Posted on 02/16/2005 5:47:46 PM PST by marron
Bogotá. The supposed assistance given by Colombian guerrillas to the kidnappers of the daughter of the Paraguayan ex-president is further proof of the international tentacles of the rebels who finance themselves through criminal activities, said Colombia’s Minister of Defense, Jorge Alberto Uribe. "This only confirms the fact that Colombian narcoterrorist groups are not merely Colombians, they have roots and presence in every country", warned Uribe, who was visiting Holland, according to AP.
"I was just with the people at Europol – the European police- and I saw four or five cases which involved people from these groups, especially" from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). “I can tell you that there are ties with Greeks, Bulgarians, Finns, and South Africans” he added in comments made to Radio Caracol.
The Inspector General’s office of Paraguay connected FARC to the kidnapping of Cecilia Cubas, daughter of ex-head of state Raúl Cubas.
They indicated that Osmar Martínez, one of the leaders of the Paraguayan party Patria Libre, arrested and charged as the supposed kidnapper, received instructions from the guerrilla group to carry out the crime which occurred September 21 of 2004.
The Public Minister of Paraguay explained that Martínez was in continuous contact, by email, with Colombian guerrilla Rodrigo Granda, who was captured in December in Caracas in a controversial operation, which unleashed a diplomatic and commercial crisis between Venezuela and Colombia.
Uribe explained that the illegal armed groups in Colombia have become "globalized" and "absolutely criminalized", and for that reason will require international cooperation to confront them.
"They will do anything to get the money which only enriches them and gives them the power to get the quantity of arms that they get, and live anywhere in the world ", said the minister.
In the case of Granda, who was considered the “chancellor” of the FARC, Colombian authorities believe that in his hundreds of trips abroad he did propaganda for the leftist guerrillas, established ties with Mexican drug traffickers, and helped the rebels to buy a huge shipment of weapons from a chief of the Peruvian Intelligence service.
Ties confirmed
In addition, the Inspector General of Colombia, Luis Camilo Osorio, said that judicial cooperation with the authorities in Paraguay has allowed them to establish the existence of ties between Colombian guerrillas and criminal organizations in this country.
"For a long time we have had information of help from… FARC and ELN in Paraguay. We had seen how they were finding propaganda material from these criminal organizations”, said Osorio… Osorio also revealed that ELN maintained relations with Paraguayan organizations.
The prosecutor also spoke of Paraguayans having been in Colombia to receive training. "There has been evidence that Paraguayans have come here for training and also that people from here have gone there", he added.
Granda and Cubas kidnapping
thanks for the ping, was looking for an article like this to blog on.
Suddenly the Montesinos connection is starting to make sense, I had always looked on that stuff with a blank stare, not knowing what to think.
Montesinos selling weapons to FARC is not unique, several Ecuadorian officers and officials have been involved in the same thing. A lot of stuff flows through Ecuadorian ports to the FARC. They treat Ecuador as their safe zone, a lot of the lower level people keep their families there, a lot of them invest their money there (buying bars, farms, hotels in the border areas; they get good prices, too, if a FARC guy makes you an offer, are you going to haggle over the price?).
The present Ecuadorian president attempted a coup a few years ago, on Chavez' dime. Similar to Chavez, the coup was only a partial success but he later ran for president and won at the ballot box; he now refers to himself as a "dictocrat"; similar to Chavez he recently fired the Supreme Court (illegally, but they cleaned out their desks and went home anyway) and replaced them with people of his own choosing. He hasn't kicked us out of the country yet, though. He still lets us base our reconnaisance aircraft there.
But its interesting that when Montesinos fell, he went straight to Chavez for protection. I'm surprised that Chavez was embarrassed into giving him up. I think now, in the post-referendum era, when Chavez is feeling a little more confident, he would not be so easily embarrassed.
I'm not scared about Guti. I have pals in Guayaquil who know him well and they kick his butt when he goes off the deep end. The court rubbish doesn't scare me either, to me it looks like business as usual in El Loco Ecuador. That kind of crap happens all the time there, it's just the way they are. Guti ran on a anti-dollarization ticket but when my friends got to him, and forced him to his senses, he wised up. He's an ally. I don't lump him in with schmucks like Chavez and Kirchner and some of the other losers. He's more like Lula - leftwing on the outside but does the right thing when something serious comes up.
You're not the first to tell me that, and its hard for me to judge long distance. A friend there told me he knew him personally (its a small country and people know people) and assured me that he was a very moral man. I can only take his, and your, word for it. I did notice that despite his role in over-throwing Mahuad, he has essentially continued his policies right down the line, at least until lately. He left us alone in Manta, finished the pipeline, left the dollar in place, and so forth.
The tribes are mad, and at one point I read that FARC had taken out a contract on him. But this nonsense with the court has left me perplexed, especially with Chavez pulling something similar with his Supremes. With only El Comercio to go on, its hard for me to really judge what the underlying issue is.
But maybe its as you say, he's learned to walk the tightrope. If he manages to complete his term, he'll have done more than any other recent president there.
Thanks for the insight.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.