, get their oil.

[Judi Lynn]

58. One additional trick employed by the Venezuelan opposition prior to the referendum:

They pulled out that old trick used by the American C.I.A. in Cuba right after the revolution: the floated the rumor that the socialist President had plans to make their children property of the State.

In Cuba it freaked out the Spanish descended Cuban oligarchy to the point a lot of them took their children to the airport as quickly as they could, and put them on planes to the U.S. Arrangements had been made with the U.S. Catholic Church to look after the children when they arrived in the country, and make provisions for temporary housing until the parents could close their affairs and join them later on.

A lot of these kids were sent to foster homes and didn't see their parents for a long time. The C.I.A. has publicly admitted its own part in this years after the event.

In Venezuela it was employed all over again, and a similar panic set in, although I haven't heard of kids like the "Pedro Pan" (Peter Pan) kids getting spirited out of the country. It still had people freaked out, and was reported in newspapers.

~~~~~~
Don't forget the proximity of the air base in Paraguay. Here's the location at Mariscal Estigarribia,, Paraguay:

Five hundred U.S. troops arrived in Paraguay with planes, weapons, and ammunition in July 2005, shortly after the Paraguayan Senate granted U.S. troops immunity from national and International Criminal Court (ICC) jurisdiction. Neighboring countries and human rights organizations are concerned that the massive air base at Mariscal Estigarribia, Paraguay is potential real estate for the U.S. military.

While U.S. and Paraguayan officials vehemently deny ambitions to establish a U.S. military base at Mariscal Estigarribia, the ICC immunity agreement and U.S. counterterrorism training exercises have increased suspicions that the U.S. is building a stronghold in a region that is strategic to resource and military interests.

The Mariscal Estigarribia air base is within 124 miles of Bolivia and Argentina, and 200 miles from Brazil, near the Triple Frontier where Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina meet. Bolivia’s natural gas reserves are the second largest in South America, while the Triple Frontier region is home to the Guarani Aquifer, one of the world’s largest fresh water sources. (See Story #20.)

Not surprisingly, U.S. rhetoric is building about terrorist threats in the triborder region. Dangl reports claims by Defense officials that Hezbollah and Hamas, radical Islamic groups from the Middle East, receive significant funding from the Triple Frontier, and that growing unrest in this region could leave a political "black hole" that would erode other democratic efforts. Dangl notes that in spite of frequent attempts to link terror networks to the triborder area, there is little evidence of a connection.

The base’s proximity to Bolivia may cause even more concern. Bolivia has a long history of popular protest against U.S. exploitation of its vast natural gas reserves. But the resulting election of leftist President Evo Morales, who on May 1, 2006 signed a decree nationalizing all of Bolivia’s gas reserves, has certainly intensified hostilities with the U.S.1

When Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld visited Paraguay in August of 2005, he told reporters that, "there certainly is evidence that both Cuba and Venezuela have been involved in the situation in Bolivia in unhelpful ways."

More:
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/431/1/

[Peace Patriot]

59. Ecuador in particular, but also Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Argentina, Brazil

and others have got to have serious concerns, now, about the U.S. spy base in Manta, Ecuador, as well as the base in Paraguay. It's quite possible the Ecuador U.S. base was used in the recent U.S.-Colombia bombing of Ecuador (killing the FARC hostage negotiator).

Rafael Correa, President of Ecuador, made it a campaign promise not to renew the U.S. military lease when it comes up for renewal in 2009. That may well be another factor in the U.S.-Colombia bombing in Ecuador--a sort of terrorist warning to Correa that, if he doesn't back down, they can get him, one way or another.

And another element in this situation: The very popular "bishop of the poor," Fernando Lugo, is running for president this year in Paraguay--against a highly entrenched, corrupt center-right government. The trend in South America is overwhelmingly leftist (majorityist) and these new leftist leaders have the goal of regional self-determination. And it's very interesting that Paraguay's existing government joined the Bank of the South, a Chavez project (which is driving the World Bank out of the region). Clearly, they feel heat from the left. It's also a sensible project--and a very popular one--to provide regionally-controlled financing of much needed infrastructure development and social justice programs (items that the World Bank/IMF neglected, omitted, sabotaged and/or looted).

Lugo is not as "political" as Chavez, Correa and Morales. Someone asked him about his politics, and he said, "Paraguay is neither left nor right. Paraguay is POOR." And that's a fact. Income inequity in Paraguay, and vast, endemic poverty, are among the worst in South America (although, blessedly, it doesn't have quite the racist tone that it does elsewhere--Paraguayan indians and European immigrants intermarried there, more than elsewhere). It is more a product of rich rightwing control of all power, and lack of resources. All Paraguay really has is water. (--the major aquifer on the continent, and the U.S. air base is located right in the middle of it; so is the rumored Bush Cartel property purchase).

So Paraguay has a different political tone, social structure and overall situation--from these other countries. It's mostly rural ag land. Still, one would think that there will be a natural affinity between a Lugo government and the other leftist governments, on issues of social justice, regional cooperation, regional control of finances and resources, and other such matters.

Paraguay is landlocked between four leftist countries--Bolivia, Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil. It could be a launching pad for Rumsfeld war schemes against Bolivia. And, very likely, the Bushites are busy trying to prevent Lugo getting elected. They are funding rightwing groups and interfering all over South America. Paraguay is a key strategic location for causing trouble in a number of places. I really don't know what the Colorado Party elitists' attitude is toward the Bushites. Haven't heard much about it. They seem milder than the foaming-at-the-mouth fascists in Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia and other places. And their joining the Bank of the South is a positive sign that they may have the good of their country and their region at heart--at least to some extent. We shall see if they can hold honest elections.

[Judi Lynn]

52. Interesting comment on why the paras (death squads) don't seem to take as many prisoners:

Colombians March for Peace Amid Deepening Crisis
Henry Mance and Susie Braun
OneWorld US
Sat., Mar. 8, 2008

~snip~
"The problem is that the media give more information about one side {the guerrillas} than the other {the paramilitaries}," said one marcher, a displaced woman from the southern province of Meta whose daughter was killed by paramilitary groups. "The paramilitaries don't kidnap people like the FARC: they kill them straight away and cut up their bodies."

Controversially, the marches also aimed to raise awareness about the abuses by state forces in Colombia, including the army's bloody siege of the Palace of Justice in 1985 and several cases judged by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.

"People stigmatize victims of the paramilitaries and of the State, saying that they must be sympathizers of the FARC," said Jose Luis Palacios, a student demonstrator. "This is one of the things we wanted to say today: being a victim of the paramilitaries or of the state doesn't mean that they are pro-FARC, just pro-peace."
(snip)

http://us.oneworld.net/article/view/158602/1/3319

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Serious DU'er readers should remember Peace Patriot has already been saying this for a long time! She has surely been paying attention.

[ohio2007]

54. they get what they pay for.

any mention on where all those cheaply made AK-47's come from that flood the weapons market, deserts and jungles of the world ?

[Judi Lynn]

60. Colombia: French Negotiators Were to Meet Slain Rebel on Day He Was Killed

Colombia: French Negotiators Were to Meet Slain Rebel on Day He Was Killed

By Kintto Lucas, IPS News. Posted March 10, 2008.

Colombian officials warned French envoys away from the meet.

Three personal envoys of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who were in Ecuador since October 2007, were phoned Saturday Mar. 1 by Colombian Peace Commissioner Luis Carlos Restrepo, who warned them not to go to a meeting with guerrilla leader Raúl Reyes because they would be in danger.

Sarkozy's envoys in Ecuador, who were there with the consent of Colombian President Álvaro Uribe, were negotiating with Reyes the release of former Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, who has been held hostage by the guerrillas for six years, said a French diplomatic source who wished not to be named.

The source told IPS that the three French negotiators were in a town near the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) camp that was bombed by the Colombian military in the wee hours of Saturday morning. The raid, carried out three kilometers from the Colombian border, killed Reyes -- the rebel group's international spokesman -- and around two dozen other insurgents.

The envoys were on their way to a meeting that morning with Reyes, who was actually already dead, when they received Restrepo's phone call warning them not to approach the contact point, for their own safety.

More:
http://www.alternet.org/audits/79215/

[AlphaCentauri]

61. Restrepo just sounds like he doesn't have control of any thing

more like a public relations guy.