Rebels Leave Chavez Hanging

AP ^ | January 2, 2008 | JOSHUA GOODMAN

[3AngelaD]

BOGOTA, Colombia — It was one of the boldest initiatives yet for Latin America's emerging leftist alliance and it didn't even get off the ground. Answering a call by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, political heavyweights from five governments attempted to break through a deadlock in the region's most entrenched conflict: Colombia's half-century guerrilla war. But for all their devotion to Latin American unity, observers from Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Cuba and Ecuador couldn't persuade the secretive Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, to abandon its deep mistrust of Colombia's government and fulfill a weeks-old promise to free three hostages...

As the mission fell apart Monday, Colombian President Alvaro Uribe dismissed the rebels' accusation as more lies from a "terrorist group." Chavez, in turn, sympathized with the FARC and accused Uribe of "throwing a bomb" on his efforts to recover the hostages...

But by failing to deliver the hostages, the FARC left Chavez hanging in a highly visible way that will likely force the firebrand leftist to take a different tack....For the past month, Chavez has held out an olive branch to the FARC while publicly vilifying Uribe, his ideological adversary, as Washington's lapdog and puppet...So confident was Chavez of success, he even welcomed American filmmaker Oliver Stone to film the handover as part of a documentary. But the strategy backfired amid the FARC's recalcitrance....But the strategy backfired amid the FARC's recalcitrance....

"Chavez thought since he's the revolutionary leader, they'd fall in line. And he assembled all his friends and they would be witness to this success," said Michael Shifter, an analyst at the Washington-based Inter American Dialogue....After being marooned three days in Colombia, the observers returned home on New Year's Eve — some of them visibly disgusted.

[3AngelaD]

FARC gives Chavez a good poke in the eye, Chavez blames Uribe! Oliver Stone is an ass.

[MoMagic]

It’s a pity “hanging” wasn’t used literally.

[theDentist]

That headline raised my hopes, but I leave this thread utterly disappointed.

[Brad from Tennessee]

From 2003 WEEKLY STANDARD:

[. . .mountains of hard evidence—most supplied by U.S. allies in the Colombian government—confirming Chavez’s support for the FARC and ELN terrorist networks. The Colombian government declared that the head of the FARC terrorist group, Manual Marulanda, is hiding in Venezuela, and the Colombian embassy in Caracas was bombed a day after Chavez made a blistering speech attacking Colombia. The Financial Times reported last week that the perpetrators of the bombing may be FARC terrorists or even members of the Venezuelan secret police. Yesterday in Colombia, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Roy Chaderton gave a press conference where he unequivocally stated that the Chavez government will not refer to the FARC Colombian terrorists as “terrorists,” because the Chavez government wishes to remain “neutral.”]

http://www.weekly
standard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/002/346jorji.asp

Chavez has supported FARC in hopes of destabalizing Columbia.

[Brad from Tennessee]

WEEKLY STANDARD link again:

http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/002/346jorji.asp

[3AngelaD]

That is exactly what he is up to. Chavez supports FARC, which for some mysterious reason doesn’t trust him. Chavez would love to screw Uribue and Colombia’s democratic, free market government, while he undermines Argentina’s political system, such as it is, with bribes.