Pulling FARC’s Claws

Of course, by now everyone’s heard of the rescue of Ingrid Betancourt from FARC guerillas along with the US citizens Farc has been holding for more than five years. Venezuela’s El Universo has the background on the rescue;

The Colombian Army rescued safe and sound ex presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, three US citizens and 11 military officers held as hostages by the rebel Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC), on Wednesday announced Colombian Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos.

“They were rescued in an operation aimed at infiltrating the FARC first squad, the same that has held a large number of hostages for years. Through several procedures, we also could infiltrate the FARC Secretariat. Since hostages were divided into three groups, we managed to have them gathered at one single place and then moved to the south of the country, where they would supposed to report to (new FARC top leader) Alfonso Cano,” said Santos.

The minister added that arrangements were made so that the hostages were picked up in pre-established place by a helicopter belonging to a ghost organization and that a FARC leader known as César and another member of FARC Secretariat traveled together with the hostages to hand them over to Cano.

Santos said the freed hostages are flying in choppers to San José del Guaviare, capital city of the Guaviare region.

“This operation, called ‘Check,’ is unprecedented and a proof of Colombian military forces’ quality and professionalism,” pointed out Santos.

Actually, there must’ve been a mistranslation. According to their Spanish language article it was operation “Jack”

“Esta operación que se denominó ‘Jaque’, no tiene precedentes y pasará a la historia por su audacia y efectividad, dejando muy en alto la calidad y el profesionalismo de las Fuerzas Armadas colombianas”, señaló Santos.

McClatchy reports that John McCain had just finished a visit to Colombia moments before the rescue;

McCain, Sen. Joseph Lieberman and Sen. Lindsey Graham took turns praising Uribe, who’s raised a ruckus within Colombia’s political establishment during the past week by asking the country’s Congress to let him run for president an unprecedented third time.

Leftist critics of Uribe have said he’s trying to perpetuate himself in office like a “dictator.” Human rights groups have been saying for months that the president hasn’t placed enough priority on reducing atrocities against peasants committed by the military.

However, Colombians overall have given Uribe extraordinarily high ratings, with 70 percent saying they view him favorably.

Under Uribe, guerrillas in the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia are on the brink of defeat, major cities have become mostly safe for the first time in years and the economy has grown steadily.

The news just keeps getting better for Colombians.

There’s Spanish-language video of the homecoming from to my buddy Kate at A Colombo-Americana’s Perspective.

I’m betting there are some angry screams coming from the Miraflores Palace in Caracas.

Chavez Voodoo dolls on the streets of Colombia

My wife thought this was hilarious, so you get this story (ABC Australia);

Diplomatic tensions between Colombia and Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez have generated fierce rhetoric, political protests and even troop movements along the frontier between the Andean neighbors.

Now a Colombian designer has come up with an idea he hopes will create a humorous way to deal with local anger over the man many in his country consider a threat to national security - a fake Chavez voodoo doll complete with a set of needles.

An idea sure to enrage many Venezuelans who see Mr Chavez as a savior who has empowered his country’s poor, the ‘Chavez Personal Voodoo Doll’ is a cushion with a printed likeness of the anti-US leader and is sold in two Bogota boutiques for $6.

“People ask if this is not an aggressive thing, but I think it is really the opposite,” doll creator Nicolas Mendoza said.

“It’s better for people to stab a pin into a cloth doll than do some real violence.”

In fact, I think it’s a pretty funny, too. But I’m sure it’ll spawn a government program in Venezuela to mandate a George Bush and Uribe voodoo doll for every child.

Chavez to FARC: guerilla war is over

In a surprising turn of events, Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez called on FARC to lay down their weapons (Associated Press/Fox News link);

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Sunday urged Colombian rebels to lay down their weapons, unilaterally free dozens of hostages and end a decades-long armed struggle.

Chavez sent the uncharacteristic message to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, saying their ongoing efforts to overthrow Colombia’s democratically elected government were unjustified.

“The guerrilla war is history,” Chavez said during his weekly television and radio program. “At this moment in Latin America, an armed guerrilla movement is out of place.”

Why would Chavez make such an announcement? Well, if you read my other blog “Tall and Rich” you’d know that Saturday Colombia captured a couple of Venezuelans delivering ammunition to FARC terrorists. You’d also know that INTERPOL has substantiated ties between FARC and the governments of Ecuador and Venezuela. This is Chavez way of deflecting the impending criticism.

But, FARC has no such intentions;

Yet a FARC statement posted Sunday on a Web site sympathetic to its cause suggested the group is far from laying down its arms.

Written by rebel leader Luciano Marin Arango, alias “Ivan Marquez,” and dated June 5, the statement demands that new elections be called to oust Colombia’s government and Congress. The FARC’s “strategic objective is the taking of power for the people,” the statement said.

It also claimed that Colombian President Alvaro Uribe has backed plans to kill Chavez and leftist Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa.

Seems to me, at the rate leaders of FARC are giving up the ghost, it’d be hard to find someone to call themselves a FARC commander these days.

Crossposted at This Ain’t Hell.

Busted; VZ guard officer in Colombia

Colombian Radio Santa Fe and the BBC reports that a Venezuelan National Guard officer has been captured while trying to deliver arms to FARC near the Venezuelan frontier;

The officer is said to have been captured along with three others in the southern Colombian province of Vichada, near the border with Venezuela.

The arrest comes at a time of tension between the two neighbours.

The Bogota government has accused Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez of supporting Colombia’s Farc guerrillas.

The arrested officer, named as Manuel Agudo, was helping to carry 40,000 rounds of AK-47 ammunition along with another Venezuelan and two Colombians, Attorney General Mario Iguaran said.

Radio Santa Fe, however says that there were four arrested and two had Venezuelan national ID cards;

Las autoridades capturaron en las últimas horas a cuatro personas, entre ellas el Sargento Segundo de la Guardia Nacional venezolana, Manuel Agudo Escalona, confirmó el Fiscal General de la Nación Mario Iguaran Arana.

Iguaran Arana explicó que dos de los capturados se identificaron con cédulas de nacionalidad venezolana…

My Calle J translation;

Authorities in the last few hours captured four persons, one was Second Sergeant of the Venezuelan National Guard Manuel Agudo Escalona, Colombian Treasury Secretary Mario Iguaran Arana confirmed.

Arana explained that two of the detainees had Venezuelan nationality identification cards…

Bloomberg ties the arrests to an earlier arrest of a FARC security chief;

Iguaran said the arrest of the gun-runners was tied to the same-day capture of a security chief for Jorge Briceno, known as “Mono Jojoy,” the FARC’s top military commander, EFE reported.

It’s good to see the Colombians putting and end to this, however, Chavez needs to pay a price from the international community for his support of thieves, murderers, kidnappers and narco-terrorists. As long as he gets away with it, he’ll only make things worse. I don’t believe the US should take part in any attempt to remove Chavez from power, but the locals, meaning Chavez’ neighbors need to step and do what right for the community of Latin American nations and for Venezuelans in particular.

Hat tip to Gateway Pundit.

Chavez backtracks on Stalinist spy rules

A few weeks ago, Hugo Chavez’ government tried institutionalize the role of stoolpigeons in Venezuelan life by requiring citizens to report the activities of their neighbors. Well, it seems they’ve decided that wasn’t such a good idea (AP Link);

President Hugo Chavez said Saturday that his government will rewrite a new intelligence law to calm fears in Venezuela that the decree could be used to stifle dissent.

Human rights groups had criticized an overhaul of the country’s intelligence services, which included a clause requiring citizens to act as informants if authorities believe they have information on national security threats.

The law would have punished noncooperative citizens with up to four years in prison, raising concerns that Venezuelans would have been forced to spy on their neighbors.

Chavez told supporters Saturday that his government would soon amend the controversial law to protect civil rights. “Mistakes” were made in the decree and would be corrected, he said.

“I guarantee the country that nobody will be tread upon, and nobody will be forced to say anything they don’t want to say,” he said. “This is a political battle, not a legal battle.”

Chavez backtracked a day after Venezuelan Catholic Church officials condemned the decree. Speaking to journalists after a Mass on Friday, Venezuelan Cardinal Jorge Urosa warned that the law “restricts human rights consecrated in the Constitution.”

Human rights groups compared the decree to the U.S. Patriot Act, passed after the Sept. 11 attacks, because both allow authorities to monitor suspects’ phone calls and e-mails without court permission. Under Venezuela’s law, authorities can also withhold evidence from defense lawyers, if it is deemed to be in the interest of national security.

Although it really doesn’t mirror the Patriot Act, just using the US anti-terrorism law is enough to scare many away from it. Of course, a quick perusal of the Leftist Venezuelanalysis, turns up support for Chavez draconian edict that the Left would never express for George Bush;

Reports keep surfacing about new threats against Hugo Chavez. Given past ones, they can’t be taken lightly. Chavez is alerted and reacts accordingly. Case in point: revamping Venezuela’s decades old intelligence services. It’s long overdue and urgently needed given the Bush administration’s tenure winding down and its determination in its remaining months to end the Bolivarian project and crush its participatory democracy.

CIA, NED, IRI, USAID and other US elements infest the country and are more active than ever. Subversion is their strategy, and it shows up everywhere. Violence is being encouraged. Opposition groups are recruited and funded. So are members of Venezuela’s military. Student groups as well and anti-Chavista candidates for November’s mayoral and gubernatorial elections.

The dominant media are on board in Venezuela and America. They assail Chavez relentlessly and are on the warpath again after his May 28 announced intelligence services changes. The Interior and Justice Ministries will oversee a new General Intelligence Office and Counterintelligence Office in place of the current Directorate of Intelligence and Prevention Services (DISIP). Similar military intelligence and counterintelligence components will replace the Military Intelligence Division (DIM) and will be under the Defense Ministry. Why was it done and why now? To counter stepped up US espionage and destabilization efforts when it’s most needed.

Yes, like everything else in Latin America, it’s the US’ fault - more specifically, George Bush’s fault. The US Patriot Act is benign compared to Chavez new rules, in fact it’s benign compared to the laws the British enacted after the terrorist attack on their soil. Somehow, when it comes to Hugo Chavez the US and Canadian Left ignores the evaporation of human rights of Venezuelans. I don’t suppose it’s because they’re a little bit racist.