a month ago, in the illegal bombing raid on Ecuador. The sequence of events...
Uribe invited Venezuela's Hugo Chavez to negotiate hostage releases. Chavez took the task seriously, and got the first two hostages released. But it had been a trap set by Bush-Uribe (and I think, Donald Rumsfeld*) to create a disaster for Chavez, with dead hostages. (There may have been a rehearsal some months earlier, in which an as yet unidentified paramilitary group--Blackwater?--attacked a FARC camp where hostages were present, and killed everyone, with the Colombian government claiming it was "crossfire" situation, and FARC claiming that the mysterious paramilitaries had
targeted the hostages.) Fast-forward: At the very last moment of the first Chavez-negotiated hostage release, when it appeared that Chavez was going to be successful, Uribe abruptly withdrew the request, and BOMBED THE LOCATION of the two hostages who were on their way to freedom, driving them back into the jungle on a 20 mile hike, back into captivity. (The hostages themselves reported this recently.) Chavez managed to get them safely released a few weeks later. In retrospect, Uribe's actions make no sense, unless you presume that he was setting Chavez up, and intending to kill hostages and blame it on Chavez. This was the same weekend as the Rumsfeld op-ed in the Washington Post, "The Smart Way to Beat Tyrants like Chavez"* (12/1/07), in which Rumsfeld crows that Chavez's hostage negotiations were "not welcome" in Colombia. But they
had been welcome--had been
requested--by Uribe!
The president of France, the hostages' families, and other world leaders, asked Chavez to continue hostage negotiations, and put great pressure on Uribe to permit it. After getting first two hostages safely released (that Uribe had bombed and tried to kill), Chavez was working on more hostage releases, including a FARC child (hostage mother, guerrilla father), when Uribe
arrested the FARC delegation who were carrying "proof of life" documents to Caracas, and at first tried to claim credit for obtaining "proof of life"--but the French president and the hostages' families quickly contradicted Uribe and credited Chavez. It was possibly through these documents that Uribe found out the location of the FARC child, in a private home in Bogota, grabbed the child, and announced to the world that Chavez and the FARC negotiator (Raul Reyes) were LYING that the child would be released, because FARC didn't have the child.
Betrayal #1: Luring Chavez into negotiating with the FARC; then bombing the first two hostages' location.
Betrayal #2: Arresting the "proof of life" delegation; trying to falsely claim credit.
Betrayal #3: Calling
Chavez a liar, because he had said the child would be released--and hunting for and grabbing the child in order to falsely allege that he was a liar.
Chavez managed to get four more hostages released--all six thus far without conditions. FARC had asked for a de-militarized zone, for safe passage. Uribe had refused. But FARC continued to release hostages without even their own safety being guaranteed, and without any conditions. By this time, the presidents of France, Ecuador, Argentina and others were also getting involved, and it was beginning to look hopeful for peace talks and a political settlement of Colombia's 40+ year civil war. Ecuador's president Rafael Correa was negotiating with FARC commander Raul Reyes (the key to all of these hostage releases and peace efforts), for 12 more hostage releases, including Ingrid Betancourt (a French-Colombian citizen). He later said that the negotiations were "very advanced." Events were getting away from Uribe and Rumsfeld. They had failed to create a personal/diplomatic disaster for Chavez. Now peace was in the air.
Raul Reyes apparently had set up a temporary camp, just inside the Ecuador border with Colombia, as a safe haven for transferring the 12 hostages to President Correa. (If Uribe wouldn't guarantee the hostages' safety, the FARC guerrillas--living in the jungle, always at risk--had to do it themselves.) Several Mexican students were present, apparently to participate in the humanitarian effort. An Ecuadoran citizen was also present.
On March 1 of this year, the U.S. military (likely at the U.S. base
inside Ecuador) captured a satellite phone call from Raul Reyes to a Colombian Senator (who was involved in the hostage release negotiations and peace talks), targeted the camp with ten 500 lb. "smart bombs" and blew it away; Colombian soldiers then crossed the border into Ecuador and shot and killed any survivors, some of them in the back, as they were running around in their pajamas and underwear, trying to escape death. In all, they killed 25 people, including the chief FARC hostage negotiator, Reyes, several of the Mexican students and the Ecuadoran. (And, if hostages had been present--a distinct possibility--they would all have been killed.)
Uribe called Rafael Correa and lied to him that it had been "hot pursuit." The Ecuadoran military soon reported otherwise--that the people in the camp had all been asleep.
Correa was furious at the violation of Ecuador's sovereignty, at Uribe's lie, and at the deliberate destruction of the hostage release negotiation. He moved several Ecuadoran military battalions to Ecuador's border with Colombia, to prevent further incursions. Chavez, in Venezuela (Colombia's northern border), did the same--mostly, it turns out, to assure Correa that he was not alone. At that point, it must have been unclear what would happen next. Was the U.S./Colombia intending to start a war with Ecuador? Chavez, smelling a war trap, immediately started trying to head it off, and eventually succeeded. (Brazil's president Lula da Silva recently called Chavez "the great peacemaker" for his role in stopping a Colombia/Ecuador war). But not before a major diplomatic incident occurred--with Ecuador, Venezuela and Nicaragua cutting off diplomatic relations with Colombia, and emergency meetings of the OAS and the Rio Group, with the OAS condemning Colombia's incursion into Ecuador, and the Rio Group eliciting an apology from Uribe and a promise never to do it again. Chavez got Correa to settle for this apology and promise.
But Bush and Uribe (Rumsfeld?) were not finished. They claimed to have seized one computer (later, several computers) from the bombed out FARC camp, which they said contained "evidence" that Chavez and Correa are "terrorist-lovers" (emails and notes that Greg Palast has since dismantled as fakes). Correa was particularly angry at this, because of Ecuador's intense efforts to keep the Colombian civil war from spilling over his border. Ecuador had raided dozens of FARC camps in the past, as well as interdicting Colombian drug and weapons traffickers. The same is true of Venezuela. The charge that Chavez and Correa are "terrorist-lovers" because they were trying to
end this 40+ year civil war is more than ludicrous. It is psyops. It is disinformation. It is intended to smother out the news about Colombia's egregious human rights violations--murders of thousands of union leaders, peasant farmers, political leftists, human rights workers and journalists in Colombia--one of the main
reasons that Colombia has armed leftist guerrilla fighters in 20% of its territory. There is no way to legitimately participate in Colombian politics, if you are a leftist, without risking your life.
Betrayal #4: The U.S./Colombia bombing and killing 25 people on Ecuador's territory, and violently ending the hostage negotiations, and hopes for peace;
Betrayal #5: Uribe lying to Correa that the border bombing was "hot pursuit."
Betrayal #6: Uribe turning around--after
asking Chavez to help him with FARC--and then accusing Chavez and his allies of being "terrorist-lovers" (clearly his object--and that of Bushite war planners--from the beginning).
Betrayal #7: Uribe now trying to rehabilitate himself--for the U.S. Congress' vote on the Colombian "free trade" deal (i.e., free fire zone against union leaders), and to keep those billions in military aid coming--by acting all humanitariany about Ingrid Betancourt's health. If she dies of hepatitis, it will be on his and Bush's heads, as well as the FARC. She would have been released a month ago, if they had not deliberately killed FARC hostage negotiator Reyes--for
political reasons--with collareral damage murders of a total of 25 people, without charges, without trial, without the opportunity of a defense, and without necessity. Gratuitous murders--on Ecuador's soil. Execution without trial--by the fascists in Washington and Colombia. Mass murder.
Ecuador has not yet restored diplomatic relations with Colombia. They are going after Colombia in the World Court for its illegal toxic pesticide spraying of Ecuadoran peasant farmers in the border area (in the lethal, failed, corrupt U.S. "war on drugs"). They are also suing Chevron for its godawful oil spills in Ecuador. And the Ecuadoran legislature just concurred with President Correa in his pledge to kick the U.S. military base out of Ecuador (by not renewing its lease in Manta, Ecuador, next year--and banning all future foreign military use of Ecuador's soil). The Bush/U.S. has succeeded in alienating yet another South American country--and has succeeded in creating conflict and hostility where there had been peace and progress--but, far worse than this, the Bush/U.S. is trying to instigate a war, this year, before Bush leaves office, in order to regain global corporate predator control of the oil in Ecuador and Venezuela. They are out to destabilize these countries (and their allies, Bolivia and Argentina), and grab the oil. That is their goal. They couldn't give a fuck about Ingrid Betancourt--or peace.
-----------------------
*
"The Smart Way to Beat Tyrants Like Chávez," by Donald Rumsfeld, 12/1/07http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/30/AR2007113001800.html
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
