5 March 2008
Columbia in a Vise
Posted by Joy Bischoff under: What's News; World Affairs .
Columbia seems to be in a vise between Venezuela and Ecuador. Both countries are allowing FARC, a terrorist group, to operate in Columbia then cross their borders for safe haven. Columbia took out some of the rebels in Ecuador only a mile and a half inside the border. President Bush is correct in calling this a very provocative act by Venezuela and Ecuador. Chavez is clearly trying to instigate trouble. The question is, how far will he go?
Ecuador lobbies for support in Andean crisis
CARACAS (Reuters) - Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa visited Latin American powerhouse Brazil on Wednesday on his regional tour to push Colombia to apologize for a military operation in Ecuador as an Andean crisis escalated.
Venezuela and Ecuador have moved troops to their borders and cut diplomatic ties with Colombia, which got backing from U.S. President George W. Bush on Tuesday, while diplomats in Europe and the Americas asked all sides for calm…
“The aggressor has to apologize and the international community condemn him,” Correa told journalists in Brasilia on Tuesday night. “If not we will have to defend ourselves with our own means.”
Colombia said it has already apologized and said Correa should take responsibility for sheltering the rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, the oldest insurgency in Latin America.
Chavez, who sent tanks to his country’s border with Colombia, has warned war could break out, although political analysts say that is unlikely. Conservative Colombian President Alvaro Uribe accused Chavez of genocide for sponsoring the rebels, who Chavez is openly sympathetic to…
Bush, who rarely refers to Chavez, weighed in on the crisis on Tuesday for the first time. He criticized Chavez’s “regime” for “provocative maneuvers” and said the superpower opposed any act of aggression that could destabilize the region.While Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Peru and others condemned Colombia’s violation of Ecuadorean sovereignty, U.S. diplomats worked to shift the focus to the FARC, which has killed or displaced thousands of people and kidnapped hundreds.
“We should not lose sight of the fact that it is the FARC, rather than any member state present here, that has undertaken repeated incursions and infringements of national sovereignty into the neighbors of Colombia,” said Robert Manzanares, the U.S. ambassador to the Organization of American States, which held an emergency session on Tuesday.
6 Comments so far...
Cameron Says:
5 March 2008 at 9:44 am.
I was hoping this was all just posturing but now that Chavez is moving his tanks to the border I just don’t know. I hope if it comes to war we don’t get pulled in.
Jesse Says:
5 March 2008 at 1:43 pm.
If we weren’t supporting the Columbian government this wouldn’t be happening. They are swiping at us.
E.E. Says:
5 March 2008 at 3:05 pm.
Allies of Terrorism
The presidents of Venezuela and Ecuador are revealed as backers of the criminals who fight Colombia’s democracy.
Wednesday, March 5, 2008; Page A20
LAST SATURDAY, Colombia’s armed forces struck a bold blow against the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), a group specializing in drug trafficking, abductions and massacres of civilians that has been designated a terrorist organization by the United States and Europe. Raúl Reyes, a top commander, and some 20 followers were killed in a bombing of their jungle camp in Ecuador, a mile or two from the Colombian border. The attack was comparable to those the United States has recently carried out against al-Qaeda in lawless areas of Pakistan, and it showed how Colombia’s democratic government may be finally gaining the upper hand over the murderous gangs that have tormented the country for decades.
Now this remarkable success has been overshadowed by the extraordinary reaction of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, who has been revealed as an explicit supporter and possible financier of the FARC. Mr. Chávez openly mourned the death of Mr. Reyes and made a show of ordering Venezuelan troops to the border with Colombia while loudly warning that war was possible. He goaded his client, Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa — whose initial response to the raid was subdued — into mimicking his reaction. He then partially closed the border with Colombia, a step that will merely worsen the food shortages that have emptied Venezuelan supermarket shelves.
It turns out that both Mr. Chávez and Mr. Correa may have had something to hide. Senior Colombian officials say a laptop recovered at the FARC camp contained evidence that Mr. Chávez had recently given the group $300 million and had financial links with the terrorists dating to his own failed coup against a previous Venezuelan government in 1992. Colombia said Mr. Correa’s government had been negotiating with Mr. Reyes about replacing Ecuadorean military officers who might object to his use of the country as a base. In other words, both Mr. Correa and Mr. Chávez were backing an armed movement with an established record of terrorism and drug trafficking against the democratically elected government of their neighbor. No wonder Colombian President Álvaro Uribe felt compelled to order the cross-border raid; he knows that his neighbors are providing a haven for the terrorists.
Carrie Says:
5 March 2008 at 7:45 pm.
My brother went on a mission to Columbia. I’m sad that they go through so much there. They are trying to hard to get a handle on the drug problem and now these other countries are protecting the drug dealers. What a mess.
Jesse Says:
5 March 2008 at 10:11 pm.
Great article E.E.
Carrie, it is sad and you are right that they have been through so much. Definitly sad.
Cavetrollhead Says:
6 March 2008 at 9:40 pm.
Jesse,
What do you mean by They are swiping at us?
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