bemildred's post from "editorials:" "Cocaine, Colombia and the Cartels"

[Judi Lynn]

Apri1 1, 2008

"However the Empire Decides"
Cocaine, Colombia and the Cartels
By PATRICK IRELAN

On March 1, in a widely publicized incident, Colombian troops invaded Ecuador, where they killed 26 members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Columbia (FARC), including Raúl Reyes, a long-time FARC leader. This incursion into Ecuadorian territory set off a brief diplomatic firefight in which Venezuela sided with Ecuador.

The incident ended peacefully, but not before the Colombian government claimed that its troops had left the scene of the raid with a laptop computer that had belonging to Reyes. This laptop, Colombia's police chief said, contained numerous documents, including one proving that Venezuela had paid $300 million to the FARC.

In response, Vice President Ramón Carrizales of Venezuela said, "We are used to the Colombian government's lies."

After the initial anger had given way to calm reflection, it appeared that the entire incident might be forgotten. But on March 14, the New York Times reported that an anonymous American official had said that "American investigative teams" were helping the Colombians "pull information from recently seized computers." These computers had been gathered at the site of the March 1 raid, and they had inexplicably multiplied from one to more than one.

Just to show how concerned they were, George Bush and Condi Rice began to talk about Venezuelan support for "terrorists." For the United States, anyone we don't like is now simply a "terrorist," and the Iraqis know what we do to people like that.

Then, on March 30, reporter Simon Romero stated that the Colombians had given the Times 20 files and that they "appear to tie Venezuela's government to efforts to secure arms for Colombia's largest insurgency ."

If 20 files don't seem like much, please note that " Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos said in an interview that officials had obtained more than 16,000 files from three computers Two other hard drives were also captured, he said." Santos added that Colombia had "invited Interpol to verify the files." He didn't say how much additional FARC computer hardware might materialize in Bogotá before Interpol finished the job.

More:
http://www.counterpunch.org/irelan04012008.html

bemildred's original post:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x349916