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who keep posting real informative comments, like "Chavez is a moron," "Chavez is a dictator," or "Chavez wants to become a dictator or...or...something," because they keep demonstrating, for all to see, that, a) they are just moronically repeating Bush/CIA psyops 'memes,' and, b) when you reply with facts and reason, they either just keep repeating their three-word sentences, like broken robots, or they melt into the floor and disappear like the Wicked Witch of the West. So I encourage their participation here at DU. It's an open forum. Let them display their uninformed, corporate media brainwashed stupidity, or their Bushite/Exxon Mobil-funded incompetence, and I and others will just keep challenging them to come up with facts and reasonable arguments why we should hate the democracy movement in South America, of which Hugo Chavez's repeated election by 60+% of the Venezuelan people--in elections that put our own to shame for their transparency--is just one expression. To understand this bewildering Colombian sabotage of the hostage releases--by their massacre of the FARC negotiators--you have to understand this... "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.htmland this... "PDVSA in London courts to defend Venezuelan oil sovereignty in Exxon dispute" February 28th 2008, by James Suggett - Venezuelanalysis.com http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news/3211"Prominent British Figures Call on ExxonMobil to Respect Venezuelan Sovereignty"February 28th 2008, by Venezuelan Information Centre http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/3209And put two and two together (something that Freepers are not good at). We are looking at Oil War II, orchestrated by Donald Rumsfeld. You may have been wondering what he's doing in his "retirement," after his plan to nuke Iran, and grab those oil fields, was rejected by the U.S. military (and blockaded by China). He, the Bush Junta, and Exxon Mobil & brethren, are trying to destabilize the Andes democracies--Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia and Argentina--where all the oil is. And, make no mistake, they intend follow-up with U.S. military intervention this year. Rumsfeld urges "swift" U.S. action in support of "friends and allies" in South America. The Bush Junta does not have any "friends and allies" in South America, except for the U.S. taxpayer-supported fascist thugs running Colombia, the corrupt Peru "free traders" (and even they balked at the invasion of Ecuador), and the U.S. taxpayer-supported fascist thugs within Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia and Argentina who are plotting rightwing coups against the elected governments. Like all Rumsfeld schemes, this one is part delusion and part terrifying power. He wants to bring the Oil War to the western hemisphere, to recoup his corporate predator pals' losses in the Middle East, and to keep the godawful war profiteer boondoggle going (billions and billions of our tax dollars wasted on the corrupt, murderous "war on drugs"). They have to manufacture a new war. This is it. The delusion part is that the democracy movement in South America is very strong--with leftist (majorityist) governments elected in Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Chile and Nicaragua (and next in Paraguay--this year). Virtually the entire continent has gone "blue." There are strong alliances among the leftist leaders of these governments--AND among the MAJORITY of the people of South America--who are, at long last, declaring their independence from the U.S., and seeking regional self-determination and social justice. They know their history. They know what the U.S. has done to them in the past. It is raw in living memory. They will not permit it to happen again. U.S. influence in South America is OVER. But that doesn't mean Rumsfeld & co. can't cause a lot of suffering and grief in their delusionary scheme for regaining corporate predator control of the Andes oil fields. They already have. Can you imagine what the families of the remaining FARC hostages are feeling today? The crushing of their hopes. The smashing of this peace initiative. Here is what the recently released hostages were saying a few days ago, before the FARC hostage negotiator was murdered in his sleep.... ------- Chavez, freed FARC hostages call for political solution to Colombian conflict February 29th 2008, by Kiraz Janicke - Venezuelanalysis.com Luis Eladio Pérez and Gloria Polanco speaking at the press conference in Caracas (Reuters)
Caracas, March 1, 2008 (venezuelanalysis.com) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has called for international mediation group to negotiate a humanitarian accord in neighboring Colombia, after a successful Venezuelan led humanitarian mission secured the release of four former legislators held by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), on Wednesday.
During a telephone call to state owned VTV Thursday, Chavez indicated that France, Ecuador, Brazil and Argentina as well as the Organization of American States support such a move. It is "essential" that Venezuela is part of any international mediation group, because "the FARC have demonstrated that they don't believe in anyone else," he added.
In a communiqué, released minutes after the hostage handover the FARC said this would be the last unilateral hostage release. The FARC reiterated their longstanding call for a military free zone as a precondition for any further negotiations for a humanitarian exchange of 40 remaining high profile hostages for 500 imprisoned guerrillas. However, the Colombian government immediately rejected this proposal.
Chavez said the desire for peace by the majority of Colombians and that the pressure of world opinion would force Uribe to change his position.
"President Uribe is going to have to change his position. Everybody is in agreement except for Uribe, " he declared.
Speaking at a press conference in Caracas on Thursday night, the former Colombian legislators, Luis Eladio Pérez, Jorge Gechem, Orlando Beltrán and Gloria Polanco, also spoke out in favor of a military free zone to facilitate a humanitarian exchange.
"I publicly challenge President Alvaro Uribe to demonstrate the success of his policy of democratic security and clear the military from the municipalities of Pradera and Florida and after 45 days the Armed Forces can recuperate this territory," Perez said after his liberation. "The solution is political, Mr. President Uribe," he repeated twice during the press conference.
"If you persist in the foolishness of insisting on a military rescue you are going to receive, Mr President Uribe, 40 or 50 corpses. It is absurd to think of a military rescue with the conditions that we had in captivity. There would be a massacre," Pérez stressed.
He revealed that the four recently liberated ex legislators have a proposal to present "to President Uribe, the President (of France Nicholas) Sarkozy and, of course, to President (of Venezuela, Hugo) Chavez." This proposal would only be made public after the three heads of state had been informed, he said.
Pérez who classified the FARC as a "political military group who use terrorist practices" also referred to former Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, captured by the guerrillas in 2001, who he said is in a "very bad state of health."
In a message released in 2003 demonstrating Betancourt's proof of life, the former presidential candidate indicated that she was opposed any form of military rescue, as she feared a repeat of the tragedy that occurred in May that year when ex governor of Antioquia, Gilberto Echeverri, and the del ex Defense Minister, Guillermo Gaviria, died during a botched military rescue ordered by Uribe.
Betancourt maintains this position Perez said, however she is also conscious "of the high risk and lack of commitment of the President of the Republic."
In contrast Betancourt calls for a political solution to the conflict based on the Geneva Convention and believes that "fundamentally President Uribe has to recognize the political status of the FARC guerrillas," Perez said.
Pérez also affirmed that after an attempted escape, Betancourt, "remained chained up during the night," and her captors, "humiliated her, obliged her to walk barefoot, tied her to trees and rationed her food."
Ex congressman Orlando Beltrán condemned "all terrorist acts, wherever they come from. I condemn the terrorism of the FARC, of the paramilitaries and the terrorism of the State." He pointed out that Colombia "is the only country in the world that has disappeared an entire political movement, more than six thousand leaders of Unión Patriótica were disappeared, to speak only of this case."
Under a previous peace accord in the 1980's the FARC demobilized and formed Unión Patriótica, however after they laid down their arms thousands of former guerrillas were hunted down by paramilitaries, backed by the Colombian state, and massacred, forcing them back into the armed struggle.
Beltrán added that the Colombian State "has to assume responsibility and understand that they must create the conditions to achieve a humanitarian accord. I don't understand why, when make these handovers in a unilateral manner, they say they are not going to clear the military from a centimeter of the national territory."
Gloria Polanco asserted, "It is necessary to reach the heart of President Uribe, to speak to him, to explain, because he has to understand that if he does not clear the military from Pradera and Florida, which is what the FARC ask, our comrades will die in captivity."
"I am asking for a humanitarian accord, because they have to place value on life, not on a piece of land, not on a piece of territory," she said.
All four ex-legislators confirmed that they would participate in an international day of action organized by human rights organizations on March 6 in protest against paramilitary violence in Colombia. Uribe has condemned the protest scheduled to take place in some 150 cities around the world, claiming it is organized by the FARC.(emphasis added) http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news/3213(Note: Venezuela Analysis is a Fair Use web site.)
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