Betancourt praises Chávez's mediation; calls for respect for Colombian democracy

[Judi Lynn]

Source: El Universal - opposition newspaper

Caracas, Wednesday July 02 , 2008

Betancourt praises Chávez's mediation; calls for respect for Colombian democracy

Ingrid Betancourt, who was held as hostage by the rebel Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC) and was rescued Wednesday, said the role of mediators Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez and his Ecuadorian counterpart Rafael Correa have played in the Colombian peace process is very important, but stressed that Colombia's democracy needed to be respected.

"Colombians elected President Álvaro Uribe, Colombians did not elect the FARC. Thus, in the same way President Chávez and President Correa came to power in their countries through democratic means, I am asking all of our brother countries in the continent to help us so that changes in Colombia may also come through democratic means," she said.












Read more: http://english.eluniversal.com/2008/07/02/en_int_art_be...

[kevinmc]

1. Oh that's gonna burn some ears about Chavez being praised ....... n/t

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

9. And to remind us that Chavez was elected through democratic means

That's also got to stick in the Chimp's craw.

[EFerrari]

14. People think in such black and white terms. Check this out.

It's Castro on the rescue:

HAVANA (AFP)--Former Cuban president Fidel Castro on Thursday praised the Colombian army's rescue of Ingrid Betancourt and 14 other hostages from Marxist FARC rebels and said they should never have been held.

"Civilians should never have been abducted, nor soldiers held as prisoners under jungle conditions," the veteran Communist leader said, describing the detention as "cruel" and that "no revolutionary purpose could justify it."

"For basic humanitarian reasons, we welcome the news that Ingrid Betancourt, three U.S. citizens and other hostages were freed," he said in a statement on the official Cubadebate website.

Colombian commandos rescued the 15 hostages from Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrillas on Wednesday, freeing them in an audacious operation from the jungle where they had spent many years in captivity.

http://www.nasdaq.com/aspxcontent/NewsStory.aspx?cpath=...

[Selatius]

2. Wow, if I were on Bush's payroll, I'd hope she'd denounce Chavez as unhelpful at best and...

a supporter of FARC at worst. She didn't give what the rightists wanted.

[Peace Patriot]

3. Chavez took a tremendous political risk when he responded to Uribe's REQUEST

to negotiate with the FARC and got six hostages released in Dec 07-Feb 08. It's fairly clear now that that that was a set-up--probably designed in Washington DC--to hand Chavez a diplomatic disaster, with dead hostages. The first two hostages that Chavez got released reported that the Colombian military heavily bombed their location as they were in route to their freedom, driving them back into the jungle on a 20 mile hike. The corporate 'news' monopolies of course never reported this. Chavez got them out some weeks later by a different route. Uribe set this up, then, just days before it was scheduled to occur, pulled the rug out from under Chavez and withdrew his support. That's when they bombed the hostages. And when Chavez succeeded anyway--and got a total of six hostages released--the U.S./Colombia then bombed the chief FARC hostage negotiator, at a location just inside Ecuador, killing the negotiator and 24 other people in their sleep, and almost starting a war with Ecuador. This and many other aspects of that negotiation point to deliberate U.S./Colombia sabotage, among other things putting the hostages lives at great risk. Uribe is a very treacherous man--and is not to be trusted. You cannot believe anything he says. He and his military and paramilitaries have one of the worst human rights records on earth. Some fifty of Uribe cohorts are under investigation--and some have been convicted and are in jail--for their ties to rightwing paramilitary murders and drug trafficking. Uribe (--former Medillin Cartel) is also under investigation for the same.

He is now angling to the become "president for life." The Bushites and the corporate 'news' monopolies accused Chavez of this, and it was never true of Chavez, but it IS true to Uribe. Uribe bribed legislators (two of them are now in jail for it) to vote to extend his term. The Colombian Supreme Court is considering invalidating that election because of the bribery. Uribe is now trying to get an unscheduled referendum on his presidency, as an end-run around the legal system, and he will no doubt use this hostage rescue as his campaign banner. Uribe, like Bush, has nothing but contempt for the law and for the lives of the poor. The unscheduled referendum will also no doubt be a way to try to prevent Betancourt from regaining political power and running for president (which she was doing when she was kidnapped six years ago). She is a leftist. (And I'm wondering right now HOW LONG the Colombian military has had infiltrators in the FARC organization--yes, they are THAT treacherous.)

Betancourt is in a unique position to help end Colombia's 40+ year civil war--having seen it from both sides. She is world-famous because she was a hostage. She is already talking of peace--which Uribe never talks about, and doesn't want (not with all those billions of U.S. tax dollars from Bush for making war, and major cocaine routes to protect). South America has become an utterly transformed continent since Betancourt's kidnapping six years ago. There are now peaceful, democratic, leftist governments in Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Uruguay, Nicaragua and, most recently, Paraguay (!), all beginning to work closely together, with goals of social justice and self-determination, toward a South American "Common Market" (and, recently proposed by Brazil, a common defense--neither thing including the U.S.). It is a moment ripe for change in Colombia--the rightwing/fascist dinosaur of the continent. Uribe and his fascist government need to be cast off. Colombia needs to join the 21st century--which is going to be South America's century, not ours, because of the hard work they've done on democratic institutions.

Betancourt may also be able to help prevent the Bushite plot that is unfolding of fascist groups in the oil rich states of Venezuela, Ecuador and Bolivia, seceding from the leftist national governments, and taking the oil with them. The Bushites can't win elections in fair and honest conditions, try as they might, by pouring USAID and other taxpayer funds into rightwing groups all over South America--and have failed in all their coup attempts, dirty tricks, assassination plans, destabilization, etc. So now they want to regain global corporate predator control of the oil by creating fascist mini-states which will be in constant conflict with their mother countries and the rest of South America. The Venezuelan oil state of Zulia on the Caribbean is a particular target. The Bushites will have the U.S. 4th Fleet (a nuclear fleet) up and running off the coast of Zulia, Venezuela, by mid-summer. Their secessionist schemes are very advanced in Bolivia, where white racists have already held illegal votes to secede (funded, organized and probably armed by the Bush Junta). Colombia is an important player in these schemes, especially regarding adjacent Venezuela (and Ecuador). Betancourt's praise of Chavez is very significant in this context. This is a NEW continent that she is emerging into, and that she will be an important leader of. Can the Bush Junta be prevented from causing more grief and chaos, as their parting assault on democracy?

[happydreams]

5. Great stuff PP. How do you figure the Israeli terrorist trainer fits in,

If at all?

[Peace Patriot]

12. Hey, happydreams, I don't understand your question.

Sorry I'm so late in replying. (Had to go to my day job.) What are you asking? I don't understand. What "Israeli terrorist trainer"?

[Overseas]

7. Thanks for the background info it can be hard to find. K&R!

[Judi Lynn]

11. So good to see you are making the point that Chavez put HIS search for a chance to run again up to

the voters, whereas Uribe didn't even leave anything to chance in the Senate, but BRIBED Senators, instead, to make it possible to extend term limits, not to mention there was NO CHANCE the people themselves would have any say in it whatsoever.

It's good to remember, also, that paramilitary leaders have testified that they have assisted in intimidating Colombian voters, a truth which never escaped Colombians who actually witnessed it personally! The screaming "success" of Álvaro Uribe would have been far different if he had not always had his armies of enforcers at the voting booths, and driving terror deep into the hearts, minds, of the poor over the years through random, unpredictable acts of fiendish atrocity against the civilian populations, even descecrataing the sanctuary of "peace communities" which were officially neutral villages.

This political pressure is described here:

COLOMBIA: "Mark Him on the Ballot - The One Wearing Glasses"
By Constanza Vieira

Credit:Procuraduría General

BOGOTA, May 8 (IPS) - "With Uribe, we thought: this is the guy who is going to change the country," the 41-year-old fisherwoman told IPS.

That is why her fishing and farming village of 800 people in the central Colombian region of Magdalena Medio decided overwhelmingly to vote for current President Álvaro Uribe in the 2002 presidential elections, when he first ran.

The woman agreed to talk to IPS on the condition that she be asked neither her name (we will call her "L.") nor the name of her village.

The main city in the fertile region of Magdalena Medio is Barrancabermeja, an oil port on the Magdalena River, which runs across Colombia from south to north before emptying into the Caribbean Sea.

What convinced the villagers to vote for Uribe? "Because the region where we live is poor, very poor, it’s so difficult to find work, and when I heard him say ‘I am going to work for the poor, I am going to help them,’ I thought ‘this is a good president’."

When the rightwing president’s first four-year term came to an end in 2006, most of the villagers decided again to vote for him, reasoning that he just needed more time to reduce poverty.

The odd thing was that in both the 2002 and 2006 elections, despite the fact that the villagers had already decided to vote for Uribe, the far-right paramilitaries, who had committed a number of murders since 1998, when they appeared in the region that was previously dominated by the leftwing guerrillas, pressured the local residents to vote for Uribe anyway.

The paramilitaries did not kill people to pressure the rest to vote for Uribe, as they did in other communities, but merely used "threats," said L.

"If you don't vote for Uribe, you know what the consequences will be," the villagers were told ominously.

And on election day, they breathed down voters’ necks: "This is the candidate you’re going to vote for. You’re going to put your mark by this one. The one wearing glasses," they would say, pointing to Uribe’s photo on the ballot, L. recalled.

"One (of the paramilitaries) was on the precinct board, another one was standing next to the table, and another was a little way off, all of them watching to see if you voted for Uribe," she added, referring to the less than subtle way that the death squads commanded by drug traffickers and allies of the army ensured that L.’s village voted en masse for the current president in both elections.

More:
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=42290

[EFerrari]

4. Does anyone know if she's home yet or if she's still with the Colombian gov?

[Judi Lynn]

10. Nothing out on that, yet. It could be any time, though. I think she's scheduled to get back ASAP.

On edit:

Just read something interesting in this article. Don't know if it's posted at D.U. or not. Looks as if she has hopes of being in Colombia in the future. This is the last line of the article:

However, she said, "I continue to aspire to serve Colombia as president."

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/07/03/world/main423...

~~~~~~~~
Wouldn't THAT be something? This would be worth a lot of hope.

[EFerrari]

13. She flew out today, thank heavens.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080704/wl_afp/colombiareb...

[happydreams]

6. Last night on the Snooooze Hour Gwenn Awful had former Ambassador Roger Noriega,

a Reagan droid, spewing about how the credit for "impeccable" rescue is entirely goes to the Columbians. Completely ignoring Chavez's role. You could see the greedy, beedy eyes trying to steal the truth. These sleazes are so hard up for for positive PR they overreach so far they look like fools.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Noriega

Roger F. Noriega

[Judi Lynn]

8. No one sensible would ever take someone like Roger Noriega, former Jesse Helms aide, seriously!

What a travesty he has been allowed anywhere near important decision-making.

I see from the Wiki you provided he is one of the architects of the Helms-Burton, which has been hailed throughout the world as illegal in international law. Smooth move, wasn't it?

This was possible only after the U.S. right-wing was finally unchallenged, had no more powerful opponents with the ability to do something about thuggery like this.

Once the world has righted itself, crap like this will be straightened out, without a doubt.

[Judi Lynn]

15. Hostage rescue may not free US-Colombia trade deal

Hostage rescue may not free US-Colombia trade deal
Thu Jul 3, 2008 1:48pm EDT
By Doug Palmer

WASHINGTON, July 3 (Reuters) - Colombia's dramatic rescue of hostages held for years by a rebel group probably won't lead to quick approval of a U.S.-Colombia free trade agreement that has been snagged for months in the U.S. Congress.

"Politically, it's just not in the cards," said Peter Hakim, president of the Inter-American Dialogue, a think tank focused on Western Hemisphere affairs.

~snip~
Although Pelosi applauds the rescue, it doesn't reduce longstanding concerns she has had about violence facing union workers in Colombia, Pelosi spokesman Nadeam Elshami said.

Also, she still believes Congress and the Bush administration must do more to boost the U.S. economy before turning to the Colombia trade pact, Elshami said.

The rescue is a "wonderful thing obviously," said Thea Lee, policy director for the AFL-CIO labor federation, which has strongly fought the U.S. Colombia free trade deal.

"It doesn't change the critique that we had of the challenges facing Colombia workers -- the ongoing violence, death threats and impunity," Lee said.

There have been 31 trade unionists murdered in Colombia this year, compared to 39 in all of 2007, she said.

More:
http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSN032589...