On Dec. 1, 2007 (four months ago), on the weekend that the first two hostages were to be released (negotiated by Chavez), Donald Rumsfeld published the following in the Washington Post:
"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.htmlThis was the weekend on which Colombian security forces bombed the position of the two hostages, driving them back into the jungle on a 20 mile hike to safety (still in captivity), which the two hostages only recently reported. Rumsfeld's first paragraph shows signs of being hastily re-written (updated as events unfolded) on this very issue--the hostage releases. And notice that he omits the fact that Uribe
asked Chavez to undertake the hostage negotiations. This indicates to me that Rumsfeld is at the least following events in Colombia/Venezuela closely, and is more than likely orchestrating them on the Uribe/Colombia side--for instance, either playing out a dirty trick on Chavez--the Uribe request to Chavez being a trap from the beginning--or had pulled Uribe's strings at the last moment, to rescind the request and sabotage the hostage release effort. Uribe's erratic behavior that weekend certainly resembles a puppet whose strings are being pulled, but I now favor the theory that Uribe was in on setting the trap from the beginning--setting Chavez up for a disastrous hostage release scenario in which hostages would be killed. They didn't count on Chavez deftly avoiding the trap--by a call to the Colombian military--and on Chavez getting a total of six hostages released, before Rumsfeld & co. engineered the murder of Raul Reyes, the chief FARC hostage negotiator, and his group--with the recent bombing/invasion of Ecuador (using U.S. surveillance and smart bombs, and, likely, U.S. aircraft and personnel)--on the eve of the release of 12 more hostages, negotiated by the presidents of Ecuador, France, Venezuela and Argentina.
The trap for Chavez was to be sprung that weekend, and the Exxon Mobil attempt to freeze $12 billion in Venezuela's assets was advancing simultaneously (first move in 09/07). That was also the weekend of the constitutional referendum in Venezuela (which the Bushites were pouring money into defeating--it lost by a hair, 50.7% No (anti-Chavez) vs 49.3% Yes). Although Chavez ultimately got six hostages released, they denied him a diplomatic triumph that weekend.
In the concurrent op-ed by Rumsfeld, Rumfeld urges economic warfare against Venezuela and others ("tyrants
like Chavez"--i.e., other leftist, democratic leaders who control big pots of oil, such as Rafael Correa in Ecuador, and Evo Morales in Bolivia), and further urges "swift action" by the U.S. in support of "friends and allies" in South America. We saw the latter in the "swift action" by the U.S. military at the Manta, Ecuador base, in "defeating" the hostage negotiations--and saving Colombia from a peaceful settlement of their 40+ year war on the poor--by slaughtering the hostage negotiators. I think the next "swift action" will be in Bolivia--in support of Rumsfeld "friends and allies," the white separatists who intend to split off the gas/oil rich provinces from the central government of Evo Morales--the first indigenous president of Bolivia (a largely indigenous country) and a strong Chavez ally--in order to deny benefit of those resources to the poor majority. These rich landowners are likely to declare their "independence" this May, and may ask for U.S. military support. A split-up of Bolivia would cause a major fracas in South America, and possibly a war--with allies Venezuela and Ecuador drawn in, in support of Morales and Bolivian unity. This is Rumsfeld's M.O.--chaos, war, dividing and conquering. He was trying to draw them into a war with the Ecuador/Colombian thing. He may succeed in Bolivia.
I think what we are looking at is Rumsfeld's plan for Oil War II. He is not "retired." He is out to regain global corporate predator control of the Andes oil fields, and he means to get this war started this year, before Bush leaves office. In fact, we've already heard the first shots--U.S. military involvement in the U.S./Colombia bombing/incursion into Ecuador to destroy that humanitarian effort and threatened peace talks.