U.S. on the spot for failure to condemn brief anti-Chavez coup

If there is evidence that he is specifically aiding and abetting terrorists which are directly threatening us, then there would be a self-defense justification. But no such evidence has been presented aside from the fact that Chavez is friendly with Castro. I suppose we should remove Vicente Fox too.

Don't confuse President Fox with the corrupt PRI majority in the Mexican Congress that likes Castro and communists. - Colombian president says Mexico closing FARC rebel office in Mexico City

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Chavez has different stripes

____Chavez also appears to be arming Colombia's Marxist FARC rebels. Colombian defense officials say that between January 1998 and July 2000, they captured 470 clandestine FAL rifles stamped with the insignias of Venezuela's military and its arms manufacturers.--Source

____Inspired by Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi and Cuba's Fidel Castro, military strongman Chavez is turning oil-rich Venezuela into a populist, anti-U.S. dictatorship, say U.S. intelligence sources. They tell Insight that Chavez is providing a safe haven for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) narcoguerrillas, an 18,000-man insurgency that began decades ago as an offshoot of the local Communist Party and still clings to Marxist-Leninist ideology.--Source

____Anti-aircraft missile experts from Cuba and Venezuela are probably working on the seven anti-aircraft missile bases that have been detected under construction in the distension zone. Armaments tracking detected the arrival of Stinger and Redeye anti-aircraft missiles from Syria several years ago. More shipments of anti-aircraft missiles and launchers have probably been made by the Russian mafia, closely linked to the FARC because of its unique ability to pay in highly lucrative cocaine, which Russia distributes throughout Europe.--Source

____FARC Rebel planned to assassinate Colombia Pres. Pastrana says Venezuela Pres "Chavez 'Trusted' Him"-- BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) - A leftist rebel accused of plotting the assassination of Colombia's president said Thursday night that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez ``trusted'' him completely. Diego Serna, a confessed member of the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, stunned the nation when he appeared in a video next to Chavez - pulling out his chair, handing him a glass of water - during a state visit in May.--Source

____Chavez: Colombian Rebel Contact 'Humanitarian'-denies collaborating with FARC-- Chavez, who spoke in Bolivia late on Wednesday, was commenting on a video released in Caracas by four opposition journalists that allegedly showed a Venezuelan military team negotiating with FARC guerrillas inside Colombia in July 2000. Opponents of Chavez, a left-wing former paratrooper who attempted an abortive coup in 1992 before winning elections six years later, have frequently accused him of sympathizing with Colombia's Marxist rebels and even of cooperating with them. --Source

____Chavez security chief alleges FARC links-- I am resigning because I disagree with the DISIP's policy of providing security to Colombian guerrillas ... this policy is more than just irregular, it approaches treason to Venezuela given the innumerable deaths, kidnappings and other crimes for which these groups are responsible in our country." Egui Bastidas said 90 percent of his fellow officers "obey orders but do not agree with them" and called on President Hugo Chavez to reverse his policy of tacit support for the rebels. "All the peace negotiations there are over and open confrontations between the guerrillas and the Colombian government have begun. Are they going to carry on letting them cross over into Venezuelan territory?" Egui Bastidas asked. The former DISIP official called on the Armed Forces to issue a statement about their view of the Chávez government's alleged support for the Colombian guerrillas.--Source

____Colombia 'Worried' FARC Crossing Into Venezuela - LIMA, Peru (Reuters) - Colombian President Andres Pastrana said on Saturday he is worried that FARC guerrillas may be crossing into Venezuela, from where his government alleges they launched an attack on Colombia this week. Source

____FARC: Rebel-camp allegations fuel tension in Venezuela - BOGOTA - (AP) -- A Colombian paramilitary group on Thursday offered directions to suspected rebel camps inside Venezuela that the government denies exist, fueling a brewing dispute between the two countries. In a letter posted on the web page of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, or AUC, the illegal group claimed to have rebel deserters who are willing to lead officials to the camps. The letter, signed by AUC leaders Carlos Castaño and Salvatore Mancuso, said rebels spent this week dismantling the camps. The dispute has brought up old concerns in Colombia that Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez is sympathetic to Colombia's leftist rebels, a charge he vehemently denies. Source

____Colombia Paper Reports FARC Rebel Camp in Venezuela--El Tiempo said its reporters found the FARC camp consisting of wooden buildings with tin roofs in an area called El Ranchito, a 30-minute trek through jungle from the Colombian village of El Zulia. The newspaper quoted a local FARC commander, identified as Dario, as saying: "Our stay here is temporary. Comrade Chavez has nothing to do with this." …….LINK to "12 civilians killed in two bombings blamed on FARC" - A small explosive device had gone off minutes earlier, attracting people who were in bars and restaurants on a warm weekend night. Then a bomb -- located underneath a car parked on the street -- blew up, shredding bodies and causing damage in a four-block-wide area. Four people were killed in the first explosion and eight died in the second blast. More than 60 people were injured. Source

____Venezuelan army general condemns President Chavez for 'passive' attitude toward Colombian rebels - Also on Wednesday, an army general whose duties included patrolling part of the western border with Colombia accused Chavez of taking a "passive" attitude toward leftist Colombian guerrillas. Brig. Gen. Nestor Gonzalez Gonzalez said at a Caracas news conference that Colombian guerrillas maintain camps along the remote frontier and that Chavez's government was lying when it denied such camps exist inside Venezuela. Gonzalez Gonzalez accused Chavez of refusing to govern democratically, of sympathizing with the rebels and politicizing Venezuela's military. "Mr. President, you have betrayed the country," he said. "Respect the national armed forces." Source

April 16, 2002 - Mexico Will Support Censure of Cuba

P.S. I think you aren't giving enough credit to the people living under these megalomaniacs.
They want freedom and the seeds of capitalism and democracy are taking root.

I was being sarcastic about Fox :-) Yes, Chavez supports FARC, no question about it. But FARC does not threaten the US. (Perhaps a better policy than eliminating Chavez would be eliminating anti-drug laws, which would completely destroy the funding for FARC and many other terrorist groups.) I want to see the evidence that FARC wants to attack the US. Any evidence whatsoever. (And I don't mean political killings in Third World countries, I mean terrorist attacks like 9/11.)

But FARC does not threaten the US.

IRA is linked to 'axis of evil'*** THE IRA was linked to President Bush's "axis of evil" in Washington last night when congressional investigators revealed that the Bogota authorities believed Iranian terrorists had trained in the same part of Colombia as the Provisionals. Placing the IRA within a global network of terrorism, a report by the House International Relations Committee concluded that Irish, Iranian, Cuban and possibly Spanish groups had probably "been sharing techniques, honing their terrorism skills, using illicit drug proceeds in payment".

In an attempt to limit the political damage, Gerry Adams, president of Sinn Fein, had earlier declined an invitation to appear before a hearing of the committee today on the IRA's relationship with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia [Farc] narco-terrorists. "Colombian authorities assert that not only has the IRA operated in the former safe haven on behalf of the Farc, but also the Iranians, Cubans, and possibly Eta [Basque terrorists], among others," a summary of the committee's report said.

The inquiry was launched last summer after James Monaghan and Martin McAuley, both convicted of IRA offences, and Niall Connolly, Sinn Fein's representative in Cuba, were arrested in Bogota and charged with aiding the Farc. "Colombia is a potential breeding ground for international terror equalled perhaps only by Afghanistan, and the IRA findings are the strongest among these global links because of the arrests of the three Irish nationals and the accompanying evidence," said the summary.***

Look, my issue is not a geopolitical agenda.

It's about the fact Mr. Chavezis supporting a terrorist group that has expressed its intentions to run operations on U.S. soil and against U.S. interests. At this point, we are talking a head of state whose actions may be threatening the lives of American citizens.

That changes the situation. Had we known of the plans for 9/11 beforehand, we would have taken steps to break the attack up. In this case, FARC is making all the wrong noises to allow us to permit their supporters to remain in power. When do we make a move against Chavez? After we lose 1,000 people? 2,000?

I say we take him out now, deal with the fallout later. It's reasonable to assume that American lives could be at stake here. That trumps all other considerations here.